Do you pay your mods? Do you think it is a waste of money to hire paid mods?

It seems like you could get better mods who you could give more responsibility if you paid them. When you don't pay them, you can only choose from the volunteers. However, paying them is very expensive.

I do not think that its necessary to paid more moderators. Like, Enigma said, there always people on your forum who want to become moderators... and don't need to get paid.

I paid for a few like RPG Inferno (which I'm selling my 2nd licence now for 25% off) vBshoutbox Pro and vBSEO. So it all adds up, but it has it's ups and downs here and there. Some hacks help in the long term and some in the short term. Depends on what YOUR needs are for your forum and community.

Hmm, I have never paid any of my moderators, haha but then again I only have 1 at the moment. I don't think it's necessary as mods normally consider it a privilege to have their status and there are always many other people who would love the chance to be a mod, even if it were just for a day.

Another reason I don't pay is because what I could offer as a 'salary' really wouldn't be much, and so I've avoided any discussion of money to this point. I'm not sure exactly what will happen when I flood the forum with ads a little later, but I still don't envision paying any mods.

I wish we could afford to pay our moderators on my website. After we give a new moderator their permissions, after a few weeks they get tired of it and just aren't as active. Paying them could be the solution. With around 12-15 moderators, that could become very expensive for any forum.

What we are going to start doing in the future months is offering them a % discount to our online store. Hopefully this will fix the problem

If I had a big forum that was making revenue (above overhead) and I was having issues maintaining it's neatness and spam issues, I definately would hire a helping hand. I do not know what I would pay, or what it would be worth until that day happens. I think I'm a long way from that status for now.

If you have the money to pay moderators then definently. If your forum is new or just starting out, one of your most active members could be a volunteer moderator. There really may be no need to pay your moderators if your forum is barely active.

I would really suggest to have maybe a few volunteer moderators, and you yourself. A good forum should always have an active admin, and an active admin should always be scouting the forums just incase something goes wrong.

Audentio, how do they make money for you? o.O