You know things are bad when the old regulars are leaving. This ought to be a real wake-up call to the administration (I know it is to me when it happens on my sites); the flip side is that they can't take care of everything without running the place into the ground themselves.
Can't get away from trolls, man, particularly dedicated ones. The only way is to make the admins personally approve each new member, and that's a very gray area -- if your admins aren't active enough, new members never show up again because it takes too long to approve their accounts. Then, when they do review the newbs, it can be extremely hard to distinguish between good new members and trolls coming back for another round, particularly when they know they're being screened.
The overmoderation is something that's also problematic on a lot of forums, though that one can be fixed pretty easily... I've pondered commenting on it, but every time it comes to mind, the thread has been locked and a warning issued "not to dredge it up again." Scarlett, locking threads often is not the answer; it doesn't give people any closure or even the chance to discuss what happened.
I suppose I'm probably not active enough here for my opinions to be taken seriously, but that's what I think based on my experience -- and ender... man, the site will really lose out if you do in fact leave.
