Twitter and Facebook repeatedly show how very wrong "professional" moderators get it. Almost like caring about a topic makes you better suited to maintain a community around it.
The other side of the coin is that many communities wouldn't exist without Reddit, and many wouldn't be tolerated by Reddit without moderators. Many subs have been closed for inadequate moderation. So you see it as free work, I say you get what you give. You want a nice place to chat? Pony up. Cash or effort.
> Almost like caring about a topic makes you better suited to maintain a community around it.
I think not caring about the topic makes you better suited to moderate it. It's way easier to dispassionately and evenly enforce rules when there's no possibility of a bone to pick.
Having skin in the game, wanting your community to blossom makes for much better moderators and community governance. They're far more likely to get involved in big tasks to fix long-standing issues. If rules need to change knowing the moderator calling for change helps a lot with acceptance.
My experience with paid moderators is they work in systems where they are vastly overworked so their willingness to actually engage with issues is low. Poor decisions get made. I've reported child porn and drug sales on Facebook and had a mod say they're okay. I have a few dozen examples like that. A lack of passion isn't good.
Twitter and Facebook repeatedly show how very wrong "professional" moderators get it. Almost like caring about a topic makes you better suited to maintain a community around it.
The other side of the coin is that many communities wouldn't exist without Reddit, and many wouldn't be tolerated by Reddit without moderators. Many subs have been closed for inadequate moderation. So you see it as free work, I say you get what you give. You want a nice place to chat? Pony up. Cash or effort.