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this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2026
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You Should Know
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Just realize that it isn't proof that someone isn't moderating.
I have accounts on multiple instances that "own" communities. I moderate with them, but they otherwise look inactive. Moderating on the fediverse is a pain in the ass. Trying to do it from an instance that you don't have an account on makes it worse, but flipping between accounts makes using the fediverse an even bigger pain in the ass. So the thing a lot of people do is stay subscribed to their communities and only flip over when something needs attention. Even on big communities, it works.
Yeah I have 2 accounts I use for scrolling (news allowed and no news allowed lol) so one of my accounts I flip back to just for modding. But, I do try to occasionally post things in that community from that account as well.
I understand where you're coming from.. But...
If the person operating the community has never posted to it, its better to simply transfer it entirely (or add other people who are interested in doing so), and keeping it alive.. And then, the previous mod (who has never contributed anything anyway), can always request to be added as a mod again
If the mod was contributing at some point, it makes some sense to get in touch, but, in some, its been 3 years no contributions (and, even worse, in some, 0 posts total)
Having a bunch of communities which should be popular, but are all dead also isn't a great look. It's less motivating to post to a community which feels abandoned and you don't have any privileges in either, and even if you aren't that active on a certain server, I feel you should at least have a second mod who is.
Or worse, sleeping AstroTurf accounts that only intend to come back if the community provides them some benefit because the term was popular on reddit, etc.
1: isn't mandatory to be a mod.
2: in a visible way 3: not mandatory so long as the community is running smoothly without spam, trolls or other bad actors.
4: those communities have been purring along without causing problems the entire time; at least debian has, I don't frequent the others
Look, I'm not saying that having an active mod isn't useful; it is. I'm saying that you can't tell when a mod is active just by their post and comment history. Admins of an instance can, but we can't.
Just being real here, the fediverse is mostly bush league still. We don't get the massive spammers and trolls the way other places do. Nor is it a bad thing that communities flow organically rather than being artificially packed by a mod. Hell, there's been communities where the owner did exactly what you're talking about, and now people have them blocked because it gets old fast. Artificial engagement is artificial.
I'll also say that if you aren't motivated to post to a community that doesn't have a mod/owner posting from an account on that instance, as a mod/owner, that's a you thing. The only time a community is abandoned is when the community abandons it, not the mods. What matters in terms of there being a point to posting is the other users, the other members. Now, it definitely can happen that an absentee mod can turn into a disengaged community. Absolutely can happen. But I just don't see it very often.
Mind you, I've only been a daily or near daily fediverse user since the reddit API debacle. Before that, it was pretty much an afterthought for me. But in those few years, I've only rarely seen where a mod being an active poster made a difference a handful of times. History memes being a prime example.
I'm not trying to shit on you, I just don't think it's the kind of problem you think it is, and pointing out that mods posting or not isn't a 1:1 correlation with them actively moderating
You can't see if someone is logging in and purely viewing things. Only someone's home instance admin can. However, you can see voting activity on somewhere like lemvotes.org. If someone hasn't voted on anything in two years, say, I'd give pretty decent odds that the account probably isn't active.
That's not an absolute guarantee that a user is gone. Maybe someone uses an alternate account for all their activity, and one account just for modding. Or maybe they are just a really hardcore lurker, who doesn't ever post, comment, or vote.
But I'd generally operate on the assumption that for most users, if they aren't posting, commenting, or voting for extended periods of time, that their account is probably inactive.
EDIT: It might be interesting for Threadiverse instances to expose this publicly. Like, if an account hasn't been logged into for over a year, publicly flag it "inactive". Maybe randomize the time delay a bit so that bots can't scrape it to figure out exactly when someone last logged in. Not sure if there's any way that that that could be exploited, but it might leak a little information, and I don't think that for the purposes of determining whether someone is still around, an exact time of last login is required.
I was actually thinking the same.. We really do need a "Last Logged in"
It is not a me thing.. I was actually trying to make fedora busier, and I noticed this after.. Same as redhat. I only thought about checking after. And, I started to investigate a bit more and noticed a trend.
In the case of all 3 now, I'm trying to find secondary mods, and going to speak to people who actively contribute if they want to become mods
In 2 of the communities I saw, the mod had 12 posts, and one was asking for info on self-promotion. That being said, it's reasonable that Lemmy World admins will check if the person is doing work behind the scenes anyway.
If you're setting up 30 communities, haven't posted to 29 of them, and have only posted 12 comments TOTAL in 3 years, one of which were in those communities, you're cybersquatting ie, shrodingers moderator (since there is nothing to moderate, you're technically not a mod yet anyway)
Speaking only for communities on lemmy.world, since I'm an admin here and more recently am working a lot of these requests - any community that I do give to a new mod comes with the disclaimer that I contact the old mod(s) and if I've missed their activity, or they otherwise show up again - not much is permanent, including this. So at least here on lemmy.world, if I were to give away someone's community and they popped up to protest, it's all but certain I'd give it right back - although I might see if they'd be willing to bring on that other person as a mod to work with them, but as of yet this hasn't happened, so we'll cross that bridge when and if it does. :)
Also, to you and everyone else who moderates: Thank you. You are indeed the first line of defense against spam and bigotry, and often are integral to making your communities grow. I've been a moderator (and am so) as well as an administrator here, reddit, and other places - and each has its own joys and difficulties, but mods are absolutely in the trenches. :)