One thing that would be helpful is if new mods could get access to abandoned communities here. For example, I recently tried contacting mods of similar communities to affiliate and got no response.

I already run 3 event communities here and am not looking to take much more on. But it would be good to know what DW's policies are as there are some communities that could be or used to be more active that just seem to be abandoned.

The policy there is DW won't give someone's community to someone else, which I totally understand. It is what it is.

Best option there would be to create a new community, link to the previous community in the intro post, link to it in the old community if it has open posting.

Please add me to your list of 'new mods'! I'm not so much modding a community as squatting on it and attempting to revive it. But I'd love to be part of a group of people interested in revitalising communities.

I know what you mean. I am a mod on a community that was handed over when the original creator left the site. Even if it's just someone answering messages and keeping an eye on posts, that's better than what we have now.

I know some prefer to try and revive pre-existing communities, but there's a lot to be said for creating a follow-up community instead. Mod tools that let you invite folks, create new stickies, delete spam, editing the profile page, adding tags, etc. You could create a sibling community, and then state that's what it is in the intro stickie, and leave an entry in the old community pointing the way (if it's dead, that'll stay up top).

In either case, glad to have more fighting to keep communities afloat :)