I don't understand this attitude. If you don't like how someone mods their subreddit then why do you want to be part of it in the first place? You can make your own and run it how you please.

You really can't make your own if you're going up against an established subreddit.

This applies doubly so if it's an established region based subreddit i.e. city, state, province, or country, and IMO these are the most problematic subreddits for overmoderation. Finding non-partisan regional subreddits is damn near impossible.

There's two popular NYC subreddits. If two, why not three?

But then people complain about getting banned from the said subreddit for not following the rules that make it what it is. It seems like you want to engage an already established community and just ignore the people that are currently there and play by the existing rules.

> people complain about getting banned from the said subreddit for not following the rules

That's not at all what I'm saying. There are a few subreddits with fair mods who enforce the rules fairly, but the great majority doesn't - they are the rules, and if they don't like you, tough tiddies. Making it effectively a "mod and minions", not a real community with real rules.

I want to be a part of it for the community. Moderators are the (un)necessary evil. The fact that you seem to see moderators as "owners" of a subreddit doesn't really help the case.

Who created the subreddits if not the moderators?

The programmers who wrote Reddit, and the community. A subreddit is nothing without a community, so the fact that a moderator namesquatted a URL doesn't mean he "owns" anything, only that he has the power - the power to moderate it. Which, in my opinion, goes with the responsibility of upholding publicly stated rules and enforcing them in a fair manner.

Unfortunately, many of them start thinking, like you, that the power to moderate means they are the supreme authority and that the subreddit is about them - so they behave accordingly, feeding their ego at the expense of a community. Of course, if you believe the power itself gives them ownership over a community, that's fine. It's just that I don't.

> If you don't like how someone mods their subreddit then why do you want to be part of it in the first place?

Access to the rest of the current community.

The current community follows the rules of the community by definition.

No, the community follows the rules of the moderators by definition. The community itself doesn't get a say.