Could you clarify why a team of eight paid moderators is currently required? It would be helpful to see concrete KPIs (active users, messages per day, incidents handled, response times, etc.) I’ve personally been active on the Discord over the past days and observed very low activity, which makes it hard to understand the need for such a large team. Based on this, I genuinely believe the team size could be reduced.
Also:

The forum is primarily asynchronous and discussion-based, and likely does not require the same level of ongoing, paid moderation as live chat platforms

Reddit functions more as an external information and visibility channel, and could probably be handled with minimal moderation

Element appears to have very limited community traction and is a strong candidate to be deprioritized

Telegram seems largely duplicative of Discord and could likely be reduced to a broadcast-only channel



[@4bksm](12jN7SYpqxhAnQhs8nNkoxE9fL1w255uLnvsPihMdjEhjgVY-polkadot) The bounty is not just for discord but also telegram, element, reddit and the polkadot forum. Also non of us is available full time and we need to be available in different timeslots. 

Note that a lot of work you don't see as a large part of the job of moderating is monitoring the join log and protect server against spammers/scammers and raids. As long we do our job right people don't notice any of this but we pro actively remove multiple scammers/spammers daily before they even have a chance to do harm. 

As outlined in the previous proposal, https://polkadot.subsquare.io/referenda/1698 this bounty was closed, among other reasons, due to **poor diligence** by its members and the fact that payments were made to moderators like Paradox, pastaman and Tim Janssen who were inactive. These issues were clearly identified and played a decisive role in the closure of the bounty.

![QmcskNxUX6UShwjurkDUB9pCFpyhjjbU8s26vy1ERa5vTX.png](https://subsquare.infura-ipfs.io/ipfs/QmcskNxUX6UShwjurkDUB9pCFpyhjjbU8s26vy1ERa5vTX)

[@13Vg...fwXX](13Vgth41V1LDFC8QMekSpN2At6SPKtFmTDLNZyzHZhvsfwXX-polkadot) People that were inactive received a pay cut in the months they weren't active. I can however guarantee you that Pasta and myself are very active but it isn't always visible. I monitor the join log frequently and check everyone who joins carefully and ban scammers/spammers daily. 



On behalf of the Web3 Foundation, we are voting AYE on Referendum 1833.

We highly value the role of moderation in protecting the community from bad actors while providing a supportive environment for new users. Our teams have worked closely with the curators to ratify the costs and introduce more rigorous scrutiny into the budget and reporting structures to ensure value-for-money for the Treasury.

We specifically support the proposal to extend this moderation remit to cover the Polkadot Forum. This expansion ensures a unified standard of discourse across the ecosystem, with ongoing oversight and support from both the W3F and Parity.

We encourage the team to continue making their impact legible through transparent reporting and data-informed metrics to maintain the trust of the global voter base.

[@W3F Governance Team](14mmwp83EuacfrQTCCPUgRPJEeXuS52Psz95GDZEodj37imd-polkadot) 
The price to moderate is very high in my opinion.

Dear Proposer,

Thank you for your proposal. Our **first** vote on this proposal is **NAY**. Below is the evaluation of our [voting policy v0.3](https://docs.permanence.io/voting_policy/voting_policy_v0.3.html) on this referendum:

```
MEDIUM SPENDER
--------------
6 available members
🟢 0 • 🔴 3 • ⚪️ 1
✓ ≥50.0% required participation met
✘ Ayes ≤50.0% of all votes
▶ Aye/abstain conditions not met
🔴 NAY
```

Below is a summary of our members' comments:

> Voters critiqued the proposal for topping up the bounty for the Polkadot Moderation Team, emphasizing that the allocated budget was excessive given current low activity and a predominant focus on private development. They argued that the funding did not correspond with the limited ecosystem dynamics, resulting in a questionable return on investment. Some suggested that both the budget and personnel expenditures should be halved or reduced further to better match prevailing conditions. Although acknowledging the essential role of moderators in maintaining a safe community, concerns were raised about fiscal misalignment. One participant abstained, preferring a revised proposal with lower rates that better reflected present realities.

The full discussion can be found in our [internal voting](https://voting.opensquare.io/space/permanence/proposal/QmUSi9FLcbzFPxQHVQajJTwuVJszxnnWfhfJPkJ7GPodgg).

Please feel free to contact us through the links below for further discussion.

Kind regards, Permanence DAO Decentralized Voices Cohort V Delegate 📅 [Book Office Hours](https://cal.com/permanencedao/office-hours) 💬 [Public Telegram](https://t.me/permanencedao) 🌐️ [Web](https://permanence.io) 🐦 [Twitter](https://twitter.com/permanencedao) 🗳️ [Delegate](https://polkadot.subsquare.io/user/15ubZj6T7NUYyQw6j4XBkEMJ2vew5w9kqKEcN1QG7Z1weKDV/votes)

_**This bounty proposal aims to continue incentivizing Polkadot Moderators for their round-the-clock contribution and support to the communities.**_

The Community Moderators provide a dedicated daily service, actively monitoring new member joinings to ensure the community is protected from fraudsters. They guide users with first-line direction and support while promptly identifying and regulating or banning obvious scammers to maintain a safe environment for all.

The bounty has undergone some revisions, based on feedback from the community, including a reduction in size to 8 mods covering Telegram, Discord, Reddit, Element, and the Polkadot forum. More info regarding changes to the Bounty can be found on the [Proposal document](https://docs.google.com/document/d/17DiVi0fPZT4UMe2d5EaOQtuzDAP917LPHxaDoNgEToU)

This proposal requests a one-year top-up of $167,520 (82,118 DOT at EMA-7 of $2.04/DOT)
 to continue funding the Community Moderators from February 2026 to January 2027

Details of the proposal, including changes since the last top-up, analytics of servers and channels under our moderation umbrella, etc., can be found in the [Proposal document](https://docs.google.com/document/d/17DiVi0fPZT4UMe2d5EaOQtuzDAP917LPHxaDoNgEToU)

We look forward to your participation and input.

- Polkadot moderators help keep the community safe every day.
- They watch for new members and stop scammers.
- They help users and answer questions.
- The team has 8 moderators for Telegram, Discord, Reddit, Element, and the forum.
- This proposal asks for money to pay them for one more year.
- The amount is $167,520.
- You can read more details in a linked document.

Polkadot Moderation Team Bounty Top-up