I don't have personal experience with this online, but IRL when you volunteer the people you are helping face to face (and others who see your actions) tend to

I don't have personal experience with this online, but IRL when you volunteer the people you are helping face to face (and others who see your actions) tend to be pretty vocal about thanking you and otherwise showing that they respect and appreciate what you are doing. I imagine online the vast majority of personal interaction is people who are aggrieved, angry, or just plain hate mods on an ideological level. I often wonder how many people go out of their way to directly contact the mods and say "thank you for what you are doing" on a regular basis. I tend to stick up for mods when I see people mindlessly bitching (r/science was terrible for this, because it's actually heavily moderated as it should be), but I only DMed a mod to say thanks on maybe one occasion... All that is to say, it's one thing to feel like the ratio of hate:love you are getting from users is pretty tilted towards the negative... but getting only empty words and no support from the institutional level is actual injury not just insult. That's why I stand with the mods, and after 10 years or so of daily usage I have left reddit for good (or until reasonable accommodations are made). Although I'll admit, I've been wanting to break my reddit habits for a long time, so this decision does include some self-interest on my part.