I wonder if the abandonment occurred around the time that image uploads were disabled, old images wiped and instance was often down. That's about the time I realized it was basically impossible to moderate and contribute to a community I created on the instance. I now handle mod duties from another instance, one that is usually accessible and allows image uploads.

Can I mod from my phone while sitting on the John?

When a creator abandons his community, how can anyone else take over? Could the creator "come back" later?