Maybe it's an idea to have that 'consumer' panel consisting of admins, moderators and the regular others (based on forum posts for example, or other activity)??
And although it might take some more time, just one on one contact for certain simple things is still fine as well. Depends on who you (Peter, or Sam) think should be contacted for certain aspects.
Democracy is nice, but sometimes it just takes a lot of time as well, especially if it's a feature which is wanted by everbody..
It's pretty fast today by the way
