Mastodon.Africa is run by South Africans, for South Africans, Africans and everybody else looking for a friendly and welcoming Mastodon instance.

Welcome to Mastodon.Africa! We maintain a dedicated website on which you can learn about:

• Our Vision and Mission
• Our Code of Conduct
• Monthly operating reports
• Terms and Conditions

Head on over there for more information: about.mastodon.africa

1. Be respectful of others
2. No trolling, spamming, or flame-baiting
3. No harassment, or sharing of personal data
4. All content must be "Safe for Work"
5. Don't try to overload or break the service
6. Agree to be bound by the Terms and Code of Conduct at https://about.mastodon.africa

1. bae.st: suspended (reason: This domain appears on several public blocklists for harmful content)
2. beefyboys.win: suspended (reason: Repeated targeted harassment of mastodon.africa users)
3. detroitriotcity.com: suspended (reason: Multiple accounts on this instance have harassed mastodon.africa users)
4. freespeechextremist.com: suspended (reason: Multiple accounts on this instance have harassed mastodon.africa users)
5. mugicha.club: suspended (reason: Multiple accounts on this instance have harassed mastodon.africa users)
6. poa.st: suspended (reason: Repeated targeted harassment of mastodon.africa users)

Non-profit, ad-free social media for social scientists. Join thousands of social scientists here and across the fediverse.

sciences.social is an online community for social scientists. Users here can connect with one another and the millions of other Mastodon users who have opted for social media that is ad-free and actively moderated to keep bad actors at bay. Here's how to get started.

1. Create an account

Create an account to get started. You will need to provide information about yourself so we can approve your account. After we approve, you'll be asked to agree to some ground rules. You can post about almost anything on sciences.social, but we don't allow sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, casteism or abusive behavior.

Once you confirm your email you'll be online. Come on back to this page (sciences.social/about) for next steps.

2. Get an app

Ice Cubes for iOS and Tusky for Android are very good and free. Mona and ivory are excellent apps for iOS/Mac users with a few dollars to spare.

Mastodon also works well from a web browser on laptops and desktops. A browser extension like Graze (chrome, mozilla) or FediAct (chrome, mozilla) will make following folks from other Mastodon servers seamless. Highly recommended.

3. Follow lots of folks

Thousands of social scientists are active on Mastodon, and you can follow anyone regardless of which server they call home. There's no algorithm to fill your feed with content so it helps to follow liberally. Our companion site find.sciences.social makes it easy to find and follow academics from many different disciplines including Sociology, Communication and Media Studies, and Political Science. Followgraph finds folks who are popular among the people you already follow.

You can also follow hashtags like #ASA2023 to see what people are posting about the conference. Or follow #rstats for hints on R and #AcademicChatter for - you know. Or maybe just #NaturePhotography for some pleasant views.

4. Start Posting and Boosting

Introduce yourself with your first post, and include an #introduction hashtag. Post about whatever you want, and use hashtags to make finding your posts easier. If you see a post you like, boost it. There's no algorithm to amplify selected voices here so we rely on boosting to see what's interesting.

More about us

sciences.social welcomes all social scientists, including professors, grad students and anyone with a graduate degree in the social sciences (sociology, anthropology, political science, communications, economics...), including people who are doing qualitative and quantitative work inside or outside academia. We want this to be a comfortable place for social scientists from all backgrounds, including those who are from marginalized or racialized groups, sexual minorities, people with disabilities and others who may not feel welcomed in some academic spaces.

sciences.social is collectively funded. It was started by Mark Igra (@markigra), a PhD student who earned enough money to start the site in a previous career. While Mark will continue to ensure sciences.social is funded, donations have helped pay for the rapid growth of the site. We encourage you to donate through Ko-fi

Mark runs this site with the help of a crew of moderators (Pratik, Kristian, and Simon. Let us know if you would like to help out.

Policies

At the moment, the official rules are deliberately minimal, but they have important implications. First, if you don't understand that "treat people with respect" means no sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia or casteism and precludes abusive behavior and doxxing, then you don't belong on this site. Second, you must use your real name in your profile and we strongly encourage using your full name as your display name. While there are plenty of good reasons for anonymity on the internet, for our purposes being able to link online reputation to real-world reputation is important.

Post Visibility

Public posts appear on the local timelines and federated timelines of sciences.social and all other mastodon instances that host your followers. Consider using Unlisted for posts you want your followers to see, but would prefer not to appear in public timelines. Using Unlisted for replies is strongly encouraged.

Posts expressing racism, homophobia and the like are not allowed with or without a content warning or with any level of visibility.

Sensitive Media

You must mark media as sensitive if it contains violence or sexual content. We also request that you mark media as sensitive if it might trigger common phobias including arachnophobia (fear of spiders) and Ophidiophobia (fear of snakes).

Getting along

Folks come here from different academic, ethnic and national cultures, so there are likely to be some mismatches in tone when we talk to one another. People might be more blunt than you are used to, or you might think someone is frustratingly obtuse when they are just trying to be polite. It's best to presume that folks here are acting in good faith. Mastodon has good tools for filtering or blocking posts you don't want to see. However, if you think someone is deliberately violating the rules or negatively affecting the community as a whole, you can report them as described below.

Reporting bad behavior

One of the great strengths of Mastodon is the ability to restrict access to bad actors. sciences.social already blocks posts from dozens of sites known to host trolls and nazis, but there'll be other bad behavior. If you use the "Report" action on someone's post the moderators can review it and take action to restrict that account. Reporting helps even for people who make their home on other servers.

Content Warnings

Content warnings are an important part of both the technical infrastructure and the culture of the Mastodon online community. They aren't just used for "triggering" content but also are often treated as a “headline” that allows people to choose whether they want to read the whole post. Click the CW link on your post to set one.

We strongly encourage the use of content warnings for posts that you think might be triggering or of limited interest, for example mentions of death or violence, and political debates centered on one country or locality.

While expressions of racism, casteism, homophobia, and transphobia are off-limits, we do not require content warnings for posts about those topics and their effects on people, whether academic or otherwise. Use your own judgment about using content warnings on these topics.

Site Visualization

The header image is a public domain visualization from W.E.B. Du Bois exhibit at the 1900 Paris Exhibition.

1. Use your real name and be yourself. Your real world reputation is valuable here and your reputation here is valuable in the real world.
2. Treat people with respect.
3. No sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, casteism or abusive behavior
4. Sexually explicit or violent media must be marked as sensitive when posting.
5. No incitement of violence or promotion of violent ideologies.

1. glitch-dev.pixie.town: limitation
2. mytter.jp: suspension

Your digital home for conversations from Tanzania.
A safe, bilingual (Swahili/English) space for meaningful dialogue.
We support longer posts (5000 characters) for deeper stories.
Karibu Nyumbani!

Karibu Nyumbani — Welcome Home!

Welcome to Karibu.social, a cozy corner of the internet built for Tanzania, East Africa, and our friends across the globe.

We created this space as a digital baraza (gathering place) — a place to connect, share stories, and discuss what matters to us, free from the noise and algorithms of big-tech platforms. Our goal is to foster a healthy, respectful, and vibrant community.

What makes us different?

A Focus on Dialogue: With a 5000-character limit, we encourage you to tell your full story. This is a space for writers, journalists, thinkers, artists, and anyone who wants to have more meaningful conversations.

Bilingual Community: We proudly operate in both Swahili and English. Feel free to post in the language you are most comfortable with.

Privacy is Paramount: Karibu.social is independent and community-supported. This means: No ads, ever. No algorithms manipulating your timeline. No selling your data.

A Safe & Moderated Space: We are committed to proactive moderation to keep our community safe and welcoming for everyone. We believe in building a space of trust.

This server is for you, whether you're in Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Zanzibar, Mwanza, living abroad and missing home, or are simply captivated by the culture and spirit of East Africa.

Pull up a chair. Tell your story. Welcome to the conversation.

1. Be Kind and Respectful. Treat everyone with respect. No harassment, personal attacks, dogpiling, or any form of bullying. Disagreements are fine; disrespect is not.
2. No Hate Speech or Illegal Content. Content that is racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, or ableist is strictly forbidden. Content that is illegal under the laws of Tanzania is also prohibited.
3. Swahili & English are Welcome. These are the primary languages of this server.
4. Use Content Warnings (CWs). Please use content warnings for sensitive topics such as politics, violence, nudity, or other subjects that users may wish to opt-out of seeing.
5. No Spam or Excessive Promotion. This is a community, not a billboard. Promoting your own projects is fine in moderation, but do not spam. Unsolicited advertising is not allowed.
6. Admin and Moderator Decisions are Final. This server is actively moderated to protect the community. We reserve the right to remove any content or suspend any account that violates the spirit of these rules.

A community of people concerned about Russian disinformation.

This community is intended to give a safe place for those who are passionate about supporting Ukraine, Israel, Georgia, united under the rubric of fighting Russian disinformation and hybrid war that also affects Western countries (including those democracies in Asia, Latin America and Africa). We exist to create content, YouTube, podcasts, Substack, to inform, advocate and persuade our fellow citizens and our audiences wherever they are in the world, to take this threat seriously and to support these nations on the active war side of the struggle with Russia.

1. Respectful Interaction: Treat all users with respect and kindness. Harassment, hate speech, and discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or any other personal attribute are strictly prohibited.
2. Privacy Protection: Do not share anyone's personal information without their explicit consent. Respect users' privacy at all times.
3. No Spam or Bots: Do not use automated means to interact with the server, and avoid posting spam content to maintain a clean and meaningful community.
4. Content Warnings: Use content warnings for any potentially sensitive or triggering content, including but not limited to violence, nudity, or graphic content. Political discussions are encouraged, but we don't expect people to fully agree, so keep the disagreement civil.
5. No Illegal Activity: Any activity that is illegal under local, national, or international law is prohibited. This includes sharing pirated content or engaging in fraudulent schemes.
6. Respect Community Guidelines: Follow the specific community guidelines set by the administrators, which may include additional rules or standards for behavior and content.
7. Moderation Compliance: Comply with requests from moderators and administrators. Failure to do so may result in temporary or permanent suspension from the server.
8. Original Content Encouragement: While sharing is encouraged, strive to produce and contribute original content to foster a vibrant and creative community.
9. Language and Tone: Use language that is appropriate and considerate, avoiding profanity or name-calling.
10. Reporting Violations: Report any violations of these rules to the moderators or administrators using the designated reporting system. Your prompt reporting can help maintain a safe and respectful community environment.
11. Feedback and Suggestions: Constructively provide feedback or suggestions to improve the community, and engage in discussions about the server’s development positively.

1. cathode.church: suspension
2. mastodon.raykoworld.com: suspension
3. old.mermaid.town: suspension

Moris.Social: Your online African island community! Connect with Mauritians and African enthusiasts. 🌴🇲🇺 #MorisSocial #AfricanIsland #Mauritius

1. Respect and Kindness: Treat everyone with respect, kindness, and empathy. Harassment, hate speech, discrimination, and personal attacks will not be tolerated.
2. No Hate Speech: Hate speech, racism, sexism, or any form of discrimination will result in immediate removal from the server.
3. No Illegal Content: Do not post, share, or promote illegal content, including but not limited to child exploitation material (CP), illegal drugs, hacking, or any activities that violate local or international laws.
4. Content Guidelines: Do not post explicit, offensive, or adult content. Keep discussions and content suitable for all ages.
5. No Spam or Self-Promotion: Avoid spamming the server with excessive links or self-promotion. Promote your work or content responsibly and in relevant channels.
6. Privacy and Consent: Respect the privacy and consent of others. Do not share personal information about someone without their permission.
7. No Trolling or Flame Wars: Do not engage in trolling, flame wars, or intentionally disruptive behavior. Constructive criticism and civil discourse are encouraged.
8. Respect Copyright: Do not post copyrighted materials without proper permission or attribution. Always give credit to creators when sharing their work.
9. Stay On-Topic: Keep discussions relevant to the channels you're in. Use appropriate channels for specific topics.
10. No Impersonation: Do not impersonate other users, moderators, or public figures.
11. Reporting Concerns: If you witness any violations of these rules, report them to the moderators for swift and fair resolution.
12. English/French Preferred: While we celebrate Mauritius' cultural diversity, the primary language for communication on this server is English or French to ensure inclusivity.
13. No Political or Religious Debates: To maintain a peaceful environment, refrain from engaging in heated political or religious debates.
14. Use CWs for Sensitive Content: Use Content Warnings (CWs) for sensitive or potentially triggering content to give users the option to view or skip such posts.
15. Respect Server Staff: Follow the instructions and decisions of server administrators and moderators. They are here to maintain a positive community.
16. Stay Informed: Familiarize yourself with these rules and any updates to them. Ignorance of the rules is not an excuse for violations.