This might have been suggested before but would the implementation of specific section mods be an idea worth considering? Sort of in the same vein as the Arena Mod where you have people who do a lot of roleplaying in one area become a sub-mod for that section. IE is Jimmy101 does a lot of Casual RPing than he can put his name forward to be a Casual RP sub-mod and users could vote for him or something like that.

Their jurisdiction would only be to the area they're so they Jimmy101 the Casual submod couldn't go into Free or Advanced and exercise his power there. Of course this could lead to people throwing around their new found weight in that area but the actual mods would always be one step above them and have final say in what the submods do, overruling their judgement in place of their own.

This concept would effectively tackle a few different problems in one fell swoop. You would have more active mods since it would be people who are actively and constantly RPing in that section moderating them. Plus their experience in that section means they could have some sort of specialty in that area? (Not so sure on that bit but oh well). It would give players a more direct way of contact someone with power in the event its needed without waiting on a full mod to just happen to wander into their thread.