I’ve had a few experience with this and each was drastically different.

On one end, I reconnected with a friend I hadn’t seen since high school and invited her out for dinner. We met and just picked up right where we left off. Every time I see her now, it’s the same. I invite her to all my parties by default because she’s a great person to hang out with. We’re very much similar people and really enjoy each other’s company.

On the other, I reconnected with an online friend I hadn’t spoken to in a few years. It was nice to chat with him again but the more we talked, the more it was clear to me why we stopped talking in the first place. He was sort of controlling and jumped to a lot of weird conclusions and never communicated what he wanted clearly. We stopped talking regularly and while we’ll say hi if we’re online at the same time, we don’t seek each other out for long chats.

There’s no single uniform answer because they’re people and unique. I’ve dealt with some powertripping gross mods who only use their positions to further the benefits to them and their friends. I’ve also had selfless, kind mods who take hits in order to further their communities. Most are somewhere in between. When I’ve been a mod, I’ve not been a saint, but I’ve also not tried to actively create harm.

Doesn’t France also have public fountains that put out sparkling water in some places?

Is this the first Lemmy legend story, like the jolly rancher one is for Reddit?

I had a similar experience. Reddit both led me into a hate community (TiA) and helped pull me out of it later. It’s also the place that helped me realize I’m non-binary.