Server rules

Below is a summary of rules you need to follow if you want to have an account on this server of Mastodon:

1. No hate speech, discrimination, fascism, bigotry, homophobia, transphobia, racism, bullying, or anything similar.
2. Do not engage in harassment of any kind.
3. No content that is illegal in the United States.
4. Try to provide alt text for images and other media to improve their accessibility.
5. Use content warnings for text, images, video, and links liberally.
6. No cryptocurrencies or NFTs.

Rules, Expanded

Although this is currently a single-user instance, I want to try to explain some rules because they'll also influence whether I block other servers and content (and apply to any users that are on the instance). Expanding on the rules above:

• No bigotry.

  Bigotry and hate speech of any kind, including homophobia, transphobia, racism, fascism, anti-Semitism, and so on are not tolerated. Instances that tolerate this (usually by claiming they are for free speech) will be silenced or suspended. Users that post or boost anything of this nature will be banned.

• No harassment.

  Harassment is not tolerated, including brigading. Instances that tolerate this will be silenced or suspended as needed. Users that post or boost harassment will similarly be banned.

• No content illegal in the United States.

  This server is operated in the United States, ergo anything illegal in the US is not tolerated. This includes hate speech, of course.

• Provide alt text for content whenever possible.

  This rule is here as guidance and isn't strictly enforced. Instead, it is here to provide encouragement to think about the accessibility of what you post, including how it's interpreted by tools like screen readers (consider that a single emoji is multiple words, for example). Try to be conscious of what you write.

• Use content warnings liberally.

  This is subjective. The main thing is to use it in cases like (but not limited to) not safe for work (NSFW) content, violent imagery, and writing that could cause distress or anxiety. The rule is to encourage people to think about and use the tools they have available and especially consider this when boosting other posts.

• No cryptocurrencies or NFTs.

  Cryptocurrencies and NFTs are generally harmful to the environment and boil down to creating new money laundering schemes, pyramid schemes, powering ransomware, and other undesirable behavior. History thus far has not shown these topics to be worth carrying in any capacity, and so they are not tolerated. Currently, this excludes aspects of blockchain as a technology (for example, Merkle trees, as used in Git), but most discussions of blockchain itself will be covered by this since cryptobros have a rather limited imagination when it comes to technology.

I feel that most of this boils down to being a nice person. If you engage in harassment and bigotry, it's likely the only company you keep is the same. The rest of the rules are mainly to encourage behavior I want to see in the world by putting them somewhere relevant to the server itself.

Moderated servers

Mastodon generally allows you to view content from and interact with users from any other server in the fediverse. These are the exceptions that have been made on this particular server.

Filtered media

Media files from these servers will not be processed or stored, and no thumbnails will be displayed, requiring manual click-through to the original file:

Limited servers

Posts from these servers will be hidden in public timelines and conversations, and no notifications will be generated from their users interactions, unless you are following them:

Suspended servers

No data from these servers will be processed, stored or exchanged, making any interaction or communication with users from these servers impossible: