Literature, philosophy, film, music, culture, politics, history, architecture: join the circus of the arts and humanities! For readers, writers, academics or anyone wanting to follow the conversation.

Please read the server rules and the information below before signing up to and/or using Zirkus. If you don’t agree to all of the terms set out here, please do not use this server. By continuing to use Zirkus, you agree to be bound by the terms set out here.

Guidelines

• Language: There are no language rules on this server. English is de facto the main language, but feel free (even encouraged!) to post in other languages.
• Content warnings: We do not require a content warning (CW) for posts about politics, social justice, etc. However, we ask that you be kind and considerate: include CWs if you believe your post may be distressing.
• Bots and AI agents: Combinatorial bots are allowed, quote-posters, archive bots, etc. Try to make them fun. AI agents are not allowed.
• Cross-posting: Cross-posting from Twitter, RSS, etc. is fine (and even encouraged if it helps you become more active here).
• Topics: You do not need to remain permanently “on topic”. The point of this arts/humanities community is to gather like-minded people who will make posts that are interesting to each other. But that doesn’t mean that everything has to be about books, art, etc. This is a community to connect people, not enforce specific topics of discussion.
• Self-promotion: There are many writers and artists on this server, and we are more than happy for you to promote your work from your personal account. We request, however, that you do so in a tasteful and not spammy manner.
• Industry promotion: If you are a commercial entity of interest to our community (literary magazine, publishing house, etc.), we are also happy for you to promote here in a tasteful manner. However, we request that you make a modest donation, as this is a volunteer-run server that relies on crowdfunding (see below). Please contact the admins if you have any questions.

Donations

• You can donate to Zirkus on Patreon here.
• We are run entirely by volunteers on a non-profit basis. Donations pay for hosting, storage, backups and email. Anything left over goes into a reserve for hardware failures and rising costs.
• Every little helps a lot. We’d like to thank our community for all their support so far!

Moderation and reporting posts

• When you report an account or server, please indicate which server rule has been broken and include any extra context or explanation, if possible.
• We are volunteer moderators and will try to address the issue as soon as we are able.
• We work with IFTAS, a non-profit that supports the people who moderate Fediverse servers. IFTAS runs an automated account on Zirkus, @IFTAS_ANNOUNCE@zirk.us, which monitors accounts to catch spambots. It has moderator access for this purpose.
• You will not be notified about the result, even if it has led to punitive action, which may not be visible to the outside. The response will be proportional to the nature of the offence.

Post visibility and privacy

• Please bear in mind that your posts – depending on their visibility – are public. We recommend not sharing information publicly that you do not intend to share with the whole internet.
• When you post, bear in mind that posts cannot be hidden by locking an account. Posts can be deleted either manually or set to auto-delete within various timeframes. Please familiarize yourself with the different visibility options for posting: Public, Unlisted, Followers Only and Mentioned People Only (i.e. a direct message).
• The displaying and distribution of your post happens strictly according to the visibility rules you have set for the post. We will not modify the visibility of the post you have set.

Your data and privacy

• We can see basic account and profile information that you provide when signing up to the server, such as username, email, name (real or fake) and IP address.
• Zirkus runs on a server we rent and maintain ourselves, based near Frankfurt, Germany. We use outside providers for hosting, file storage, backups and sending email; they handle data only on our behalf. We do not sell your information or share it with anyone for advertising.
• Our moderators can see reports and the account details needed to act on them. This includes the automated IFTAS account, which checks new accounts for signs of spam. To make this check possible, the details of each new account, including email and IP address, are sent at sign-up to Fediponics, the spam-detection service IFTAS uses.
• The server administrators can technically access users’ direct messages, but pledge not to do so. We strongly recommend not sending any confidential or private information via direct message on Mastodon, because the messages are not end-to-end encrypted. Use an end-to-end encrypted app such as Signal for anything private.
• We do not run any form of analytics. The web server keeps a log of requests, including IP addresses, for about a week. Mastodon also records the IP addresses used to sign in, which are deleted after at most 12 months.

Liability

• You are responsible for the content that you make available to the server, including its legality and appropriateness. Please abide by the above server rules when using Zirkus. In case of breach of rules, the administrators reserve the right to remove you.
• In no event will Zirkus, the administrators and the moderators be liable to you or any third party for any special, indirect, incidental, exemplary or consequential damages of any kind arising out of or in connection with the server and content included on or otherwise made available to you through the server.

Moderators

• @lexipenia@zirk.us (admin)
• @MAMG@zirk.us
• @IFTAS_ANNOUNCE@zirk.us (automated, run by IFTAS)

1. No sexual content involving minors, including artistic depictions.
2. No gore and extremely graphic violence, including artistic depictions.
3. Racism, antisemitism and any form of harassment and discrimination on the basis of culture/background will not be tolerated.
4. Misogyny, transphobia, homophobia and any form of harassment and discrimination based on a person's sex, gender identity or sexual orientation will not be tolerated.
5. No promotion of alt-right, Nazi or other far-right ideology.
6. No promotion of disinformation, "alternative facts", conspiracy theories, etc.
7. No promotion of pro-anorexia / -bulimia content.
8. Ableism and any form of harassment and discrimination on the basis of physical/mental disabilities will not be tolerated.
9. No spam.

1. aethy.com: limitation
2. masto.pixie.town: suspension
3. mastodon.com.br: limitation
4. mytter.jp: suspension
5. nothing.tacowolf.net: suspension
6. polyglot.city: limitation