One theory here: Moderation is hard work, people want something in return for hard work, reddit isn't willing to pay mods. Inevitable result: Over time, the mo

One theory here: Moderation is hard work, people want something in return for hard work, reddit isn't willing to pay mods. Inevitable result: Over time, the mod pool consists more and more of people who get something in return for the act of moderating itself. Either they get to push an agenda, they get to be petty tyrants, or both. This could explain the pattern where for any given topic, you'll often see discussion of that topic splinter into several diametrically opposed subreddits which are constantly trying to dunk on each other. No one wants to moderate a sub which attempts to synthesize all the perspectives, but there is a supply of mods available for a sub that dunks on "the bad guys".