sunny.garden is a community for indie creators who draw, write, design, program, play, sing or build, their friends and family, and anyone else who thinks that sounds like a nice place to be!The
Sunny Garden Hub has a brief introduction to Mastodon and some tips on getting started.
This server is hosted in Canada π¨π¦. You don't have to be Canadian to sign up, as long as you are Canadian at heart π
StaffBanner image by
@LinlinnSigning UpAccount registrations on this server are manually reviewed by a real human being, so please keep the following in mind:
- Your request should be at least one complete sentence, ideally in English.
- Indicate why you chose sunny.garden instead of a different server. There are many fediverse servers available, and they are not all suitable for all users.
- Ensure that your username is appropriate for the server, this will be your public username, and it can't be changed without creating a new account.
What to expect:
- Within a couple of minutes: You should receive a validation email. If you don't see your validation email, check your spam/junk mail folder. You have to click the link in the validation email before your application will be reviewed.
- Within 12 hours: Requests are reviewed a couple of times per day, it may take up to 12 hours after validating your email until your request is approved.
If you never receive the validation email, log in to double check that you spelled your email address correctly, or try using an address on a different email host.
I signed up. Now what?For help with getting started, migrating from another account, finding and following other people, and more... check out
I signed up. Now what? on the Sunny Garden Hub.
Community GuidelinesPost Your Own Thoughts And CreationsYou're welcome to use your account for general purposes, chit-chat, complaining about work, your neighbours, or the state of the world, stream of thought, sharing interesting things you like, etc. That said, the focus of
sunny.garden is
original creation. We want to hear
your thoughts, and see
your creations... and also pictures of
your pets.
- Memes are fine in moderation, but accounts should not be primarily focused on memes or shit-posting.
- When posting any content you didn't create yourself, credit the original author whenever possible.
- Don't re-upload video content you didn't create yourself, it takes up a lot of space. Link to the original source instead.
- "AI Art" is generally not welcome, see AI Art Policy below for more details.
Image DescriptionsThe use of image descriptions or alt-text is strongly encouraged. The purpose of alt-text is to accurately describe the image for people who are blind or otherwise vision impaired.
Images without alt-text will generally not be featured on the Explore page, and many people will refrain from boosting images without alt-text. You will likely find that posts containing alt-text will get considerably more engagement. When using the web interface of
sunny.garden, images without alt-text will display a dashed red border as a reminder. Some Mastodon clients support a setting that will remind you to add alt-text to your images before posting.
- You don't need to go into extreme detail.
- Focus on describing the reason you posted the image.
- If the image is funny, describe whatever is necessary to get the joke.
- If reading the text in the image is important, include any of the text that is relevant to the post.
Do not use un-helpful descriptions like "cat", "graph", or "lol". If you don't have the time or energy to fill in the alt-text, it's preferable to leave it out, or ask for help describing the image.
Self PromotionSelf promotion is allowed and welcome!
For example, you are free to announce:
- sale of prints, pins, or other crafts
- release of games or albums for sale
- availability for work commissions
- crowdfunding campaigns
- employment opportunities
However,
sunny.garden is a place for
people, it is not a job network, advertising platform or storefront.
Operate your account as yourself, a human being (probably?), and do not engage in unsolicited or excessive marketing or promotion.
AI Art Policy"AI Art" refers to images generated using tools like ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion. The current ecosystem of these tools are trained on the stolen works of millions of artists worldwide without their consent, attribution, or compensation.
You may post images containing AI art for comment, discussion, etc. provided that you:
- Mark the post with the hashtag #AIArt for clarity and ease of filtering.
- Mark the media as sensitive, or use a content warning.
- Do not sell AI art.
- Do not use AI art as your avatar or profile image.
You are free to post or sell:
- Art generated with tools such as Processing, fractals, or other types of procedural generation which do not rely on training from existing artwork.
- Art generated using models trained exclusively on images that you own or are public domain, in which case you should indicate this is the case to avoid confusion.
This policy applies to sunny.garden users only, please do not report users on other servers which may have different policies.ReportingIf you encounter harassment or inappropriate content, please use the reporting functionality built into Mastodon (click the three dots icon [...] on posts or profiles). Reporting helps the moderators be aware of, and take action against, sources of harassment and unwanted content for the benefit of everyone on the server.
Federation PolicyThis server blocks ("Suspends") other servers that allow content -- such as harassment and hate speech -- that violates our rules.
The full list of suspended servers can be viewed at the bottom of the About page, but of particular note:
ReliabilityThis server commits to the
Mastodon Server Covenant - Active moderation against racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia
- Daily backups
- At least one other person with emergency access to the server infrastructure
- Commitment to give users at least 3 months of advance warning in case of shutting down
However, there are no guarantees. While our best efforts are made to provide a reliable server, uploaded media and posts may be lost due to technical malfunction, accidental erasure, and so on. Always keep your own backups of any content you wouldn't want to lose.
In the event that the current admin(s) of this server are no longer willing/able to operate the server (due to cost, time, health, lack of interest, etc.) then they will do their best to find a replacement admin with similar values, who is willing to take over the operation of the server, before considering shutting it down.
CustomizationsThis server runs a mostly standard installation of Mastodon, but there is one functional customization:
- The maximum length of posts has been increased to 1500 characters, up from the default of 500.
And a couple of cosmetic customizations to the website (not visible in apps or mobile clients):
- We have a Toot! π button instead of a Publish! button
- A faint dashed red border is displayed around images which do not include alt-text image descriptions.
DonationsBy popular request, I've set up a ko-fi account to accept donations toward the operating costs of this server. There is currently no risk of my not being able to cover the hosting costs for the server -- the primary cost to me is my time (and sanity).
Donations are appreciated, but not required! There is no obligation for you to donate in order to use the server, and there are no additional perks for doing so.
Estimated Hosting Costs (as of May 2025): $130 CAD/mo.
* Donations via PayPal will go to Tentacle Head Games which is also me - @brook