Oh, and on the mod front, i agree loose moderation is generally best. But, I also feel with too little moderation too many old timers decide to act in ways that push new members away. When a new guy comes on and asks, in his very first post on the forum, why his Xplods blew up, he should not be met with put downs or jokes about his equipment, experience, or his mom. Disagreements should be allowed, even enemies arguing should be allowed (hell I get in my fair share of them)... but when the forum takes an air of 'we dont need or want newbies' then something has gone wrong.
I also think moderating should be done with a healthy dose of moderation. (lol?) Far too many times Ive seen a perma ban when a 1-week ban would have probably fixed things. Or a 1-week ban when a simple warning of that type of attitude or action was not condoned here would have worked. That's not necessarily the mods' fault, I imagine doing that job for a while would tend to make a person jaded and impatient. Perhaps a revolving system of mods who change after a certain amount of time would be in order.
Just a few of my random thoughts.