So by now you've probably noticed that we have a new membergroup, the Flat Earth Veterans. Basically, this is a sort of 'community watch'-style initiative, whereby some members who post regularly in the upper boards are being given the powers to remove spam, lock/merge/move/split topics, and generally keep things tidy.
They can't ban people or delete posts completely, nor can they moderate outside Flat Earth General, Flat Earth Q&A, and Flat Earth Debate. They cannot issue bans, but they can request them if they feel someone's repeated petty offences have not been picked up on. Accordingly, they can also issue warnings to that effect. Fret not about power-abuses. I'll be pretty quick to remove anyone who gets out of line. By the same token, we'll probably add more members to this group at some point.
The basic idea is to give some of the regulars a little more influence over the tone of discussion upstairs. It's provisional and experimental, but disasters aside, is a long-term thing.