I don't agree that moderators who enforce discourse standards are a necessity for goodness. I've run forums without that for a long time, using other methods like setting an example for discourse standards, establishing an group ethos, and being rather tolerant of some low quality comments (it's no big deal to have some).
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post, then it goes here.
Notes for future OT posters:
1. Please add the 'open_thread' tag.
2. Check if there is an active Open Thread before posting a new one. (Immediately before; refresh the list-of-threads page before posting.)
3. Open Threads should start on Monday, and end on Sunday.
4. Unflag the two options "Notify me of new top-level comments on this article" and ".