I don't wish to comment on your suggestion,
The Might, but to clarify a couple of errors of fact or omission in your post.
The first is that at the Downs there are clear differences between
moderators and
administrators; you seem to confuse the two by naming three, two of whom are mods while one is an admin. Moderators have responsiblity for threads in their forums--once upon a time, we used the word 'fora' here--but not for the site over all and did not traditionally have capability to ban members, only input to any decisions. Nor are Moderators responsible for the site maintenance in terms of programming--mostly I think it is the Administrators who are the programmers who run the site. And that work is done quietly, behind the scenes.
Also, if I remember my Downs history correctly, the Administrators helped
BW pay for the site out of their own pocket, paying for the domain costs, etc. They are a group of friends and fans of Tolkien who out of their own time and money put together a site for the fun and entertainment of other Tolkien fans. The rest of us are merely visitors as membership does not require payment.
From time to time, the Administrators asked responsible members to assume moderatorships--that's how Esty became a mod, I did (for awhile, until I bowed out), pio and Child and Legolas--but that choice was always the discretion of the owners of the site and if there was a need to handle site activity.
As for your naming of a currently active member of the Downs (who I happen to respect and admire), do you have his permission to use his name in what appears to be a proposal of your idea only?
There are many sites on the Internet which are attempting to devolve management of the sites to members in a democratic manner but many of them have not yet found a satisfactory means for this to work well. I'm not sure if this is what you are suggesting or not. But if you knew the Downs well you would recognise that is it managed like a job or a business rather than a non-profit organizatio or town meeting hall.
As I said, I'm not commenting on your proposal itself or on the Admins, Mods and our many wonderful members, but on the factual errors I see in your post.
Oh, and, by the way, try reading over some of the many old threads which the Admins wrote for. That's an ongoing contribution. DWM can still have something to offer.
