It would work to stop spam just like it does now. Except if you wanted to you could turn it off and see anything. I envisage though there would be local sub based moderators and global ones. For the global ones you could have things like purely spam based moderators that only target spam. Sub based mods would usually keep things on topic.

I envisage that you would create teams of moderators that you could even rank. Moderator logs would still be good. People could vote and rank the moderators to make it easier to choose.

I want to avoid the situation where moderators become tyrannical and try to block people they disagree with.

We could also attach votes to the moderator used at the time.

Have a look at spaces on notabug https://nab.cx/user/MgZ4_5EZ9J2UW5fuafMdMGNSHQs3JJX1RT57HfFQHT8.zOCN90awpWTyCwPgrt9y7CZdHr0TflXQDcrm9ufFw7k/spaces/spaces

It is similar to what I want but implemented in a very hard to use way.

I am thinking that you can just choose moderators in a side bar would be best. People could vote on them so the more popular would rank higher. Maybe the highest ranked would default to on, so people that arnt logged on arnt shocked by shitposts, or the site could just have a default mod group. Either way everything should still be optional!

If a mod became tyrannical it would become obvious when parts of conversation started disappearing but those that used other mods remain. People would naturally switch moderator to engage. And so the tyrant would end. L-)