In the world of streaming and content creation, it’s the streamer themselves that you see front and center, but there’s a lot more work that goes on behind the scenes to keep a community running smoothly.
Streamers often have their own Discord servers, subreddits, social media accounts, and other platforms that need to be maintained and moderated. Beyond that, their main stream chats also require a lot of moderation. In fact, on Twitch, they have recommendations and guides to choosing moderators and how many you should have based on the size of your audience.
Does Pokimane Pay Her Moderators?
Pokimane has paid her moderators for various tasks and jobs, but generally speaking they are volunteers.
In a chat with Disguised Toast, Poki discusses how she has paid her mods at different times throughout her streaming career. The day-to-day types of moderation tasks, however, are done on a volunteer basis, which is pretty standard.
So, I have like a bunch of them that are volunteer internet janitors but then whenever I need them for something specific or I need them to stay a long time or it’s been a particularly tough weekend or a month, then you know, they can come to me for some schmoney.”
– Pokimane, on the topic of paying her mods.
If the moderators need to go to her to request money, that’s kind of a strange dynamic. Hopefully, Poki takes the initiative to offer them payment in the circumstances described above, because you could imagine a situation where a moderator has gone above and beyond for a stretch of time but doesn’t feel comfortable reaching out for money.
And at the end of the day, this is a business for Pokimane. Her career is dependent on her community, which is dependent on moderators.
Do Streamers Pay Their Mods?
The fact that Pokimane has paid her mods at all puts her in a unique group of streamers, since most streamers don’t pay their mods. It’s worth noting that as one of the most successful streamers who has signed massive contracts with sponsors and Twitch, Poki is in a pretty unique position to pay her moderators – even if they’re only paid for doing “extra” work beyond the typical moderator duties.
Moderating a busy community can be a full-time job, especially if there aren’t a lot of moderators on the team, but mods usually aren’t paid.
Why Do People Moderator Streams for Free?
There are a handful of reasons that someone may decide to dedicate their time towards being a moderator for a streamer instead of just enjoying the content as a viewer, or instead of becoming streamer themselves. Here’s some of the things that inspire someone to become a mod.
- It’s a position of authority and gives them power
- They want to help a community they enjoy being a part of
- They want attention from their streamer and the chat
- It gives them something slightly more productive to do while watching streams
- They accept the role reluctantly in order to help out a friend
- It gives them a sense of purpose
Should Pokimane Pay Her Mods?
The vast majority of streamers never pay their moderators. It’s widely-known that it’s a volunteer position when you become a moderator for a content creator, even if that creator is earning millions of dollars a year and even if you’re a pivotal pillar to their community. Mods who don’t get paid shouldn’t feel disappointed about that, since they know what they’re signing up for.
However, Poki’s policy of paying her moderators when they go above and beyond, or during particular busy or difficult periods, is better than nothing and probably goes a long way with her mod team.
What if very large streamers like Poki started paying their moderators a small stipend, like $50-100 or so every week? It would be a negligible amount for her, and would be a notable difference for some mods.
Do you think that large streamers should pay their moderators, even if it’s a small amount per hour? Or do you think the mods know what they’re signing up for, and if they don’t want to mod for free – there’s always somebody else who will?
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