Some do, but most are volunteers. I don’t know what the range is, but I suspect it varies a lot, depending on the income of the site. On Fluther, we find our volunteer moderators in our own community.

I never did. I think it’s rare for a mod to be paid solely for being a mod, though if being a moderator is merely one of the many duties of their job, things are a bit different. Regardless, I personally have never heard of someone getting paid to be just a mod.

I would think its very rare, and of those that do, it would be a forum on a company website with staff already salaried.

I can tell you that I never have, and I’ve moderated a few sites.

I modded the MSN chat rooms – for nada. But then, I lived there for a while anyway.

One of the sites I moderate gives out gifts and has competitions that offer financial incentives, but I haven’t heard of a site paying a moderator. Some popular opinion sites might, especially if they are sponsored, such as FatWallet.com

Metafilter.com pays the mods a actual livable wage. I think they have six now. That is the only site I can think of that does. But Mathowie (the owner) is a Socialist.