I have to say, the post of CR really grew on itself.
When I originally thought of the position, it was really the mediating-role I had in mind. I thought and still think that to be a good moderator, one needs to be slightly detached from the community. It makes one more objective and also recognize that the individual moderator is there to enforce the rules. This created at least some resentment from the community, so I created the CR's to help create some community support. If the community understood better how and why we made decisions, if they had their own voice and if the CR could raise points that the moderators are simply unaware of, the forum could maybe become a slightly better place and keep some of its activity.
Now, one role I never thought they would play was the conflict-solving role
between members. I have no idea how exactly this happened, but I did realized at some point this steadily became more and more important. When we discussed giving CR's moderating powers, it were the current CR's themselves (No idea who those were at the time) that argued against this, as this would change their role. And that's fine. I mean, if there is one thing I've learned as a Political Scientist, it's that these positions change naturally over time. To me, that just signals the position is making a difference and finding it's own best place.
With BCoF coming out sooner or later it's a system you'll want in place once this forum is going to start getting crowded again. You'll be one step ahead of the drama with a mature system in place.
Pretty much nails it. Although obviously, I didn't expect BCoF to take this long. But then again, who did?