I am an anarchist, so the idea of the community doing all the work, creating content, and then mods basically ruling over them as a reward, just doesn't sit right with me.
We the users should collectively be in control of all our social media, economically and with regards of controling what goes on, on there.
All social media get's its value from the users i.e. the network effect. However the users are subjected to a hierachical place where individuals in power act as tyrants.
We create the value we should be in charge.
Fellow Lemmings how can we create social media were the users are king/queen?
post Scriptum: just having a voting mechanism, might be gamed by unsavory charcters or groups to game such a system, unless voting requires your clear name id, which comes with other issues of course.
To have an enlightened community you need enlightened members. Social media struggles to even have people read and heed simple posting rules.
Ignoring the former and only considering the latter, as others have mentioned, mods serve a janitorial function. If you anticipate a stable user population, you could implement terms for mods, so no one has the role for more than, say, a month. Like students in Japan who have to clean their own classrooms, having all members take a turn might help. You could have more than 1 mod at a time with a staggered start so that (a) they get experienced support and (b) accountability/prevention to prevent someone from taking over. Finally a 3rd role, someone who's only ability is to boot a mod if needed
Those are great suggestions!