Decent mods on Zoklet were the exception rather than the rule. Maybe it was some issue with the admins that prevented the mods from doing a good job.
We'll probably never know!
Good mods are hard to find, good mods that actually want to improve something are a rare commodity, the problem unfortunately starts at the top, if the top guy isn't into it and motivated, the lower ranks suffers. Zok unfortunately had that issue, if he created a task force of people that were reliable and actually wanted to do stuff for the community and make things success, we wouldn't be here, but you can't blame him, plus unfortunately the community in itself was very toxic to the idea of change and real communication.
I learned that by doing face to face talk and actually trusting the right people, you could get things done and win their loyalty and trust. That type of setup doesn't really work on a grand scale but it's pretty good.
Not sure it can be implemented here because it pretty much means sharing your resources and control with others. The way I have setup things is, if someone says they need XYZ to work on things, I give them access to it. But it works because I trust them.
And I trust them because I know they're good and won't harm me or others. Pretty hard thing to work out on. Takes a long time to get used to it.
Now with Zoklet, sheesh, since I was a mod there and really wanted to make a difference, I know how fucking hard it is to get something done. Plus you have 6-10 guys over you and you can't get a proper dialogue, and you know the state of the forum and changes.
It took me a week to add improvements that far exceeded Zoklet. And Zok is Dev/programmer, I don't even stand a chance against him, yet in a way I did beat him when it comes to actually creating a workflow.
The point is, the resources where there, the community was there, it just wasn't harnessed correctly and the same will happen here and on other clones as a matter of fact. (unfortunately).
And I am not pulling all of this from thin air, I did my research I spent hours reading up, checking and working on different ways to run stuff. It's a bitch to make things work in a productive way but it can be done.
Anyway, just my 2 cents.