There should be lots of flux and turnover in communities, instances, and their staff. It should be rare (but not strictly forbidden) that the premier place for discussing a particular topic stays on the same server under the same management for 15 years. Moderation of busy forums should be a temporary, shared, and mostly low-effort activity that can take advantage of good tools & automation.
Everyone should moderate something. Or rather, every serious user should at least learn how to operate moderation tools, so they know how they work and what moderators are actually capable of doing. This would, among other things, defuse a lot of FUD about moderation.
Contrary proposal:
There should be lots of flux and turnover in communities, instances, and their staff. It should be rare (but not strictly forbidden) that the premier place for discussing a particular topic stays on the same server under the same management for 15 years. Moderation of busy forums should be a temporary, shared, and mostly low-effort activity that can take advantage of good tools & automation.
Everyone should moderate something. Or rather, every serious user should at least learn how to operate moderation tools, so they know how they work and what moderators are actually capable of doing. This would, among other things, defuse a lot of FUD about moderation.