Anthony, I can honestly say I've never used one of your modifications or took extensive time to review your code.

Hence, why i said

Thank you for honesty, Zachery, I really appreciate it. Well... I don't think you can ask me how good my experience is or whether I am in a position to judge others if you are not even familiar with any of my hacks... At least, before asking, I would do some basic preliminary research. Just in case you are interested, I could tell you what to look at so as not to spend extra time.

I can just say without making anything up that one of the highest members of the coding team has asked me for coding help a number of times on something so basic that it made me wonder about this whole issue in the first place. I am not sure whether I should post the details... So for now, I won't.

It would be more-correct to say that they don't do it because, in the long run, communities that try it tend to self-destruct.

As somebody who has been managing online communities since before you were born (the software for the first forum I managed was written in FORTRAN), I have heard the arguement you are making innumerable times. "We (whatever group the person identifies with) are the ones who are important here, without us this community would disappear, we should be in charge, you should do what we want." Its not true. Life doesn't work that way.

--don

Zachery, I find some of your early posts a little condescending. I think Anthony has a valid point. Certainly some of the members of the newly appointed design team are not what I'd deem good designers. Anyone can pick up a copy of photoshop and add some drop shadows, bevels, strokes and whatnot.

I don't mean to pick on you Kerry-Anne, because I do feel you are a positive addition to the staff, just in the wrong section. However, judging from what I have seen of your work, you are no way near qualified to be put in the design team.

To set the record straight, yes, I have come to you on a few occasions, but not as many as you would like to believe. I have come to others, too, as you can tell by the jokes going around about coders hiding from me. ;)

It's no big secret that I have come to you or many others here for advice and help in coding. I don't have the skills in coding yet as a lot of you younger ones here do. Remember, as you get older, things aren't as easy to grasp in the learning area as they once were. I'm learning all the time as well all are.

Does my lack of complete coding skills interfere with my Moderation duties here? I don't think it has, although I'm sure there are those that would argue that point. ;)

Regardless of how long you've been dealing with forums (and do not take offense to this), you cannot treat this the same because the case is different. And no one is saying we should be in charge, so please look carefully before posting. What is obvious and has been said is that members should be able to vote for staff since the staff will directly effect members most, which i'm sure you should know as someone who has been managing online communities for such a long time.

Your honesty is appreciated, and well said :p

Not to put you down or anything boofo (you know i love you and have no problem with you :p). But if you admit to not being as skilled as some of the other coders, then why are you the team leader? Or why aren't some of those people on the team? And your lack of coding skills does not effect your moderation. However, do you not thing that it effects your position as the coding team leader?

I'm curious, do you run your forums that way ? are your staff "elected" by members ?

I can tell you that they are not on any site I'm involved with, and I expect it's not the case on 95%+ sites. The sites owners decide who they have on their staff.