@JPthePirate has created their account 2 months ago (like many redditfugees) and created 40+ communities, only to never log back in. The communities are for the most part empty and completely unmoderated - and a lot of them are ābrand namesā like the names of videogame studios (!bethesda, !blizzard, !devolverdigital, !activision) and somewhat popular videogames like !cultofthelamb and !diablo4.
Would it be possible to delete the ones that are completely empty anyway so that users who actually want to do something with those communities are able to create them from scratch?
The more normal transfer path is to offer to take over a specific community or communities by:
- Reaching out to the existing mod and asking to be added to the mod team.
- Documenting their lack of response after a few days or a week.
- Documenting the failure to abide by Lemmy world moderation guidelines: https://lemmy.world/post/424735 by linking spam or off-topic posts and to communities that lack rules/useful-sidebar-content, etc.
- Posting this info in !moderators@lemmy.world and offering to takeover moderation.
This is better than mass deletion because it keeps whatever small list of existing subscribers and post content intact across the transition. For moderation, Lemmy world admins will get notified of reports and can address anything that violates instance rules.
About the moderation guidelines ā¦
- Please create a sidebar with some contents, at least a description of the community and some extra rules when applicable
They did not do that even after 2 months.
- Adding a banner and icon for the community makes it prettier. Please do.
They also did not do that, even tho it is an action that takes all of five minutes to do.
- Every community needs enough moderators.
The only mod is simply not present, so noone is actually moderating.
People are a lot less likely to participate in a community if the first thing you notice is that the creator doesnāt give a sh*t about it. And like I explained in another comment, āregularā users can not fix this - only a mod can add a banner, the sidebar, rules, featured posts etc. so even on the off chance that someone decides to post there despite the first bad impression, the community will continue to have that first bad impression anyway.
A mod not answering a request would break which rule to report them under?
If these places are empty without posts, the moderation is being done since none is to be done.
- ā¦create a sidebar with some contentsā¦ At least some of these communities have empty sidebars.
- Every community needs enough moderators. A single-mod community is not āenoughā for a healthy community because things can blow up when youāre asleep or away, even in a community that was previously inactive. If a community member reaches out to offer to join a single-mod teamā¦ that contact warrants a response from the existing mod. Not necessarily to immediately accept the offer, but at least to discuss the possibility of extra mod coverage.
- Itās just not at all true that if others arenāt posting thereās no moderation work that could be done. Mods of inactive communities can jumpstart them by soliciting feedback on proposed rules, advertising them elsewhere, making scheduled discussion posts, and more. Some of these things can be done by a āregularā community member as well, but if community members try to include mods in discussions about how best to promote the community and the mods ignore themā¦ thatās a sign that the community is abandoned.
- If a mod is notified that theyāre their community is about to get reassigned and they donāt respondā¦ the community is definitely abandoned.
All of which is to say, there are lots of way to detect abandoned communities when post volume is low, and the process I highlighted is the standard way to request a takeover.
Want to finish posting the rest of that sentenceā¦?
Please create a sidebar with some contents, at least a description of the community and some extra rules when applicable
When applicable changes that entire premise! Itās only applicable when itās large enough to warrant.
One mod is perfectly fine for communities with posts of about once a week down to a day, not breaking anything there eitherā¦.
Canāt have a discussion when no one else comments or posts! Youāre suggestion fixes to issues that donāt exist in these particular communities yet.
You also suggest that someone posts a bunch of rule breaking posts to make a pointā¦ thatās not going end wellā¦ hey I just broke all your rules to point out someone else was, let me have their role! Lmfao.
Thereās nothing to report the mods for until someone starts posting legitimately and proves they are. Buddy wants the communities without the initial legwork just to have to legworkā¦? They arenāt posting themselves and want the communities? Does that make a shred of sense to youā¦?
Hey there! Thank you for bringing this up! As the user @PriorProject@lemmy.world says, the normal route for community ātakeoverā is to report them to us, and ask for the community that you want. I also see that you didnāt want any of the communities, but thanks for reporting it! Iāve just now taken this up with the internal admin team :)
Hi there! Looks like you linked to a Lemmy community using a URL instead of its name, which doesnāt work well for people on different instances. Try fixing it like this: !bethesda@lemmy.world, !blizzard@lemmy.world, !devolverdigital@lemmy.world, !activision@lemmy.world, !cultofthelamb@lemmy.world, !diablo4@lemmy.world
There is nothing stopping people from joining those communities no? I would see this as an issue if people were posting a lot but there was no moderation, but at the moment it seems like the issue is a lack of posts :(
People can still post? Why does someone need to take over?
And if itās empty what moderation is needed?
Abandoned communities discourage interaction. While it is technically possible for anyone to post there, why should anyone want to interact with a community thatās been sitting empty for two months? If a theater is abandoned, then yes, visitors can technically sit down and look at the empty stage, but why should they want to do that?
It is less of an issue if there is an empty plot that anyone who wants to actively participate can build from scratch. As it is now, people will take one look at those communities and go āeh, just lots of dead space and a mod that doesnāt care, no use in staying hereā and go elsewhere.
And moderating is more than just deleting posts for whatever reason. Banner, sidebar, rules, news, featured posts, advertising the community elsewhere, interacting with different instances etc. is also part of that, and a mod that hasnāt logged in since the day they created their account is not doing any of these.
If thereās no posts how is it abandoned? They could be waiting for posts, start posting before claiming itās abandoned.
Itās only empty since you also donāt post mate.
Whatās there to mod until thereās some content and users to mod? Just taking over a community isnāt going to suddenly make people active mate. Gotta fix problem one before barking about moderation.
You said it yourself, dead communities. They arenāt dead from moderation issues.
Also lots of mods use alt accounts, if thereās no reason for me to log in to my alt for communities without interaction, why would I?
Whatās there to mod until thereās some content and users to mod?
And moderating is more than just deleting posts for whatever reason. Banner, sidebar, rules, news, featured posts, advertising the community elsewhere, interacting with different instances etc. is also part of that, and a mod that hasnāt logged in since the day they created their account is not doing any of these.
All of this has to be done before user-generated content shows up, or at least soon after. What the communities got instead, are 2 months of inactivity.
