Thank you for starting the thread. Just to clarify, the quote from me doesn't contain what I believe to have been my proposal but which I understand you to perhaps be progressing (or at least raising) here:

"maemo.org would be better off if it invited (as in actively encouraged) some active forum participants to be mods even if (especially if) you strongly disagree with their opinions or they strongly disagree with yours."

Now to answer the specific questions...

I know of no problems with the current roles of moderator permissions and supermods. It seems to me that each sub-forum should have one or two dedicated mods, and that all mods should have the ability to delete spam, etc., on any forum.

I don't have any information as to who has volunteered.

I don't know who the top 5 critical or contrarian contributors would be. I would suggest that we decide upon criteria as to the minimum number of posts (1000+?) and thanks (200+?). There should also be some criteria that a certain percentage of the posts and thanks be relatively recent, so as not to turn up someone who hasn't posted for a year or so. Is is it easy to apply such a criteria and have a list of the people who meet it?

Should we list on the forum those people that qualify? I will help in this effort. For example, if the number of people meeting the criteria is less than 50, then I could proactively pm and/or email those people to see if they would have an interest in being a mod. Of course, if there is another method, then simply do that. I just note my willingness to help implement the proposal.