You have to abide to the rules of the instance in which the community/magazine is. Any extra rules in the community are up to you. And yes most communities are are ghost towns especially if they are about something more niche or with a smaller audience. Usually the way to grow them is to create content to attract new users, nobody wants to join an empty community after all. You could also try to advertise it on !newcommunities or something similar to gather some attention. I hope my answer was helpful, that’s just my experience, I’d be interesting to hear others’.

I [created and] moderate [email protected], and since it’s a niche interest on a fairly small platform, it’s mostly a ghost town, with me posting music I like. This works for me in that I never wanted to mod anything, just wanted to join a community I ended up having to create myself. Though it does feel a bit like shouting into the void.

As far as rules, yeah instance rules are the baseline, then you can stack whatever you want on top of that. Idk how to grow, I’m making everything up as I go along. I’ve been posting regularly myself to put the community on metalheads’ radar, maximizing the variety to try to throw a wide net, cross-posting very occasionally (ok I guess once lol) to related comms, and starting themes (“Secret Killers” for hidden-gem bands, “Left Field” for established bands that haven’t made it big somehow, and “Mods Are Drunk Friday” for posting zany stuff that otherwise might not fit).

[email protected] has been good. I was sweating when lemmyshitpost was hit with CSAM, I really thought we would be next. Being the most active mod, I have to check right when I wake up due to time zones, and throughout the day. Most common issues are very mild, things like digital art being posted instead of a photo, or cosplay NSFW earlier in the growing process. The trump arrest pictures caused a stir, and the community ended up voting to prohibit political pictures. We rotate our banner image every Friday and pin the most upvoted original content picture for the next week from the previous week’s posts.

Mod logs are public, go to a large community and view their mod log. You will be able to see how often and what actions have been taken. That should give you an idea of how much action a type of community requires.

I started and moderate [email protected] and was invited to moderate [email protected]. It can be a lot of work. The main tasks are (1) figuring out and implementing ways to grow the community, (2) finding other moderators that will be a good fit, (3) addressing suggestions and complaints made by users, (4) creating rules that discourage toxicity while trying not to limit freedom, and (5) deciding on mod interventions.

Luckily, these communities have been great. The users are just awesome people, and my fellow mods are amazing. Still, of those, 5 is the most taxing for me. I try to be as considerate and fair as possible, so it takes a lot of energy to make those decisions. Also, I’ve been dreading it even though it hasn’t happened, but from what I’ve heard, having to deal with troubling posts such as child sexual assault material, gore, etc.

Tips:

1. Make sure to recruit a good mod team. It helps to have others to discuss mod actions with. Also, some days, I just don’t have the energy to mod.

2. Treat your users with respect and compassion. I’ve seen lots of subs and communities where the mods are on some power trip or treat their users as subordinates. It reminds me of jaded cops. This creates an antagonism between you and your community.

3. Be kind to yourself. You’re doing your best, and no one is perfect, even if the users insist on perfection.

4. Frequently take time off from moderating to recover.

5. Network with other relevant communities for growth and insight opportunities.