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> why be a moderator for a for-profit company if you aren't being paid? They like the power of being a moderator and smacking down people who break the rules.

> why be a moderator for a for-profit company if you aren't being paid? They like the power of being a moderator and smacking down people who break the rules. Usually they also like to bend the rules themselves to push a personal agenda, promoting what they like and squashing what they don’t like. It’s the same motivation people have to serve on HOA boards or elected government positions.

pessimizer 3y ago
And plenty of them are being paid, just not by reddit.
- 93po 3y ago
  100% this. A moderator of any large subreddit has almost guaranteed been offered money to “sell it”. And if there’s any product associated to the subreddit, they get a ton of offers to promote said products. I know there are mods out there that easily make full time incomes from side hustles only possible bc they’re mods
WesternWind 3y ago
I mean that's a possible motivation for some folks, but not everyone. I know that when I've taken on unpaid positions of responsibility (not as a reddit mod but within my hobbyist community), it's because I cared about the organization and the people in it, and getting things right.
AndrewKemendo 3y ago
I'd love to see some hard data on your claims because this seems cynical to the point of being inaccurate As the creator and moderator of a 100k sub these are the last things on my mind - and same for the other moderators. The whole point of creating and moderating that was because 13 years ago I thought it was the best place to build a community that I wanted to exist. I have no idea if that's true for the moderators for /pics or whatever massive sub-reddits are, but I do know that for a lot, and especially the long tail subs and the folks I see in the /modcoord sub and discord, moderators are people who are interested in maintaining a community because they are interested in the affinity.
- PM_me_your_math 3y ago
  How does one quantify that? Reddit moderators have a reputation that they themselves created. I'll tell you what, go ahead an post something (comment or topic) that goes against the prevailing group-think in any reddit sub, and you'll experience it for yourself. Record in a spreadsheet, and you'll have your hard data that supports reddit as cancer. As reddit moved away from free speech, and more towards totalitarian speech control, I honestly couldn't hope for a faster collapse or conflagration of those echo chambers.
  - AndrewKemendo 3y ago
    I’m sorry but the scale that Reddit is at now and the number of subs that have large and thriving communities tells me that moderators aren’t creating some hellscape preventing community from forming.
DougEiffel 3y ago
This is a pretty cynical take on the issue. There are definitely power-trippers who are attracted to these roles. But there are also people who just want to facilitate a nice community and enjoy their little corner of the internet while making it enjoyable for others. I think people who accuse mods of "just being on a power-trip" are the same people who get mad when their HOA tells them they have to trim the hedges so their neighbor can back out of their driveway safely. It's myopic and doesn't give mods credit for seeing the bigger picture. This website, for example, is heavily moderated to keep protecting the feeling of "Reddit in the early days." If the mods here weren't on top of that, this place would be overrun by the type of stuff that is now on Reddit's front page.

pessimizer 3y ago

And plenty of them are being paid, just not by reddit.

93po 3y ago
100% this. A moderator of any large subreddit has almost guaranteed been offered money to “sell it”. And if there’s any product associated to the subreddit, they get a ton of offers to promote said products. I know there are mods out there that easily make full time incomes from side hustles only possible bc they’re mods

WesternWind 3y ago

I mean that's a possible motivation for some folks, but not everyone. I know that when I've taken on unpaid positions of responsibility (not as a reddit mod but within my hobbyist community), it's because I cared about the organization and the people in it, and getting things right.

AndrewKemendo 3y ago

I'd love to see some hard data on your claims because this seems cynical to the point of being inaccurate As the creator and moderator of a 100k sub these are the last things on my mind - and same for the other moderators. The whole point of creating and moderating that was because 13 years ago I thought it was the best place to build a community that I wanted to exist. I have no idea if that's true for the moderators for /pics or whatever massive sub-reddits are, but I do know that for a lot, and especially the long tail subs and the folks I see in the /modcoord sub and discord, moderators are people who are interested in maintaining a community because they are interested in the affinity.

PM_me_your_math 3y ago
How does one quantify that? Reddit moderators have a reputation that they themselves created. I'll tell you what, go ahead an post something (comment or topic) that goes against the prevailing group-think in any reddit sub, and you'll experience it for yourself. Record in a spreadsheet, and you'll have your hard data that supports reddit as cancer. As reddit moved away from free speech, and more towards totalitarian speech control, I honestly couldn't hope for a faster collapse or conflagration of those echo chambers.
- AndrewKemendo 3y ago
  I’m sorry but the scale that Reddit is at now and the number of subs that have large and thriving communities tells me that moderators aren’t creating some hellscape preventing community from forming.

DougEiffel 3y ago

This is a pretty cynical take on the issue. There are definitely power-trippers who are attracted to these roles. But there are also people who just want to facilitate a nice community and enjoy their little corner of the internet while making it enjoyable for others. I think people who accuse mods of "just being on a power-trip" are the same people who get mad when their HOA tells them they have to trim the hedges so their neighbor can back out of their driveway safely. It's myopic and doesn't give mods credit for seeing the bigger picture. This website, for example, is heavily moderated to keep protecting the feeling of "Reddit in the early days." If the mods here weren't on top of that, this place would be overrun by the type of stuff that is now on Reddit's front page.