Alright, I'm not pleased with this decision at all, not. At. All.
This is, of course, your forum, Rich, and you can do whatever you please; however, I would just like to point a few things out:
MIKE:
Mike is exceptionally active, and a great mod, he's pretty much resolved every issue from Ignorance and Discrimination, to the RAFspam Police. IMHO, he's a GREAT mod, and, I think I speak for the vast majority of RAF. And it's not because he doesn't get on to us, he's smote me.
GOOM:
Kevin has devoted more time to this forum than I can even begin to count. He worked his ass off to get Admin status, and he deserved it. He's a great Admin, he's done a TONNE for this place, if I'm not mistaken, didn't he make the PODcasting site? Yeah... That's right, he did.
If any RAFian needs help, they know they can PM him without a second thought, and he's always willing to help with any issue. He's never been rude to any member, but, he HAS done what needed to be done, like what Kat cited, when the Hot People thread was spammed, he took care of that in the middle of the night. Not to frigin' mention, he won STAFF MEMBER OF THE YEAR. -_-
RUSSELL:
Russell's a great guy, and, until very recently, was exceptionally active, he's never been a bad mod, and he's always been willing to help.
CLAIRE:
Claire's frikin' awesome, she's reset my password for me more times than I can count, and she loves this forum so much she went on a WORLD TRIP to meet other RAFians. If she's busy, or inactive of late, it's probably taking care of stuff from that.
Now, about the auditioning to become staff bit:
I think it really sucks that they're not even being given a chance to make up for whatever it is that you believe they've done, or the lack thereof. Which, BTW, I certainly haven't noticed anything!
I've donated to this site, which is an extreme rarity for me, I never pay for anything if I have the option not to. I damn sure wouldn't donate to a site that I thought had subpar staff. And, honestly, I can't say I'm willing to donate any more to RAF, not after this, at least not until it's resolved. I know I've never donated the most amount, and I know I've never come close to donating as much as some, but, I've donated what I could afford, and, honestly, much more than that. I nearly got kicked out when I donated time before last.
I donated before the D-Lounge, because I love RAF, and because I think it's a great cause, and I think it has great mods, and none of them IMO deserved to be demoted. -_-
If the staff have been lacking in something, it's because members like myself neglect to use the report button, NOT a flaw of the STAFF.