An old building, like something a state-owned telco would have built in a previous century, yet surprisingly well-maintained. It has no windows at street level, and requires a keycard to enter.

Membership

We aim to build inclusive communities that are sustainable for the long term, both for our users and our operators, and to that end, we have chosen an invite-only subscription model with a user cap that will only be increased if we are certain that it does not threaten said sustainability. Our initial launch cap is around one hundred (100) active users, and we will not grow this instance beyond a thousand (1000) active users at the most.

We are aware that, especially among marginalised people, not everyone will be able to afford a recurring fee, and thus members can sponsor an invite for anyone who wishes to join without being burdened by the recurring cost.

If you are a BIPOC citizen of the constituent countries or special municipalities of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, its former colonies, or if your ancestors were trafficked and/or enslaved in any way by the predecessors of the Dutch state, we humbly extend an invitation to join us at no cost, as our way of paying reparations for the sins of our ancestors.

Please note that our resources are limited, however, and that we will not be able to host everyone. For further details, contact @custodian.

Federation

We are currently using the Oliphant T0 and Birdsite blocklists, and will upgrade to a higher tier if it proves to be necessary. Any changes to our federation policy, as well as any manual #FediBlock actions, will be announced via the @custodian account, which is a default follow for all members upon joining.

Bill Of Materials (BOM)

Stock Mastodon, but with 640 characters per post instead of 500. Blocks all robots, and opts every user out of indexing by default. No search yet, but will implement the default search as soon as we can.

This instance currently runs on a single VM, but can be scaled up or out as needed. Our upstream is TransIP, which is part of team.blue, and our CDN, used for static files only, is currently hosted on Cloudflare's free tier. We are aware of Cloudflare's reputation, and will move to a different configuration that no longer uses their network once a sustainable alternative can be provided.

This bill of materials is provided for the sake of transparency, and does not imply any form of endorsement. We do not accept corporate sponsorship, and if that ever changes, we will seek input from members first.

Legal

This instance is operated by a legal entity located in the Netherlands, and Dutch and/or European law applies. If you intend to get into good trouble, keep this in mind. Up till now, in more than twenty years of existence, we have never had to, but there are firm limits to how much we can resist legitimate requests from law enforcement.

For all written correspondence, contact us via email at legal@ngmx.com, or, if you absolutely must send hard copy, via snail mail;

UR Communications BV
Olympia 2D
1213 NT Hilversum
The Netherlands

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Please note that this is a living document, and as such will be adjusted over time. If you feel something is missing, let us know, or use the wildcard rule to report it.

1. No Nazis. No TERFs. No SWERFs. And no tankies.
2. Punch up, do not kick down.
3. No nudes, lewds, or other NSFW material.
4. No racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, sexist, ageist, or otherwise exclusionary behaviour, including, but not limited to, any and all forms of shaming, erasure, and victim blaming. Do not make exclusionary jokes, not even ironically.
5. We aim to be a safer space. We consider impact before intent, and prioritise the safety of marginalised people over the comfort of the privileged. We expect you to get explicit, enthusiastic consent, and respect boundaries, including the withdrawal of consent at any time.
6. Seriously; stop means stop, and no means no. Even when it's spelled as 'fuck off'.
7. Each member is free to decide how much, or how little, they want to share. Do not share photos, screenshots, conversations, or other information outside of the context in which they were shared without the explicit consent of all involved.
8. No indexing or storing of information beyond what can reasonably expected for your own usage as an individual. If you find someone who seems to be breaking this rule, report it as a problem; we take this seriously.
9. Respect someone's chosen name, and pronouns. If you make a mistake in this, edit any relevant posts, and apologise.
10. We give no quarter to harmful opinions, and will not entertain anyone 'debating' their merits. This includes, but is not limited to, 'reverse' anything, whether it's racism, sexism, or any other axis, as well as white supremacy, GC/TERF arguments, apologism, anti-choice arguments, and so forth.
11. Use content warnings (CW) responsibly, such as discussing topics that might be traumatic for other members. We will not have marginalised people hide their lived experience so the privileged can remain ignorant, however.
12. Justified anger will not to be policed within this space. Tone policing and the expectation of politeness have long been used as tools for oppression, and we will not complicit in its propagation. There is no room for aggression, however; do not let your anger tempt you into violating these rules.
13. Respect other people's choices, and do not pressure them into doing or trying things they are not comfortable with. Do not mock or denigrate someone else's choices in entertainment, tools, style, food and drink, lifestyle choices, gender expression, and so forth.
14. We expect you to take accessibility into account, and, wherever possible, provide a proper description and/or transcript for any media that you post or boost within this space.
15. You are required, upon joining this instance, to post at least one (1) GIF from "The Emperor's New Groove". Alternative options may only be used if explicitly allowed by an admin.
16. We do not condone threats of violence against any member, hate speech, or any other actions that are deemed by an instance admin to have caused significant harm or distress to members of this space. Such actions are grounds for immediate action, up to and including removal, defederation, etc.
17. This is the wildcard rule; we cannot cover all bases within a limited ruleset, and acknowledge that this a compromise. If you feel something is wrong, or off, but you are not sure how to categorise it, report it anyway.

1. mastodonapp.uk: suspension
2. social.cutiecluster.cc: suspension
3. toot.foundation: suspension
4. universeodon.com: suspension