Damn it ... I was writing something and hit close by accident, so let's just speedrun it.
1: change title; almost didn't click.
2: need more to work with to argue specifics, but I completely agree.
3: it be late, normally brain no function so late it function less.

This forum is generally horrible anyway. Look at the most active topic recently if you want to know what I mean. Generally forums follow guidelines that exist everywhere and restrict some topics, But this? It's pathetic enough that one of the admins might start a topic in one of the 3, Should I also mention how derailing topics is not something disallowed? And yes I am sort of derailing the topic now, But since it's not in forced, Who cares? This could start about asking for forum status and could end in a discussion of some random topic absolutely unrelated, This is even beyond stupidity and I honestly find myself hoping this forum goes down so something else, That is much better, Comes up. Small communities will be even better.

Very well said, OP. One thing I think also bares mentioning is Dgleks’s extremely unprofessional response to my quite reasonable question in the other thread. I think I was being quite fair given the Circumstances, certainly more so than he deserved, and I didn’t remotely appreciate being trolled as a result. I know I'm not perfect by any Measure, but I'm quite proud of the fact that I haven't even been banned once, unlike somebody else I could mention.

I'd prefer for this forum to stay up, but we really do need some restrictions on appropriate topics around here. If you really find it necessary to delve into degeneracy, head on over to the asshole of the internet, also known as reddit. It's full of it.

Let alone that the search and edit functions are completely broken and take 5 minutes to load, and there's no spam protection which forces the admins to approve each user manually, which, even before the google form registration, could take several days. Now it takes weeks to months if the user even gets registered at all.

I probably shouldn't have started this post the way I did. Most important issue is forum function, then staff activity, then rules imo.

Yeah @6 has a point. The rick roll is basically making the statement, IDGAF. If that's the case, then perhaps go on an extended holiday with all those fucks you haven't been giving? I've heard multiple staff members say on multiple occasions that they're trying to work through forum toxicity. Trolling ain't how ya do that.

While a staff that is present is needed for forum functionality and even for checking eventual reports, I don't see why you seem to have a so big problem with absent moderation or you are requesting staff's answers as if Audiogames would be a company developing a mainstream software, platform, device or place we need to be accessible in order to our socialization. Provided that, I agree with @9, and in that line of thinking I ask myself why many people complaining about a desperate current situation of this community still stay.

I keep seeing this over and over again, and I do see where you are coming from, I think. But I also seem to remember that when they did their open aplications for mods and administrators, there weren't really that big of an interest. Sure, we got a couple of guys barely writing a line for each question, or writing in half broken english, but other than that, there weren't that many. I'm not saying this to throw shade at people who do not have perfect english skills, but I think we all agree, that it is a good quality to have as a mod or an admin.
My point is, you keep remaking this point, and yet not a single one volunteers, that's fine, I don't want to be a mod either, but then maybe cool down a bit and take in the big picture.
Sure, this forum might need some serious work and all, fair point, but sometimes you have to just take a breath and think, will this post:
1. Actually do anything?
2. Start a conversation, that people get anything meaningful out of
3. thpositively or negatively affect the general mood of the forum?
and then ask yourself, do I still want to post this?
If we look at this topic, I think we can safely say, that the answer to question 1 is, no, probably not. If anything were to happen, it probably would have one of the other times. Much the same for question 2, I think all of us have gotten everything we can from this conversation in all the other threads. And as for question 3, well I think that is obvious.
So you can call me whatever, an idealist for believing we can stop picking at old wounds, a cynic for not believing anything will change, but seriously, just ask yourselves, what is this really good for?

@14
You're correct; very few people applied for the moderator position. If you're relatively active on the forum, you know exactly why that is. It's something everybody knows but nobody will say.
OP has actually presented a great solution to the problem.

we always find something to whine and complain about.....we really need new games to play

I cannot and will not do this anymore.

Before I get into the rant which will come later on, my only question is ... regarding new forum software: who's gonna recode the current one? Are there migration tools? Do we have willing people with the know how?
I think, while new forum software would indeed be nice and I'm not opposed to the idea, our biggest concern right now is the lack of moderation. If we were to get new software there'd be absolutely no one to do it, since there's no mod to overlook the task. We're losing new users because they can't get in, and it's not a good look. We need new moderators as soon as possible.
Ok coffee time.

@BGT:

No. Stop. Just stop. Your average internet user does not, will not, and probably never will, care about Lemmy. You are acting like a power hungry wannabe power hungry admin throwing out oh I can host, I can host.

Nolan tried. Nolan tried with Discourse. It actually worked quite well but never got traction. Discourse is absolutely /not/ as hard as you make it out to be, as long as, as long as you remember the keyboard shortcuts.

I was looking at SMF, phpbb2 and 3, I was looking at Discourse yes