Merpstodon!

Merp! A small instance themed around synths, but accepts all. Not to be confused with our Sharkey or Iceshrimp instances.

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Table-of-Contents

Instance information
Features
Rules
Bubble timeline
Moderation

Instance information

This is our Mastodon instance! While hosted by @sneexy, is mainly managed by @m. This is our general information page about our instance, most info here is shared with our other instances.

Mastodon is a "microblogging"-based social networking software that connects over ActivityPub to federate over the internet with other AP-based software and instances in the world such as other instance of itself. We maintain our own minor fork of Mastodon from another fork that implements features such as emoji reactions.

If Mastodon isn't your type of software, we have a sibiling Iceshrimp instance that provides most of the Misskey-like and other advanced features while keeping out the more complex or "non-sense" features, on top of a stable, more Mastodon-compatible base. Alternatively, we also provide a Sharkey instance that's directly based off of the upstream Misskey software, providing an advanced UI and set of fun features.

This instance is invite only to ensure that things don't get out of control here, in terms of both becoming a moderation hassle and requiring heavy maintenance, as well as ensuring this instance continues to run smoothly and for the foreseeable future.

If you would like to register, and are a well-known creature of, please go beep at @sneexy or @m! You may also ask anyone else on this instance to vouch for you. Invite codes/Acceptance is not always guaranteed, but feel free to ask. Please don't let this be discouragement for asking.

We have a Signal group chat for general, random discussion as well as having direct contact with instance admins, and to serve as a place for any direct or maintenance announcements.

Features

What users receive in terms of differences from, for example here, the average (vanilla) Mastodon instance:

Emoji reactions
100,000 character limit
200 megabyte upload limit, per file

Rules

Our Terms of Service applies when using the Fediverse as our instance rules, both for our own community and also as we moderate those remotely. Rules may be a bit lax for our own local community, as we trust you to be here. We recommend reading our Terms of Service to get a baseline that applies as rules, but to summarize:

No nazism, racism, antisemitism, queerphobia of any type, bigotry of any kind or harassment. Any type of hate speech is not allowed.
Pedophilia, zoophilia and "radqueers" are not allowed. This also includes any references/usage of fictional counterparts, such as lolicon/shota and cub pornography.
No illegal content. Don't post anything that would otherwise get us into legal trouble, as within Canadian laws. This excludes any anti-queer laws that otherwise harm us. If you need a baseline for what is considered "Illegal content", consider if what you're posting would get the police to show up at your door.
Properly use content warnings when posting. Be considerate for others, add a properly labeled content warning to your post as needed. Required for content such as NSFW content (also including kinks and such) and world/local politics, or anything that may be depressing to others. Reclaimed slurs may be left without a content warning, as long as you know and respect your own space/"audience".
As mentioned in rule #1: Don't harass other individuals. Shaming billionaires and capitalists and whatnot is fine by us, but don't be a dick to others who haven't done anything wrong.
Respect your own and others right to privacy, opinions, and boundaries. Especially for boundaries, make an effort to ensure you aren't overstepping someone's comfort zone.
We encourage adding alt text onto publicly posted media. Not a required rule, but we recommend it.
Basically: Just use common sense.
beep merp rawr :3

Bubble timeline

Our instance is configured with a curated timeline of hand-picked instances that we deem to be a part of community of, or are great friends. Below is the entire list of of all instances configured in our Bubble timeline.

Moderation

For all of our Fediverse instances that we manage, we moderate collaboratively along with other friends and closely tied instances. We moderate on a "Trust Nobody" level for remote instances, due to past negative experiences with the Fediverse. Frankly, we're a small place with burned-out moderators that want to provide a safe place for ourselves and friends.

We have little spoons to deal with anything and tend to take action swiftly. We suspend instances that:

Consists of having communities/a majority of users who are racist/facists, queerphobic, and anything else crossing those lines or breaks any of our rules.
Known instances or communities/groups that harass others/our own communities and friends.
Heavily radiates "Bad Vibes" to us collectively (In ways where an instance may not appear bad on the surface, but consistently points in directions that nudges towards ideas that either harm us or risks our own safety).
Maliciously modifies federation (Ignoring deletes, converting non-public posts to public, Etc.)

For anything else, we usually tend to media-silence:

Instances without rules for tagging content/with users that consistently don't properly tag posts, such as politics and NSFW-related posts.
Instances that mainly to only consists of heavy amounts of "Irony-poisoned" or "racism funny" posting.
Instances that may not be "bad" or break any rules on the surface, but collectively gives us very offputting vibes that we deem it possibly unsafe and limit federation for safety reasons.
Large instances affected by spam attacks.

By default, we don't block through guilt-by-federation. However, if we find an instance that consistently federates or otherwise associates and notably supports bad actors - more specifically those who have otherwised harmed us or others/close friends and instances before - we may consider the instance for suspension depending on the case. This is entirely for the safety of our own community and the many risk factors of keeping continued federation.

We also may suspend/silence instances if our users are reportedly uncomfortable about them, whether via the users or the content on the instance. Again, we want a safe space for ourselves and friends.

Our actions aren't limited to what is based on interactions from/within our own community. If we find harassment or otherwise any negative behavior towards other users or our close friends/instances, action will still be done. Remember: we moderate collaboratively.

If you're a user, and would like to question any of our moderation decisions or actions, or talk about a specific instance (or for more information on why we block/silence a specific instance), feel free to bring it up with the moderators/administrators. If it's an instance/user you deem should be up for moderation action, report it instead.

More sensitive topics about moderation and the wider Fediverse

For those who think our moderation is "too strict", the Fediverse has caused us harm and has shown that it's an untrustworthy network, from time and time again. Our moderation decisions are made through blood and tears, as it is impossible to trust anyone on here.

Being completely honest: The Fediverse is a horrible network filled with terrible people from a moderator standpoint. Harassment, grooming/pedophilia issues and those who align with it, Nazi's crawling from every corner, having to deal with "Your Opinions Suck" and people attempting to force publicize/normalize traumatic experiences... Basically, everything that a normal user doesn't see because we get to it first.

As for why we still bother with the Fediverse and don't go anywhere else, it also happens to be the only platform with the same beings and creatures that we enjoy sharing presense with, along with multitudes of customizations compared to other existing platforms.

And despite everything, we still host our Fediverse instances with pride and care, to provide a safe and curated space, for those who want to be with us.

For any visitors passing by, please thank your admins and moderators. Maybe give them some pocket change, it's the least you can do to help them regain some sanity.

If you'd wish to see our moderation lists, such as all of our instance blocks and silences, check if the software that the instance you're housed on allows you to view our moderation policies directly. If that is not the case, ask a moderator/administrator and we'll pass a copy of our current lists over.