I've been asking for that since I came aboard here back in December but I think there are other priorities that the ownership has and moderating does not seem to be one of them right now. Although I've been told that one of the reasons is that they don't have enough volunteers I also read something about how they don't accept moderators volunteering so that seems to be counterintuitive if you ask me. I guess we just all have to learn to wear our big boy or big girl pants and act all grown up.
My opinion is that there are not enough moderators on this site for any of the sections but especially the BDF. The issue also is that there are no real solid Terms of Service (ToS) here so you can't really moderate when there are no real rules of engagement.
The best thing to do is PM RoboOp and give him your suggestions and input. Seems Chat is the primary focus of this site and not forums.
Well, when you sign up you have to agree to this.....
Rules - Christian Chat Rooms & Forums
So not getting why you say there's no real ToS.
And obviously you have received wrong information about 'volunteers'. Anyone who asks to become a mod is refused. But not everyone who is offered the position says yes.
To be granted the position is going to require having some obvious requirements. Having a solid reputation as being calm and balanced and fair without your feathers getting easily ruffled. Being at least moderately tech savvy. being some of the most obvious. Eliminate people who don't qualify, people who ask to be mods, people who qualify but have no interest and qualify but don't have the time, how many people are left?
Also, as i stated in a previous post in this thread, the official stance is the moderation on this site is at a level the site owner finds acceptable after nearly 20 years of running this site. Increasing moderation doesn't stop complaints, it just changes the complaints and the complainers. And since the ones complaining now generate less overall traffic on the site than the ones being complained about, it's easy to see which group will get favored.
Also as stated already, they are all volunteers with no schedule, no pay and no expectation on how often or how long they log in. It is 100% a use of a mods personal time to choose to moderate on this site. So if they work all day, deal with family coming home, then they come here and have to babysit.
The reason the chats are 'favored' is because the mods often prefer being in chat and are not forum users. This goes back to they are here as users on their personal time that agree to deal with things as they arise, but are otherwise here to chat, like anyone else. It's a bit difficult to make demands of people using their free time to be a babysitter to do specific things.
People always say 'message RoboOp', then complain when he doesn't respond, or doesn't respond quick enough. At least part of the point of the suggestions forum was to get people to Stop PMing Robo with suggestions and complaints. Encouraging everyone to message the singular person in charge with their every gripe and suggestion is only going to continue discouraging getting answers or responses because when would he have any time left? PMing admins or Robo should only be limited to specific cases of difficulty. Such as technical problems with the site that have not be able to be resolved in the Tech forums first. We have a suggestions forum, tech forum and report buttons for a reason.