> In most subs most care about having that power to silence and punish people they dislike more than to do actual good, IMO.

I strongly disagree with this.

What you describe isn't most mods, it's just the loudest form of modding. Mods who do the banal tasks well will hardly even be noticeable.

I mod a few subs, in my experience most mods are just kinda boring.

I think it's absolutely most mods. Maybe not on the smaller subs that are truly community orientated, and maybe not on some of the bigger truly well run subs, but on most subs? Sure.

I agree with you, and some mods are actually Reddit employees. I have had an account permanently suspended by a Reddit employee mod, because he could.

It's not true that all mods are volunteers.

As an aside, the paid Reddit mods are likely to be on the side of reddit being profitable and able to pay their salaries, and thus support price hikes.

Especially in an era of layoffs.

I'm speculating here, I have no insight myself.

Exactly. They are not workers, they do it for free.

Even volunteers have power. The question is how much? Often workers (paid or unpaid) believe they are irreplaceable, and start acting that way. It behoves management to find out if that is true. It can also help the relationships a lot if the workers find out its not true.

We're all in relationships with others all the time. I can push my suppliers some, but not too hard. I complain about other suppliers, but in some cases have little power so walk softly.

Reddit moderators believe they have power over API pricing. I guess we'll see who is right.

The majority yes, but some of them are Reddit employees and are paid.

> because there are any number of volunteers waiting in the wings to take over to be able to wield that same power.

Yes, and that's why the "good" mods have power (against Reddit), because they know not to abuse that modding power.

Bad mods will destroy the spirit of a community in months if not weeks, tanking their utility and usage. Reddit knows that (or did know that at some point).

> Yes, and that's why the "good" mods have power (against Reddit), because they know not to abuse that modding power.

That's not true. Mods abuse power all the time and admins don't give a crap. The good mods are good mods because they're not petty dicks.