I posted this on the 9th, but the mods didn't clear it until the 11th. Now it's halfway down the page with 0 views and it doesn't look like I'll be getting an answer. i don't seem able to remove this waste of a post myself, so if a mod sees this, please just delete the whole thing.

The moderators don’t really spend much time reading the forums on a regular basis. If a problem crops up and a particular thread gets out of hand, they will listen to complaints filed with them and see if they need to shut the thread down or take other appropriate action. Other than that, we’re mostly left to our own devices.

However, this reply will give you a chance to get back to the top of the heap, so you could re-edit your post and ask your question again.

Appreciated, but I just made a new post with a different title but same question. It all worked out in the end.