Karma’s Hat

i want to delete my account so how do i do it?

Unpopular opinion: MEJIBRAY has nothing to do with the GazettE in terms of "rip-offness"
 
Sure, Tsuzuku is a fan of Ruki's and the GazettE's, admittedly. And this moderately shows in his visuals at times.
Sure, the band has some songs in their catalogue that seem to have some similarities to a few of GazettE's tunes.
...about 3 songs out of a total 48 (and counting).
...which usually only resemble GazettE stuff for like half a minute each.
(remember DIE KUSSE where everyone shouted "ripoff, hahaa!" only because of the introductory part that never ever repeats again? ;> )
 
So it's getting a bit weird and old to read all the "durrrr Gazetto copybando" stuff. Feels just like around 7-8 years ago when all I heard everywhere was "durrrr Gazetto sounds like Diru" (no they didn't, lol).

For the last two hours I've been trying to come up with something clever to say to this, but I'm just too overwhelmed by the immense stupidity and ignorance of this statement to come up with anything. 

For the last two hours I've been trying to come up with something clever to say to this, but I'm just too overwhelmed by the immense stupidity and ignorance of this statement to come up with anything. 

For the last two hours I've been trying to come up with something clever to say to this, but I'm just too overwhelmed by the immense stupidity and ignorance of this statement to come up with anything. 

For the last two hours I've been trying to come up with something clever to say to this, but I'm just too overwhelmed by the immense stupidity and ignorance of this statement to come up with anything. 

For the last two hours I've been trying to come up with something clever to say to this, but I'm just too overwhelmed by the immense stupidity and ignorance of this statement to come up with anything. 

For the last two hours I've been trying to come up with something clever to say to this, but I'm just too overwhelmed by the immense stupidity and ignorance of this statement to come up with anything. 

I hate to break this to you guize, but songwriter credits hardly mean shit, especially when a bulk of their stuff doesn't even have such ( Don't quote me on that, but I recall that especially the first five EP's have none ). We don't know the in's and out's of their writing process, how it has been before and how it is now. if you really think that they don't have time to polish their stuff, then what about the first few years of their career. They released five mini's, a few singles and a full album in the span of two years and those releases are arguably their best shit. Despite the """"slow"""" period around DIM and TOXIC, their release schedule as of late hasn't been much different of what this band has gotten used to. Stop speculating.

I hate to break this to you guize, but songwriter credits hardly mean shit, especially when a bulk of their stuff doesn't even have such ( Don't quote me on that, but I recall that especially the first five EP's have none ). We don't know the in's and out's of their writing process, how it has been before and how it is now. if you really think that they don't have time to polish their stuff, then what about the first few years of their career. They released five mini's, a few singles and a full album in the span of two years and those releases are arguably their best shit. Despite the """"slow"""" period around DIM and TOXIC, their release schedule as of late hasn't been much different of what this band has gotten used to. Stop speculating.

^ you might be overreacting there a little. 
 
And I read the link you posted and I'll have to disagree with you on the reason western vk bands fail. It's not because of how the Japanese music industry works. I don't know how authentic that interview is you posted, but even if everything in it was 100% true, which I'm sure isn't, it wouldn't explain why western vk bands don't work out.
 
Vk western bands not working out is not due to the connections to business people they lack, access to studios, producers, marketing or because they don't have a pimp label to get them out there. It's because of the reasons people have already mentioned here. They're young, inexperienced, sing in Japanese, don't know to dress VK, and lack any originality, basically knocking off bands like the gazette. When you can't sing/play your instrument properly, have a unpleasant image, don't appeal to your native speaking audience, and are a near carbon copy of some foreign band, how can you not expect disastrous results? 
 
Added to this is the fact that most western vk bands will further comes across as trying to hard or "weebos" to people who are familiar with the Japanese music scene and do low budget production studio recordings or cheaply made music videos. Plus if they only listen to horrible indie vk bands, then how can you expect something good to come out?
 
When you put out subpar or crappy music regardless of what genre you play (vk or not), you better expect to have people call you on it and be prepared for all the criticism. 
 
I'm not saying it's impossible for there to be a good western vk band, it's just no one has done it properly. You would need people who know their instruments, have some basic knowledge of theory and composition, actually write lyrics in their native tongue and have a good sense of how to dress. And they would also have have to some originality and not just sound like X vk band. I know bands/musician who listen to j-music in general and are inspired by it, but they don't blatantly rip off the sound/image of another band. They do their own thing in their own original band/project.
 
So far, I only know of 2 western vk bands that actually are decent. And the reason they more or less have succeeded where others have failed is because they avoided the common pitafils other western vk bands have fallen into.

Now this was a bit confusing. Project, as in the PV?  If this is the DVD for the album then I doubt anyone ever expected anything but a PV or two. Long gone are the days of Road to Nameless Liberty
 
The two faces thing is obviously the band members in different costumes lawl

Lately me and various other regulars ( whom I hope voice their support for immediate action and add to the discussion ) have been thinking that there's a problem, and that is the severe lack of participation in forum activities in part of some of the staff members. It's pretty much widely acknowledged all around that especially a bulk of the blue ( and the late green, whom were subsequently and justly culled ) mods are notoriously inactive when it comes to interacting with much of the community.
 
It's true that I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes and what are the contributions of each one there, but I do believe that actual "moderating" is far from being the only job of a staff member. A member of the staff should have a proactive approach to the forums; interacting with the members, making topics and creating discussions as often as possible and not just once or twice a month when the mood is right. The benefits of this approach for example have been seen in the review and general sections. If Zess and CAT5 wouldn't have made all the topics and discussions there that they have I bet nobody would have and the general section would still be pretty much dead. 
 
I think the forum would benefit a lot from updating the staff roster with users who are in the loop of the current goings in the Japanese music scene, and imporantly the said users should be known by the people and the people should know them. I bet many newcomers who registered in the late 2012, early 2013 have no clue who these people are and I can't really blame them, seeing as some of the staff rarely post anything that classifies as a contribution. 
 
And I'm not trying to come off as hostile, but I really think this forum has seen a surge of activity as of late ( some people would very much disagree with me though ) and I think that we should capitalize on that with a new, active and participating staff. There should be as little inactivity as possible and most definately zero people that clearly stick around just because they're friends. A mod status should be for those who are absolutely dedicated and if the time comes when they cannot live up to their duties, they should resign without a second thought. 
 
edit: I urge everyone to say either yay or nay below. There needs to be some discussion about this because this is what people complain about all the time. 
 
Everyone, and I mean everyone has complained about the forum being dead at one point. I honestly think that a staff that is right there in the middle of everything is the best way to engage this problem. While I also realise that you might be hesitant to do a revamp after the failure of the green mods, culling the one or two that are certainly solely dead weight right now and replacing them with new ones wouldn't hurt.  
 
edit2: To address another concern that was voiced: The user and mod apathy. 
 
It may be a convenient excuse for staff members and users alike to free themselves of the burden of contributing just because "What does it matter when nobody else won't do anything either". That's reasonable, why would anyone post when nobody else does? 
 
I feel this concern can be directly addressed with a proactive, enthusiastic and most importantly of all, in the loop staff. What makes or breaks any content creator and site on the web is quality and consistency. The amount of good coming from a staff that brings life to where there isn't should be obvious for anyone. One or two mods can't do that alone, it needs to be the whole team. 
 
These changes need to be done swiftly and throughout with zero compromise or months long discussions between the administration.  I think it's necessary that the amount of new blood is large is enough to reinvigorate the staff and forum.

I'm pretty much a lurker nowadays, so I'm really not one to speak haha, but I still agree with this topic.
 
If you're a staff member and you're thinking this topic could be hinting at you being one of the inactive mods/admins, please consider how much you still have to offer for this forum. Feelings of nostalgia or responsibility are not enough reason to keep being a staff member.

Indeed the trial run is a must, but it should also apply to all existing staff members as well ( I would go as far as to say that they've run their trial course a long, long time ago ). Your numbers are more than enough, so what needs to happen is getting rid of fat and replacing that with those who seem more apt for the job. It won't do that this whole thing culminates into another green mods disaster, where the existing staff members, whom seem out of the loop from the daily happenings of this very music scene and this community, seemingly try to off the workload to a bunch of former regulars who soon grow tired of the whole thing. I honestly think that if there's even one rotten apple of slacking and apathy in the barrel, the infection spreads. For example, presumably two of the staff have not seen this topic yet despite it being up for almost 24 hours, and one of the them hasn't even logged in since 4.10 for christ sake. I know I'm probably just saying what has been said between the lines before, but I wan't to make this 100% clear with no misunderstandings.
 
With that said, I'm also up for candidacy ( which is not the reason I made this topic I assure you ) while vouching for Stylelover and Whirlingblack, and all of us hang out here practically 24/7.

Lately me and various other regulars ( whom I hope voice their support for immediate action and add to the discussion ) have been thinking that there's a problem, and that is the severe lack of participation in forum activities in part of some of the staff members. It's pretty much widely acknowledged all around that especially a bulk of the blue ( and the late green, whom were subsequently and justly culled ) mods are notoriously inactive when it comes to interacting with much of the community.
 
It's true that I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes and what are the contributions of each one there, but I do believe that actual "moderating" is far from being the only job of a staff member. A member of the staff should have a proactive approach to the forums; interacting with the members, making topics and creating discussions as often as possible and not just once or twice a month when the mood is right. The benefits of this approach for example have been seen in the review and general sections. If Zess and CAT5 wouldn't have made all the topics and discussions there that they have I bet nobody would have and the general section would still be pretty much dead. 
 
I think the forum would benefit a lot from updating the staff roster with users who are in the loop of the current goings in the Japanese music scene, and imporantly the said users should be known by the people and the people should know them. I bet many newcomers who registered in the late 2012, early 2013 have no clue who these people are and I can't really blame them, seeing as some of the staff rarely post anything that classifies as a contribution. 
 
And I'm not trying to come off as hostile, but I really think this forum has seen a surge of activity as of late ( some people would very much disagree with me though ) and I think that we should capitalize on that with a new, active and participating staff. There should be as little inactivity as possible and most definately zero people that clearly stick around just because they're friends. A mod status should be for those who are absolutely dedicated and if the time comes when they cannot live up to their duties, they should resign without a second thought. 
 
edit: I urge everyone to say either yay or nay below. There needs to be some discussion about this because this is what people complain about all the time. 
 
Everyone, and I mean everyone has complained about the forum being dead at one point. I honestly think that a staff that is right there in the middle of everything is the best way to engage this problem. While I also realise that you might be hesitant to do a revamp after the failure of the green mods, culling the one or two that are certainly solely dead weight right now and replacing them with new ones wouldn't hurt.  
 
edit2: To address another concern that was voiced: The user and mod apathy. 
 
It may be a convenient excuse for staff members and users alike to free themselves of the burden of contributing just because "What does it matter when nobody else won't do anything either". That's reasonable, why would anyone post when nobody else does? 
 
I feel this concern can be directly addressed with a proactive, enthusiastic and most importantly of all, in the loop staff. What makes or breaks any content creator and site on the web is quality and consistency. The amount of good coming from a staff that brings life to where there isn't should be obvious for anyone. One or two mods can't do that alone, it needs to be the whole team. 
 
These changes need to be done swiftly and throughout with zero compromise or months long discussions between the administration.  I think it's necessary that the amount of new blood is large is enough to reinvigorate the staff and forum.

I agree with Dispos previous post, the staff is only as good as its weakest link - As long as there's some who do nothing or next to nothing it will reflect poorly upon the whole institution, and the hard working ones might grow discontent if they keep trying and their opinions either get shot down because its "too much work", or simply are never even considered because people aren't around, not to mention feeling like the entire workload is unjustly put onto them.  I know that both previous and current staff members have expressed this frustration to me, and it shows that it really is a serious issue to address.

Indeed the trial run is a must, but it should also apply to all existing staff members as well ( I would go as far as to say that they've run their trial course a long, long time ago ). Your numbers are more than enough, so what needs to happen is getting rid of fat and replacing that with those who seem more apt for the job. It won't do that this whole thing culminates into another green mods disaster, where the existing staff members, whom seem out of the loop from the daily happenings of this very music scene and this community, seemingly try to off the workload to a bunch of former regulars who soon grow tired of the whole thing. I honestly think that if there's even one rotten apple of slacking and apathy in the barrel, the infection spreads. For example, presumably two of the staff have not seen this topic yet despite it being up for almost 24 hours, and one of the them hasn't even logged in since 4.10 for christ sake. I know I'm probably just saying what has been said between the lines before, but I wan't to make this 100% clear with no misunderstandings.
 
With that said, I'm also up for candidacy ( which is not the reason I made this topic I assure you ) while vouching for Stylelover and Whirlingblack, and all of us hang out here practically 24/7.

The main problem that we've had with hiring new people who seemed very enthusiastic and active at that time is that basically all of them dropped off the face of the planet after around 6 months. They stopped doing their work completely and hardly even logged on without giving us a notice that they were in fact busy. When it comes to staff members, the problem isn't that we've got too few, just the fact that a part of them doesn't have the time to be here (which I have my own opinion about but which I'm not going to state here for obvious reasons). Finding enthusiastic candidates for this role won't be hard, but all we can do is give them trial runs and hope they won't disappear after about a year or so.
 
We're willing to give it a try, but the attempts in the past (and especially the green mod-project) have not been very successful, so you might understand that there's a bit of scepticism from our part on this solution.
 
I agree about the whole "showing your face more"-thing. Posting a couple of times or opening new threads is not something that takes a lot of time, so everyone on the staff could do this.
 
However, there is only so much we can do. We can start threads and continue discussions, but when other members don't participate there's hardly anything we can do to encourage it apart from that. So basically it's an arm for a leg. We can promise to be more active on the board, the users agree to help the threads stay alive.

cant believe that article still exists

Lately me and various other regulars ( whom I hope voice their support for immediate action and add to the discussion ) have been thinking that there's a problem, and that is the severe lack of participation in forum activities in part of some of the staff members. It's pretty much widely acknowledged all around that especially a bulk of the blue ( and the late green, whom were subsequently and justly culled ) mods are notoriously inactive when it comes to interacting with much of the community.
 
It's true that I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes and what are the contributions of each one there, but I do believe that actual "moderating" is far from being the only job of a staff member. A member of the staff should have a proactive approach to the forums; interacting with the members, making topics and creating discussions as often as possible and not just once or twice a month when the mood is right. The benefits of this approach for example have been seen in the review and general sections. If Zess and CAT5 wouldn't have made all the topics and discussions there that they have I bet nobody would have and the general section would still be pretty much dead. 
 
I think the forum would benefit a lot from updating the staff roster with users who are in the loop of the current goings in the Japanese music scene, and imporantly the said users should be known by the people and the people should know them. I bet many newcomers who registered in the late 2012, early 2013 have no clue who these people are and I can't really blame them, seeing as some of the staff rarely post anything that classifies as a contribution. 
 
And I'm not trying to come off as hostile, but I really think this forum has seen a surge of activity as of late ( some people would very much disagree with me though ) and I think that we should capitalize on that with a new, active and participating staff. There should be as little inactivity as possible and most definately zero people that clearly stick around just because they're friends. A mod status should be for those who are absolutely dedicated and if the time comes when they cannot live up to their duties, they should resign without a second thought. 
 
edit: I urge everyone to say either yay or nay below. There needs to be some discussion about this because this is what people complain about all the time. 
 
Everyone, and I mean everyone has complained about the forum being dead at one point. I honestly think that a staff that is right there in the middle of everything is the best way to engage this problem. While I also realise that you might be hesitant to do a revamp after the failure of the green mods, culling the one or two that are certainly solely dead weight right now and replacing them with new ones wouldn't hurt.  
 
edit2: To address another concern that was voiced: The user and mod apathy. 
 
It may be a convenient excuse for staff members and users alike to free themselves of the burden of contributing just because "What does it matter when nobody else won't do anything either". That's reasonable, why would anyone post when nobody else does? 
 
I feel this concern can be directly addressed with a proactive, enthusiastic and most importantly of all, in the loop staff. What makes or breaks any content creator and site on the web is quality and consistency. The amount of good coming from a staff that brings life to where there isn't should be obvious for anyone. One or two mods can't do that alone, it needs to be the whole team. 
 
These changes need to be done swiftly and throughout with zero compromise or months long discussions between the administration.  I think it's necessary that the amount of new blood is large is enough to reinvigorate the staff and forum.

i guess stuff like how to change the forum would rather belong into the thread magatsu  created, but im just going to include it to this post , as it somehow belongs to modteam changes too (you need to have some ideas too after all.)
 
many regulars (at least chat regulars) talked about this situation for a while. its a fact that the forum is less populated than it was before , so we wondered why and talked about the whole situation a lot in the chat recently. but stuff like that belongs in the open or nothing gets changed at all. i also hope that people might join this discussion.
 
General thoughts about responsibilites and the modteam:
 
Like dispo said, the most important thing about a modteam that they are 1) active active active and 2) actually interested in the stuff the forum offers and 3) actually interested to be part of the community.
Sadly i dont see any of these things in the current modteam. there are exceptions of course , but im not going to say any positive or negative examples as that wouldnt be fair to anyone of the current mod team.
 
To get a little bit more detailed.
 
1) Lately i refer to mh as a lawfree place. you rarely see any mods and wrong topics or stuff like that sometimes stay on the site for a few days or they just dont get discovered at all. So thats where the first point comes in: a mod/admin team should actually be active and not just hope for the best and be kinda idle all the time. again as dispo said i dont know whats going on behind the doors, but i was a mod myself in the past( im going to say a bit about that too later on) and theres not so much stuff "backstage" to actually justify the common abscene of mods on here.its not the users job to report any single wrong thing in the forum. of
course its nice to report something if you see it, but in a ideal situation the mods themselve would see stuff and correct it .
 
2) that leads me to my second point: you need to be interested in the stuff thats posted here to actually be able to properly do you rmodwork. not being interested in most of the news and downloads posted here AND being lazy or away is the worst combination possible. again: in a ideal situation or rather in a must be situation the mods actually need to be interested in visual kei /jrock /the news / kpop / whatever to be able to mod properly.  its ok if one moves away from vk or anything offered here, but then you are just not fit to be a mod on a forum about that stuff anymore. imo a mods job is not just moving topics/locking threads. its also to be highly dedicated and interested in what the site is about, to take part in discussions and be a part of the community. and thats what my third point is about. one shouldnt be a mod just to ensure "law", one should be a mod because he/she LOVES to be on this site and LOVES the stuff the site is about. its just sad and cant be justified if a mod has like 5 posts in two months.
 
and to actually reach that goal the mod team (and/or possible new mods) needs to be reviewed. that leads me to a bit of my own mod story and why i left the "team". it wasnt a team at all in the past.
when i joined the mod team back in tainted world days it was actually more or less a team. everyone was fairly active and you could b e sure that if you wouldnt be able to look into the forum for lets say two days, someone else would be there for sure. that changed someday. sooner or later i found myself doing most of the stuff myself as some of the staff was just suddenly away and others lacked interest in the forum. that quickly lead to my removal of the team, because i just dont want to look over everything all the time , even though i really love this forum(im part of it for 6 years or so now). but a team is a team and not one single person and the others can lay back and hope that no one registers on the site.
meaning: a mod team should consist of people that actually care about the forum and want to increase the community AND actually being interested in the stuff thats most common in here. ideally a team should be mixed with people that like different things (vk, jrock, jpop, kpop, other stuff) .
 
of course things can stay like they are now, but the forum is slowly dying and it will die out sooner or later. im going to talk more about that in the second section, but atm theres no real reason to join mh. i chat with people yes, but i can just add them all to skype and it would be the same.
and thats the point: a mod team should be a good role model and actually be interested to be a part of the community.
 
now theres maybe the question who should be a mod: thats something that should be discussed later on , IF this might actually change something. i for myself would be willing to join, BUT it depends on how much the team changes and if i can actually say "yes this is a team of people who are active", because no one can change something alone.
 
 
changes for the forum, current situation, what to do?
 
first im just going to repeat something i said on the chat some days ago about the current situation: monochrome heaven as it is right now is just another blogspot site. sounds kinda stupid? maybe but if you take a closer look its not exactly far fetched. currently the only really active stuff on the site are 1) the chat 2) dl section 3) news section. lets see what a random vk blogspot offers me: news and downloads on one site and most of the time a chatbox on the sidebar. sounds exactly the same.
 
so that relates to the activity of the forum: if you visit this forum for the first time (maybe even coming from a blogspot because you saw that many downloads come from here) you actualyl see that its not different at all, so why contribute to the forum at all? seems kinda useless.
 
and thats the one most important thing right now: ACTVITY. especially in other existing categories or in new forums. because if things stay like that than monochrome heaven is just another blogspot. nothing else.
 
so what could be changed about that? for me its out of the question that we need to look into things beyond visual kei /j-rock. imo it wouldnt hurt to be a little bit more open to other asian stuff as k-pop/rock and maybe even other stuff like dramas. we had a bigger music section a while ago and imo it worked quite well (own forums for western and korean music for example) i think it was all migrated into the general music section in an attempt to make the forum slimmer. imo that kinda failed, as the general music section is a huge mess right now and if you are interested in korean music for example its kinda impossible to see whats in the section.
 
its not going to hurt anyone if we try to get people from other genres over here. its not like the vk section is going to decrease just because we have a kpop section and not just a general music section.
ideally people might even check other sections if they are active, but one can also just stay away from it. not like anyone forces you to be part of every single section here.
 
alright thats it from my side. if i can think of anything else to change the forum im going to add it
 
 

Lately me and various other regulars ( whom I hope voice their support for immediate action and add to the discussion ) have been thinking that there's a problem, and that is the severe lack of participation in forum activities in part of some of the staff members. It's pretty much widely acknowledged all around that especially a bulk of the blue ( and the late green, whom were subsequently and justly culled ) mods are notoriously inactive when it comes to interacting with much of the community.
 
It's true that I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes and what are the contributions of each one there, but I do believe that actual "moderating" is far from being the only job of a staff member. A member of the staff should have a proactive approach to the forums; interacting with the members, making topics and creating discussions as often as possible and not just once or twice a month when the mood is right. The benefits of this approach for example have been seen in the review and general sections. If Zess and CAT5 wouldn't have made all the topics and discussions there that they have I bet nobody would have and the general section would still be pretty much dead. 
 
I think the forum would benefit a lot from updating the staff roster with users who are in the loop of the current goings in the Japanese music scene, and imporantly the said users should be known by the people and the people should know them. I bet many newcomers who registered in the late 2012, early 2013 have no clue who these people are and I can't really blame them, seeing as some of the staff rarely post anything that classifies as a contribution. 
 
And I'm not trying to come off as hostile, but I really think this forum has seen a surge of activity as of late ( some people would very much disagree with me though ) and I think that we should capitalize on that with a new, active and participating staff. There should be as little inactivity as possible and most definately zero people that clearly stick around just because they're friends. A mod status should be for those who are absolutely dedicated and if the time comes when they cannot live up to their duties, they should resign without a second thought. 
 
edit: I urge everyone to say either yay or nay below. There needs to be some discussion about this because this is what people complain about all the time. 
 
Everyone, and I mean everyone has complained about the forum being dead at one point. I honestly think that a staff that is right there in the middle of everything is the best way to engage this problem. While I also realise that you might be hesitant to do a revamp after the failure of the green mods, culling the one or two that are certainly solely dead weight right now and replacing them with new ones wouldn't hurt.  
 
edit2: To address another concern that was voiced: The user and mod apathy. 
 
It may be a convenient excuse for staff members and users alike to free themselves of the burden of contributing just because "What does it matter when nobody else won't do anything either". That's reasonable, why would anyone post when nobody else does? 
 
I feel this concern can be directly addressed with a proactive, enthusiastic and most importantly of all, in the loop staff. What makes or breaks any content creator and site on the web is quality and consistency. The amount of good coming from a staff that brings life to where there isn't should be obvious for anyone. One or two mods can't do that alone, it needs to be the whole team. 
 
These changes need to be done swiftly and throughout with zero compromise or months long discussions between the administration.  I think it's necessary that the amount of new blood is large is enough to reinvigorate the staff and forum.

While it sounds a bit silly, I believe that arbitrary colors and titles help to take some people one step further when it comes to activity. So if someone doesn't seem like the world's best user at the moment, it doesn't mean that they wouldn't change after being granted modship. Obviously a new sexy staff wouldn't be found over night, but that's what discussion is for.

I agree with this topic, I've at lengths discussed the problems I've seen and experienced as a user of this site with several other regulars. From the POV of a user, it seems that a few members of the staff, namely Zess, CAT and sai, seems to carry up the large majority of the duties associated with being a moderator/admin, while the contributions of the rest can be seen as sporadic at best. 
 
It seems like some members of the staff stay purely on past merits, good graces, nepotism, etc. and I think this is an issue that must be taken into consideration; If you don't have the proper time to invest in working on the site, should you really hold a position of power? If someone is consistantly so busy with real life that they can't put down a couple of hours a week at least (in my opinion a couple of hours per day would be preferable), they should be asking themselves what they really bring to the site. The administration should make a regular review of the moderators performance and if they don't make the cut, they should be relieved of duty immidately. Inefficient members of the administration should also consider giving up their positions to people more suitable for the task.
 
This place needs a shake up, and I'm not convinced that the current staff line up is up to the task. If the whole team showed the same dedication that the previously mentioned people do most of the time, then this place would most likely be heading towards major improvement, not just in activity and administration, but also in terms of order.
 
Finally, perhaps a bit controversial as its just a theory, but, I've heard several good suggestions come from certain mods and admins I've talked to, but fact seems that the majority is too busy clinging to status quo out of sheer laziness that none or very few have been implemented successfully.