That may have been true 10 years ago, when Matt and later Jessamyn were the only moderators, but I would argue that the quality of the discourse on the site st

That may have been true 10 years ago, when Matt and later Jessamyn were the only moderators, but I would argue that the quality of the discourse on the site started a long, slow decline after Josh joined the moderation team, imposing a no-dissenting-opinion-allowed moderating style. Currently the number of paid moderators is insanely high for a site with the number of active users that Metafilter has, so the financial problems come as no surprise.