User flooding instance with (mostly) empty communities
@comcreator@lemmy.world has created 80+ communities here, most of which are empty save for a "Looking for moderators" post. Some have 0-3 posts which are nearly all from the creator and a couple have some regular user activity.
I recognize that this may not be against the rules as long as it's not simply for the purpose of squatting on a name but is worth observing for future developments. It does not appear that this user intends to actively moderate since they're looking to hand those communities off as soon as they're created.
I can't imagine moderating more than 3-4 popular communities, or 6-10 lower activity niche ones. That's assuming I had a ton of free time to do so too!
My guess is that it's just an ego trip thing. Farming the good feelings that come from making something if the communities become successful without having to invest the time and effort to be a real part of that success.
This is a good way to acquire “legit” power mod status.
Step 1: make an alt account which squats on community names
Step 2: have the alt account post open moderator requests on the communities
Step 3: have your alt appoint your normal account as a moderator. Since your normal account doesn’t have a direct connection to the community creation, it’s just seen as a helpful custodian of the fediverse
It is not against the rules to create a community. And I invite people to help moderate these communities and try to get 3-5 people moderating them, I will step down and hand it over once others take them over.
I not here to get power, I want to create communities so they exist, so content can start appearing in them. Many people do not create communities they want to see since they have the responsibility to moderate them.
I even try to contact moderators on reddit asking if they wish to moderate or even take over communities I created on lemmy.
This is actually a very good point, most people here don't create communities they just go "oh well that community from Reddit doesn't exist" so it makes sense to create a community and hand it off to others since people who might otherwise want one aren't.
Honestly I think it's a good thing that someone is willing to take the first step and make these communities exist and hand them off to people who has the time and passion to moderate efficiently, because Lemmy does need content if it's going to succeed. Not just the popular "haha" communities but niche ones as well.
That person looks like they might be a Brand name squatter, they have Communities that don't really make any sense at all i.e. Pepsico and American Express, seems like those would be more valuable to advertisers than to users.