If someone staked a claim by starting a community, making it mod posts only and then going inactive, all thet need to do is contact the admins of that instance. As long as it’s not risky to reopen (some can give life and death advice and need careful modding) the admin can open it and make them a mod.
If it’s open and free to post then they can just start posting to it. They can contact the mod about possibly helping out and, if there’s no sign of activity, they can contact the instance admins.
Don’t they still exist, they’re just quiet?
Correct. They’re still there
Exactly - they haven’t disappeared.
If someone staked a claim by starting a community, making it mod posts only and then going inactive, all thet need to do is contact the admins of that instance. As long as it’s not risky to reopen (some can give life and death advice and need careful modding) the admin can open it and make them a mod.
If it’s open and free to post then they can just start posting to it. They can contact the mod about possibly helping out and, if there’s no sign of activity, they can contact the instance admins.