Quick update to everyone with concerns. First of all, thanks to Gantic for posting this -- As I've posted elsewhere, I'm actually out on paternity leave and taking afternoons off for a while, so I coordinated with the mods to post this in my absense because I'm extremely busy with AG3 stuff in the mornings.
Here are a few extra thoughts:
1. Yes this is legit. You can post questions on my profile, but please stop posting 'is this for real' questions.
2. Voting from alternate accounts will get all of your votes disqualified. Knock if off, seriously.
3. Entries that get erased because they're being flagged as abuse will get counted anyway, so please stop.
When the dust settles, I will clear out all votes from this thread and post the results.
As for more insight as to why we're doing this: AG3 is going to hand a lot more control to users with like/dislike links, and the new Reputation system (or 'karma' system as some have called it), and so we aren't going to need a large moderation team.
Plus moderators like Strop go on to bigger and better things like becoming a doctor, and aren't active any more, so why not free up that spot so someone else can eventually fill the role after AG3 launches.