Over the last year, we've had some moderators choose to retire from moderating CougarBoard — Bucko, Bernard, kalifi, Yardtime, and maybe another one that I'm forgetting. In the last couple weeks, soupie let me know that she's planning to retire from moderating as well, and so we've spent some time looking at potential new moderators to bring in.

As of today, dilbert, durandal, supertux, and unctoothman are moderators in training. They'll have access to appeals and abuse reports, but won't actually wield the ban hammer for another week or so — hopefully in time for the peak influx of Utah trolls next week. Please send them your congratulations, condolences, or irrational feeling of eternal hatred for their new position.

Moderating the board is a hard and largely thankless job, and I'm grateful for all of those who've helped with moderating over the years. Our moderation may not be perfect, but it helps keep the board from becoming much worse. Thank you to all of the mods and former mods!