Forum software?? Mods?? Why should both get paid? Isn't smf free? I haven't heard any other mod to get paid.
The 'forum software project' is payment for development of a new forum.
How many expensises does a super web hosting needs for 10 years? Half bitcoin?
According to this
list, there are 36 officials admin staff and mods. Let's say their average wage is a grand a month, and that will cost 36K for a month and 432K for a year. They are human and need money to run and make this place civilized. They have full rights that don't need to be questioned, IMO.
No mod is paid a wage per se (except for maybe Cyrus and co with his
Cryptios company but I don't know the terms of that deal). It all depends on how much 'work' you do, but it's capped at a certain amount. If you do nothing you'll get nothing. If you do a little you'll get a little. Last month almost 1btc was paid out between 26 mods ($9157). Three of those received nothing. 8 of those received less than $100 or just a little bit more.
The moderation system here is becoming like stackoverflow.