Reddit moderators need to be stopped

I don't know if the rule is still commonly an enforced rule on other parts of reddit though? I am sure there are redditors who don't know it though, based on /r/ruby.

(I post other people's stuff to /r/ruby, but I think this is maybe rare on /r/ruby? Once someone actually got mad at me for posting his article, like I was trying to steal the karma for the article he wrote, or posting it in a way or at a time that wasn't of his chosing and I should have let him post it himself as the author! He obviously did not know about this "rule"!)

Is it normal to get perma-banned from a subreddit on reddit, without first being warned once for violating a rule? (I know for a fact that does not happen on HN, people don't get their accounts banned without a single warning from dang, at least not for something like violating a self-promotion rule).

A couple of years ago someone contacted me in private, suggesting I might want to hand over the subreddit to them so they can "improve it". Looking into the user, they were a powermod already controlling a dozen other subreddits. They posted aggressively to all of them, often the same thing to multiple of these subreddits. There was a whole bunch of crypto promotion. I said okay, I'm willing to hand over the reins to someone better, but anyone can submit to a subreddit; you might at the very least want to actually become an active participant in the community first so I can see if you're serious; I can even make you a moderator to begin with.

Their response (paraphrased)? "This requires too much time and dedication for me to do it experimentally, without any guarantees that afterwards I won't be kicked out. Have a good life."

I think there's a major difference in perspective between powermods and, you know, regular subreddit mods. To me, a subreddit belongs to its community - which means whoever shows up to engage with it. It's a convenient structure for organizing content submitted by people with a shared interest. My job as a moderator is to keep it clean of content that infringes platform rules and to enforce the will of the community in ways that the voting system isn't suited for. This can mean doing very little, if the subreddit is small. But a powermod like this one seems to require absolute control. Subreddits must be "theirs", their project, before they will engage, and they see it as their responsability to "grow it", to actually provide the content if necessary. They think a lot about karma and metrics and partnerships. They seem to me like control freaks who really, really need more hobbies (no offense, guy from back then).

I retain my lone subreddit to this date not because I am in any way well suited to do so, but to protect it from being nabbed by people like this. I'm always mildly worried the powers that be will think I'm squatting, but I'm an active redditor in general and I'm happy to keep an eye on contributions - which can be made by anyone. Maybe one day a community member will show up who is truly passionate about the town and suited to take my place and do more... css stuff with it.