Explain the irony oh wise one. Its going over my head.
The irony is that you want a perfectly 'fair' system for the sake of
filthy lucre.I thought these two principles were diametrically opposed?
The fact that moderators devote their free time to your enjoyment of the community entitles them to
exactly nothing. I find it funny that your answer to Ray's question was so quick and decisive. Mods deserve no perks at all. Which, as any mature adult knows is
not how the world works.
So what should a moderator do when they approve a thread that happens to be selling keyboard 'XYZ' that they desperately want? They should wait a day to make sure no one else wants it first? Is that a reasonable expectation? Should we create a timetable for how long a moderator should wait before they make a bid? Should they be banned from making any purchases on the forum? None of those solutions seem fair to the moderators.
I'm not saying I necessarily think it's right for mods to use the approval process to get 'first dibs' on items, I just think their reactions are completely predictable and normal, and not indicative of corruption. And, I don't see how they could handle it ethically aside from letting someone else take the item, or barring themselves from all economic activity -- a level of selflessness that no one should have to bear.
So take it out of their hands using programming. Or we remove those naughty mods, and continue our quest for the most selfless moderators we can find -- which I don't think are out there.