I’m all for compensating moderators but I think it should come with additional oversight, vetting, and higher expectations. There are many terrific moderators out there who absolutely deserve to be compensated for their efforts. However, there have been too many instances of power hungry mods who have had a negative effect on a community.

Either hire mods as employees so that they have oversight from management or make it so mods can be voted out. There needs to be some level of accountability.