1. Maturity (at the right times) is more important than age.

2. If you mean bribing to get on staff, then no it doesn't work (although I think Bleys might have been the only exception, and will ever be the only exception, at one point ). If you mean do Staff have to pay once they're on staff, then depends - someone has to pay for the licence for the forum software.

3. Not by asking - we ask people we think would be good on staff when we decide we need more staff. People that ask we tend to give less consideration