i've been a mod in a bunch of smaller communities. a lot of them actually. interesting times, they were. they were alright. had my ups and downs is all i'll say. currently a mod in two large communities, this one included.
what i like about being a mod is that i have more of a "voice" so to speak in how that section is "run". i suppose the more appropriate term is freedom and autonomy, as i can have the mindspace to dedicate to fun posting events and things of that nature. y'know, little things here and there that people may find fun and all. otherwise not too different from being a regular user at all, especially since i'm doing the exact same thing i would be if i was a regular user which basically amounts of posting a lot and thinking of interesting threads to make, haha. that probably sounds boring but i joined this community nearly 15 years ago to talk about pokemon, and it's something i still feel passionate about to this day which is why it's something i'm fine with doing. i think the biggest difference imo between being a mod and a member is directly having a voice in how the community itself is supposed to be run. i mean like forum management and things like that.
im going to be straight up about what i dislike: it's the politics. staff politics are ass in every sense of the word, and it's just so incredibly tiring and boring to deal with. people thinking that their voluntary staff position pays them a thousand bucks an hour and that gives a right to think they're "better" than everyone else. i suppose that has more to do with the actual staffing structure of a particular forum itself rather than modding in particular, but it's definitely one of the downsides as i got to see "behind the scenes" in some forums.
as it relates to modding in though, the only thing i can come up with is that it's a huge bummer and it's demotivating seeing an idea you worked hard on not do well, and being put in a position of "how can i constantly improve my forum's activity?" i think this in particular is pretty important because i think a lot of people lose focus on what made posting in their favourite sections so much fun in the first place and just focus on activity, activity, activity and it ends up in extreme burnout. @
[email protected]; definitely happened to me several times.
i also currently mod one largeish discord community. it's chill.
very different than forum modding for sure, although whether or not that's because of the management, the fact that live chat modding is just that different from forum modding or a combination of both, idk. i like it, though.