Not to pat our own ass too much, but I've seen a lot of art communities come and go over the years and the main difference I've seen to Pixelation is in the atmosphere. Snark is rewarded in most places of the internet as if it's - if not outight vital - at the least a necessary evil. I've been of the opinion, since the beginning, that irony and backhanded remarks create an atmosphere hostile to critique. Most places on the internet do not moderate against irony, but we do with the "don't be an ass" clause, which is open-ended. A lot of more relaxed art fora do not survive the constant drama bombs that occur when the snark residue builds up and everyone gets catty. A critique board should have a conductive atmosphere to critique. People should be able to post without being judged for their art to be scrutinized.
As to mods disappearing, it is unfortunate, but what else can we (older admins) do but make new mods and hope they don't disappear, eventually? I realize that ultimately, the best way for a new mod crew to stick is for the old crew to stand down. People like Facet or Grimshane in my opinion could easily take over Pix when Sven dies in an unfortunate gardening freak accident or my kitties claw out my eyes. But until then... it's not like there's so much work to do on Pixelation in an administrative level, it's an easy place to keep tidy. The big thing I expect from mods is actually critique of quality, showing a good example. There's wonderful users around that understand how pix works very fast and post great critique whom I'd like to mod eventually, but I can't really require of them to keep posting that type of critique for years on end, people have lives. So I appreciate anyone who has ever posted good critique on pix and wish them the best when they stop being active on the boards. Hopefully when the current administration suffers their cruel karmic fates, people will step up and keep the critique perpetual.