Twinny, admins could make themselves more available like hanging out in graal without gold names and on the ground with everyone else. If they see anyone with a question they can answer, people can ask them, they can chat and get more in touch with the community, etc. then people can add them, etc. if things start getting to crazy then they can leave. But as long as they're not advertising the fact that they're staff things should be fine. If someone spams them then they get blocked. Sucks or them if they have a REALY question later. But it's better than having it so you just can't contact them. This way if they lost it it's at least their fault. Your getting rid of the people who spam, and the ones your trying to avoid. The reason your not doing it you claim is that there'd be too much spam. So you cut down on it by blocking people. And one block wouldn't go for all the admins. Because then it'll just be like feedback and wouldn't work since someone sends one message to some abusive admin and boom banned. Little more flexible this way. But really you have to experiment with it and try it out before you can say that it's a bad idea. Give it a try discourage spamming, block people,give it 2 weeks and if it doesn't work then get rid of it, telling the community why you had to. But honestly I dont see why era can and we can't. Sure we have a larger player count but a larger staff team too probably.
Email will only get you so far. Pming someone is much more accessible.
And lol then why are there so many unqualified staff members? It's pretty obvious that the current system doesn't work because a lot of the staff members are pretty bad and many of the ones in the past had been pretty bad. I mean you could have had some true gems that would have helped improve the server if you actually paid attention to applications. Applications are just cruel. You ask people to fill them out teasing them with the opperatunity of getting hired but no matter how qualified they are unless they're friends with a ton of staff members then they won't get accepted. PiX who's actually a scripter and knows GS2 applied and you didn't even accept him! What's even the point of them! A person applies who says he has a skill which the server could use most but nope because he doesn't know any staff members! The server would probably be a lot better if you hired people from applications who had skills that could possibly help the server. If it doesn't work out you fire them. But honestly I think the server would be a lot better if you hire people from applications. Because like I said people who are friends with admins probably want to be admins for the fame.
You want to know how to get to know them? Hire them then chat with them and see how they do. If they're abusive fire them if not then keep them on. And for the love of god hire PiX!