Yeah that's what I was wondering. I'm just going off what they said. I know they don't allow communities to be created except what they did themselves, so maybe they are taking on all the mod responsibilities?

Yes but this is a nonstandard approach. For most instances it works as you had originally described.

want a better space, and we think this is necessary to do that right now. if you disagree we understand that, but we hope you can if nothing else come away with the understanding it was an informed decision.

this is also not a permanent judgement (or a moral one on the part of either community’s owner, i should add–we just have differing interests here and that’s fine). in the future as tools develop, cultures settle, attitudes and interest change, and the wave of newcomers settles down, we’ll reassess whether we feel capable of refederating with these communities.