Andrew,
i think the problem with the current system is this. you are intertwining the functionality of the sites forums and blogs with the contributory realm of submitting a mod for free. now here is what i see, there are exceptional people out there with personalable skills and moderation skills that are not programmers. your stringent requirement that in order to move from a contributor to pundit and then to moderator, is too strict and needs to be revisited in my opinion. the rules initially see more stated that you had to become a contributor, there are those of us who have done that, so now if that is still the rule, we need to know, and i would think that a contributor should not be a monetary faction, but something relevant to the site, such as having 500+ posts on the forums, this would warrant one as being a contributor.
the ordeal with submitting a mod extension for free, has proven unjust, since what one of your reviewers would deem useless, could be used by many, i speak from facts, i submitted a mod, took two months to look at it, and then was just rejected with some horse crap line about overwriting the install folder, which in its appearance, there was nothing wrong with what was submitted, it apparently stepped on some toes. i was put off because every one of the upgrades and patches that you guys set out, have to modify source code, and that is exactly what you said i couldnt do, even when it was documented clearly the lines that i had "added" not taken away from. but i am not here to debate the rejection of my submitted mod, im here to discuss the applicability of becoming a pundit and or moderator, there has to be some other avenue which one can travel to achieve this goal.
voting didnt work, i was voted on last year, applying didnt work, i sent in my NDA, nothing ever happened. so as you write these things, there needs to be some solidarity with what you write. I would truly like to see you select a default set of moderators, and or pundits, otherwise we are still spinning our wheels.
i think the problem with the current system is this. you are intertwining the functionality of the sites forums and blogs with the contributory realm of submitting a mod for free. now here is what i see, there are exceptional people out there with personalable skills and moderation skills that are not programmers. your stringent requirement that in order to move from a contributor to pundit and then to moderator, is too strict and needs to be revisited in my opinion. the rules initially see more