[pavel_lishin]

> there's definitely a fiefdom problem where mods can't be dislodged by any means

That's true. I do wish there was a way to wrest control away from absentee mods - or something like your example - but I'm not sure how such a system would work in a fair, hard-to-abuse way.

And I completely agree with your last paragraph, with that caveat of needing to think very hard about how to make it abuse-proof.