Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4832646-20140607004850/@comment-5448890-20140608061025

Upon checking the Requests page, it seems that the most recent was February 18 2014, and it was granted. But upon checking all the others, two groupings had no applications at all, and others had maybe 1-3 closed ones. That shows that they're really not used that often.

However, you guys could compromise: set up a special forum just for users who want to help out, and inside that maybe a subtopic where users can display their desire to help using certain user rights, and can display their reasoning, contributions, etc., which would get them noticed by the Administration. If the administration decides to make them a nominee, put it in a list (maybe that "secure document" idea? ;) ) and when the need arises, or after Staff (not just admins, all active users with rights) discussion, make a new topic asking the Community of their opinion. This'll give users the time to make sure this is what they want, and the community time to react to the possible new [local] staff member. In this way, it won't surprise users (as long as it's made a topic or similar), and they can display their desire or distaste for the idea.

In this way, "applications", per se, are eliminated, while still keeping around the old Roman way of democracy. Plus, you don't get surprised users who don't know what hit them when a new user gets added to the local Staff roster!