How many of you guys work on this?
It depends on the subreddit. I've been a mod of subreddits that have 20 users, and others that number in the millions of subscribers. I generally prefer a smaller, active moderator team.
How do you catch shit so fast that violates the rules?
I gave up moderating large subreddits a few years ago, but automoderator is a huge help. Before that I'd just clear out the spam filter and check messages every day, which could be very time consuming.
3a-3d - Do you get paid? If not, how do you support yourself and still make time to moderate the forums?
No, moderators aren't generally paid. It's become obvious over the years that some moderators get money, but usually a volunteer effort. I used to do it in the early morning hours- I'm an early riser, and reddit was my 'break' from life before my kids woke up.
Speaking of this, are you chained to 1 forum only as moderator? How did you become a moderator?
I was asked to be a moderator in a few places after subreddits were first created. It might seem odd now, but reddit didn't used to have 'subreddits'. It was all one site. When subreddits were created a few people asked me to be a moderator of different subreddits. I was primarily focused on mental health subreddits for the first few years- /r/suicidewatch and /r/depression, and later /r/IAmA for a few years. Many more, but those were the ones that I was very active in for a long time. I'm most proud of being a moderator of /r/suicidewatch before the admins hung us out to dry, and of moderating /r/canada for 6 years. The good old days :-)
Do you get free drinks at the bar if you tell them you're a Reddit moderator?
Oh, wouldn't that be nice :-) I probably could, in some areas, if I wanted to, but in most cases being a moderator is a very thankless job.
Do you hang out with other mods in real life?
I have, and others I've developed a very close relationship with online, even though we've never met.
Best/worst experience?
I know for sure that I did some useful support work. In the early days /suicidewatch was useful, and safe from trolls, and I can name a few people now who are still alive because they were just in need of support resources. I used to moderate an abortion support subreddit, and while I'm fully supportive of the right to choose to carry a pregnancy, there are two people in particular that I can think of that were just looking for support to have their babies, and they did. While I'm not particularly sentimental, we're still in touch, and sometimes I look at their kids now and think "I helped with that". I also know a few women who were very lacking in support or access to abortions, who I helped, and they are doing very well now.
Worst experiences are having a bad fellow mod who stalked me, and tried to show up at my door many years ago. The hate mail and personal pms can be very disconcerting. I've seen a few friends be on the ass end of reddit witch hunts, and it's just not worth it. Which is why I stopped moderating larger subreddits- I may sign up to do some volunteer work, but that doesn't mean that my kids or grandparents need to be harassed.
What else should i know that I'm not asking?
There often seems to be a conception on reddit that moderators are all powerful beings, who have a monetary stake in reddit. And a lot of people take reddit interactions very, very seriously, even when they don't have to. I understand that, but reddit is still really the sum of its moderators- often mods' hands are tied due to lack of admin support or lack of a clear direction in moderating, but if users are looking for a subreddit that's interesting, not stupid, and not mean, they're relying on good moderators to keep it that way.