[ternaryoperator]

All really good forums, in my experience, have attentive and firm moderators. (HN for example.) A few years ago, I moderated a developer forum (not on Reddit) and by posting clear rules and enforcing them consistently without being a jerk about it, the forum was indeed evolved into a useful place for conversations. But it took constant attention; and I think most Reddit moderators don't have the inclination to do that work day in and day out for the sake of the community--and so the quality progressively deteriorates.

[pixl97]

It may not even be the inclination, it may be the absolute mass of posts involved.

Just a few people with bots can make your moderating job absolute hell, especially from a non-admin level where you can block things at a lower level.

[nvarsj]

This... so much this. The few, good subreddits are _really_ good and it's due almost solely to a great moderation team (/r/anime is one example). I've seen a lot of small communities die off because they grew and the moderation did not happen.

In my opinion, moderators of an online forum are like the leadership team of a company. With bad leadership all the good people leave, and only the bottom feeders remain.