[noodle]

There's a lot more intangible incentives than you'd think. For example, general clout, influence peddling, an outlet for low power people to experience power, etc.. Many people don't care about those types of incentives, but there are some who do.

[randomdata]

> For example, general clout, influence peddling, an outlet for low power people to experience power, etc.

Does that meaningfully differ from "some laughs when you strike the ban hammer"? One may not physically laugh out loud, but no doubt the appeal of which you speak stems from pleasurable emotions that stem from the entertainment in experiencing those things.

It is understandable why some people would be drawn to those incentives, but I am not sure those incentives align with good faith participation. Power and influence is best experienced when used in bad faith. When only used in good faith, one will not even recognize that they have it.

In the old owner/operator forum days there were other incentives to be a good faith mod. Financial gain being one possible incentive. But in the case of Reddit, they take all of those parts for themselves, leaving just the scraps for any would-be mods. As such, the earlier "reddit has some of the worst mods I’ve ever seen in any capacity" assertion is not surprising. There is nothing to attract "good" mods.

[noodle]

Yes. For example, I was a mod on a larger tech related subreddit (trying to keep it generic) that was a critical part of my tech stack and daily work at the time. The mods above me would regularly promote their POV on certain topics and do various things to demote/remove the things that they disagreed with. In this way, the community artificially seemed to be more in favor of particular directions on certain topics.

Did this have any material impact? I don't know. But its an example where a set of random people can at least try to leverage their position for more than just "some laughs". Its one example of what I mean about "influence peddling".

[randomdata]

Perhaps I am missing some nuance, but that still seems like "some laughs" and, more importantly, not done in good faith. I get that they weren't audibly laughing, but it seems they were stroking some kind of emotional pleasure centre, choosing bad faith to feel it.

[noodle]

I can't really speak for the motivations of those people, but I don't consider potential direct financial gain to be "some laughs".

[slowmovintarget]

The words we typically use are "malfeasance," "corruption," and "conflict of interest."