Beautiful post therother. Well thought out and presented.

On the EH system, I have mixed feelings about it. I can see where it would scare off or deter some from joining. I also remember that nose dive in posting maturity that took place when the EH system was eliminated that Ludens mentioned. One thing that is key with the system is that Junior Members should not have to wait too long a time before being given full privileges. I just saw a patron who's been a JM for two months now (40+ posts). That is way too long to wait.

I agree also that communication from the staff is an important ingredient to a healthy forum. It tells the patrons the staff is there, listening and responding to their issues and/or requests. Simple reminders that the staff is there is at least comforting to me.

I think part of what therother is getting at has to do with how the Org is staffed. Staffing is almost 100% geared towards maintaining the forums. Perhaps there should be some staff dedicated solely to maintaining the non-forums parts of the Org. Those with the technical skills necessary to keep all the web pages current and dynamic.

Along with the staff to do things, I agree that someone or some part of the staff should be working the "vision thing". Where is the Org going? What is working and what isn't working with the site? Basically dealing with the kinds of things brought up in therother's post. You need the right kind of people to do this kind of thinking. For example, I know I've tried to do this kind of vision thinking when I was on the staff and I found that I lacked the creativity to be of much use in that area. But anyway, having a direction and periodically reevaluating it is a good thing.

Good topic for discussion.