Welcome to SocialBC.caThis instance is run by the non-profit, registered,
Society of Open Social Servers of British Columbia (
socialbc.org). If you live in British Columbia, Canada this is a regional Mastodon instance for you!
We are an X/Twitter and Corporate Media alternative connecting to thousands of other servers and
over 14 million users on the Fediverse and #OpenSocialWeb and we can connect to Bluesky.
Our Team@Chris,
@arbutus,
@jrenken are the Administrators of this website with the help and support of the SOSSBC Board that includes
@trishalynn,
@dylanre and
@artbysarahsammisWe are always looking for more help either on the Board or running SocialBC. If you're interested please do contact any of us! We are a welcoming space for people of all genders, backgrounds and experiences.
MembershipAs soon as you sign up on SocialBC you are a 'non-voting' member of the Society of Open Social Servers of BC (SOSSBC). If you would like to support us financially please see the "How do we make this go" section below.
Any contribution greater than $20 in a year makes you a full voting member of SOSSBC. Note: To avoid conflicts of interest, elected officials and corporations are encouraged to contribute and be members of SOSSBC but are always non-voting members of the Society.
Use the Web or an AppWe are a public access server, there is no paywall or limitation on the general public seeing posts here through the website except for what users choose to keep private.
Any Mastodon compatible app will also work with SocialBC.ca.
How to Embed your Posts or Timeline on a WebpageWe made a
tutorial including a YouTube video. Check it out!
We have an emoticon for your community!We have created emoticons based on the flags and logos of every municipality, town, village, First Nation and Band Council that we could find in BC.
You can see them all in this thread. Users can invoke the emoticons by typing : portalberni : or : Tseshaht :. We also encourage the use of community hashtags like #yvr #kamloops or #wsanec to increase the visibility of our diverse communities.
How Do You Make This Go (ie. Money)SOSSBC and SocialBC.ca are completely run by volunteers but it does cost money to “keep the lights on”,
you can see our financials so far here.
- One-time Donations can be made by e-transfer at your online bank. Send it to help@socialbc.org. You can also use Paypal (Paypal charges fees so e-transfer is preferred)
Suggested Monthly Subscriptions:If you would like to have suggested donation amounts for personal, professional, and corporate members. These are not required for registration but we do hope you will help us keep the lights on. Contributing $20 in a year (or $1.66 per month!) qualifies you as a voting member of SOSSBC!
Personal or Not for Profit:
Professionals (eg. Journalists, PR department, etc)
Corporate Accounts (ie. speaking on behalf of a Corporation)
We will periodically publish information about the Society and the finances of SocialBC.ca so that you can see how things are going and how your contributions are used. As we grow, our hosting costs will grow as well. We want to be transparent about that growth and how we use the money we have.
What Is This PlaceOur intent is to create community driven, grassroots, #OpenSocialWeb spaces for all people that call British Columbia - or the First Nations territories it owes its existence to - home. This space is connected to Bluesky through services like
Bridgy Fed.
Yes, we said "spaces"! In time, we can envision and would like to encourage groups and communities within British Columbia to create their own Mastodon/Fediverse spaces using this space as an example and possibly under the 'umbrella' of SOSSBC and socialbc.ca.
Moderation and General OutlookThis is a lightly moderated instance. We commit to be open and transparent on any moderation decisions. We expect people to be civilized. We do not condone or accept any violence or illegal behaviour and will block instances without warning that appear on Fediverse community block management lists like
IFTAS. This is done both for your safety and protection but also to ensure we adhere to the local laws and regulations on hate speech and other online content.
We welcome all people and strive to make a safe space. We do not tolerate dogpiling, spamming, trolling, or other forms of online or offline harassment including racist, and other discriminatory content. We follow the
Mastodon Server Covenant.
We do not limit people for expressing their views in ways that may be challenging but we strongly encourage people to use the "Content Warning" features built into Mastodon to protect others from unnecessary or unintended harm. Some simple guidelines for conduct are in the "Server Rules" below. We strongly encourage the use of alt-text for media, use
@PleaseCaptionBot for helpful reminders!
We reserve the right to limit, suspend, or remove any account at any time without recourse.
Bots and Pseudonymous AccountsBotsPeople and organizations are welcome to use socialbc.ca to create automated accounts or "bots" for news, weather, emergency services, and other useful public information.
Some guidelines:
- All bot accounts must have "This is a bot account" checked in its settings.
- Posts from bot accounts must be "unlisted".
- "Automatic Post Deletion" must be set to a maximum age of one month. (Pinned and DMs not included)
Pseudonyms or Parody AccountsPseudonymous accounts for activism, information, and entertainment are OK in general as are parody accounts but any account found to be in violation of expectations for civil behaviour, harassment, dogpiling, etc., or are found to be disseminating false or misleading information may face suspension.
BlueskyDue to recent events in the USA and the
endorsement by Bluesky of a verified ICE account on that platform, SocialBC has decided that we cannot be silent or take no action. The violence being experienced in the USA has impacted millions, including people here on SocialBC and in British Columbia. The violence and tactics by ICE are inexcusable, undemocratic, and deeply concerning including in digital spaces. There have been serious concerns raised about the US Government’s ability to scrape public information, like Mastodon servers, for information that may assist them in their actions. At the same time, we recognize that many people have gone to Bluesky to escape Twitter and other platforms and that Blueksy is at least a cousin to the Fediverse concept of the Open Web. SocialBC currently allows all users to ‘bridge’ their accounts to Bluesky.
After discussions amongst the SOSSBC board we have decided to post this message and take the following action based on these choices:
- 1 - update about page to include a warning
- 2 - inform and/or encourage users how to block the ICE account and/or Bluesky bridging accounts.
- 3 - server block of only the bridged ICE account (and possibly other US Gov accounts).
- 4 - a server block of corporate-Bluesky Servers (https://mastodon.social/@anewsocial/115922924769785370) - but allowing other Bluesky-Compatible servers like BlackSky.
- 5 - a full server block of all Bluesky bridges to prevent any interactions with Bluesky-compatible servers.
We’ve decided on doing 1/2/3 together.
Result:
- SocialBC will be implementing a server block the ICE Bluesky account. This will prevent users of SocialBC from interacting with this Bluesky account and prevent content from that account from appearing on this server.
- We encourage our users to do the same and if they wish to not see any Bluesky contact at all, consider blocking the bridging account. (If you have questions on how to do this you’re welcome to reach out to us)
We reserve the right to escalate to stricter blocking of Bluesky in future, but we will communicate that first if we do as we recognize this could impact users ability to connect with people on Bluesky.
We also encourage feedback from the SocialBC community.
Unless a full block is implemented, we will continue to have the instructions below on how to connect to Bluesky.
How do I post into and follow people on Bluesky from socialbc.ca?Make sure whoever you want to follow has enabled Fediverse sharing on their Bluesky (explained in next section below).
To post into Bluesky:Go to
the Bridgy Fed webpage and click on "Mastodon" and enter socialbc.ca in the "Mastodon instance" box.
You might be asked to login to socialbc.ca. Once that's done, you're connected and all your socialbc posts will be seen on Bluesky.
To follow someone on BlueskySearch for them with @[handle].bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy
ThreadsSocialBC has made the decision to block connections (Federation) with Threads.net. This was done in response to the policy and moderation changes announced by Mark Zuckerberg in January 2025.
As an inclusive and proactive space,
SocialBC has chosen to prioritize the health and safety of all current and future members and will block Threads.net as of 9AM January 20, 2025 until such time that policies at Meta change.
First Nations and Indigenous PeoplesThe people behind socialbc.ca and the Society of Open Social Servers of BC deeply acknowledge that we are conducting this endeavour on and for people on the Traditional and often un-ceded Territories of Indigenous Peoples in the colonial province of British Columbia, Canada on Turtle Island.
We open our arms with humility and respect to Indigenous members joining this space.
We welcome and would be honoured to have the participation and direct input of Indigenous members and communities in this space and in SOSSBC as well!
As part of our goal to promote the #OpenSocialWeb generally, we would like to offer to help Indigenous-led communities and groups create spaces like socialbc.ca for their own communities.
The greatest thing about the #Fediverse and the #OpenSocialWeb is that it emulates the human landscapes that we all live in as a network of social spaces.
If this space is something you would be interested in creating in your community please don't hesitate to ask us for help.
Expanding SocialBC, SOSSBC, and the Open Social Web in BCIt's SOSSBC's goal to promote the use of non-corporate, community-driven, grassroots spaces.
To put it another way, our goal is not to be the one and only Open Social Web or Mastodon instance in BC for all people to use, but rather to be a stepping stone for people in different communities to find each other but also to find each other in the same community and perhaps in time create their own spaces in the Fediverse.
Community-run instances like this one often get too big to be manageable by volunteer teams so the best way to grow the Fediverse is with the proliferation of regional or interest based instances. We at socialbc.ca want to encourage that.
We see our mission not as one to take over everything, but to enable and empower others to create their own Open Social Web spaces in British Columbia.