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Many, many things on the site are simply no longer fit for purpose. For some of them, it's because I didn't know what I was doing code wise when I set it up. For others, it's because the way they are used has changed (like the forum). And for others, there is simply too much content now beyond what I ever thought there would be. So whenever something seems to work very inefficiently or in a way that doesn't make sense, it's probably due to one of these three things. If I had more time or money, I would have rewritten the whole site by now. But I don't, so it's just creaking along, just about managing to survive

It's due to old, unsuitable technology mostly, although partly due to lack of moderators - but moderators alone wouldn't help much until better technology is in place. Basically the admin panels were never designed for this many patterns, so it's difficult to get them all to show in a way that makes sense, so many of them get missed. I have some improvements in the works, but it's taking more time than I thought it would. You got the error when posting this because we used to get a lot of people repeatedly demanding that we approve their patterns via posts, and it gets annoying/repetitive.

The improvements I have in the works do involve having more moderators, but the improvements need to be there first because the current system is not intuitive to use and requires training, which I don't have time to give. My current top priority is adding some muting to the forum, then I'll be able to return to the approval system. It's most of the way done, but needs quite a lot more testing before I open it up to whoever the new moderators are. The idea is that they will be "junior mods" or similar, with limited powers compared to the general moderators.