I'm a light handed mod for a Facebook group of about 2,000 people. If I didn't do that it'd either have to go private or it would be overrun with spam. I care about my community and giving everyone a fair go, so that's why I do it.

I would imagine being a mod on a fediverse community would be much the same.

"Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail." 🫡

I recently offered to mod and the 3 other mods seem to have the same feeling... it needed to be done and we want the community to thrive... I'll let ya know when the power gets to my head though

Very different reasons.

I was a mod because I reworked the CSS there and then just stuck around moderating the community a bit as most of the people who volunteered as most kinda lost interest after a few months and even weeks. I personally never wanted to be a mod just to be a mod.

Some do it to help the community, some want to shape the community, some do it because they like the tiny feeling of power and some all or some of these.

Most of lemmy’s community mods thus far are just passionate pioneers who want to refound their favorite subreddits here and then invite people over and demote interested people to mod to make more entirely-new moderators, if the migrated subs are big ones, then odds are the actual mods for the originals are the powertripping, far-left and probable-chomo type who don’t wanna give up the powertrip they enjoy on reddit for a small refuge that nobody posts on in comparison.

I personally moderated a few on Reddit just because I didn't want them to fill up with porn when it's a femboys hooters sub lol.

I've been a mod on a game subReddit. Mostly because there was only one active mod before and they couldn't handle it all. Game wasn't particularly universally loved so general internet hate and Reddit hivemind hate often spilled over into it. Why I did it? Because I enjoyed talking about that game in a positive environment.

In all honesty: the negative vibes on Reddit towards moderators took a lot of the joy out of it. Imagine temp banning someone because they keep calling racist slurs towards other users, then perma banning them because they continue, and then they start making new accounts over and over to send hateful messages towards you. Then you browse some Reddit for your own leisure only to read the general consensus that all mods are powerhungry faggots.

End result was worth it though, I guess? Sub is in a good place now. Positive vibes, and little bullshit. No longer an active mod though, because without RIF I don't have to proper tools to keep moderating from phone. Can't even enjoy it the way I used though. Bitter? Slightly. But I have good hopes about my new online social environment here.

HE DOES IT FOR FREE (as in free beer)

On Reddit, I think a lot of them monetize it. But generally speaking it’s a rewarding thing to feel like you’re building something greater than yourself.

I was a mod on reddit for a few years. There was a very small sub for a cartoon/toy line I liked as a kid and the community was shuddered because there was no active mod. I didn't think it would get much traffic and I was right. Once I got it back opened we'd have maybe 6-10 posts a years, mostly toy collections. It was super low effort to me, I had one t-shirt spam I had to remove and a few comments, so it was worth it to have it open again. It'll close when I finally get around to deleting my account

ITT: almost noone admits they like they "power" and the replacement of a career which they lack irl. Barely anyone with a demanding career has time for this unpaid shit, especially with family.

I secured some subs to ensure I can powertrip against people on reddit. I dont have time to fully mod them so will get some janitor mods do the work while I can powertrip once in awhile (not main acc)

Lack of social skills, mixed with little to no control of things in their personal life.

Yes.

It's all for your own good, dumpling...

Personally, I would want to be a mod because ooh status and also because I want to make myself useful, do stuff, etc. Basically if I have so much time in my hands that I could help out in an online community.

Idk though, those were my thoughts when I was 13 and now I'm just too lazy to want to be a moderator, and too easily triggered.