A Mastodon community server for anyone interested in astronomy, astrophysics, astrophotography, and adjacent sciences.

Astrodon Community Guidelines

This is a Mastodon instance for the discussion of Astronomy and related space-sciences. We welcome all humans with an interest in discovering the nature of the universe, whether you're just starting out on your journey of discovery, whether you have a class of stellar object named after you, or if you're somewhere in between.

Real names and credentials are only recommended if you plan to use your account on this instance for networking purposes; they are absolutely not required.

Encouraged uses of Astrodon Social

• Share your discoveries.
• Highlight the beauty and majesty of the cosmos. Awe-inspiring images and media are strongly encouraged, espeically if it's your own work!
• Ask questions, and answer questions asked. The power of our community is in sharing.
• Network with other #Astrodons. Collaborate on studies, organise star parties, make friends.

Discouraged uses of Astrodon Social

The following will result in: a warning from a moderator or having offending posts deleted, possibly without prior notice.

• Providing unsolicited advice to strangers.
• Inappropriate un-CW'd posts on the Local Timeline (see below for CW policies)
• Posts with un-described images or video
• Posts of other people's work without proper attribution
• Shortened links, e.g. bit.ly, t.ly, tinyurl.com, goo.gl, ift.tt, lnkd.in, is.gd or t.co (These are considered malicious because link-shorteners track users without their consent and obscure the destination address, which also prevents users from being able to decide whether they want to visit the link beforehand)
• Advertisement or commercial content of any kind.

Content Warnings (CW's)

This community is founded on the principle of using informed consent to allow community members to decide which content they wish to engage with. To help inform others of what your post contains, we use Content Warnings. There is no stigma attached to using content warnings - they're a courtesy to your fellow Astrodons.

Please add CW's (content warnings) that are accurate and descriptive enough to enable reader consent to the following types of posts:

• strong language,
• rants,
• selfies,
• current events (includes: US or non-US, local, national, international, and should be applied regardless of whether sources are academic or non-partisan),
• high-conflict or otherwise exhausting issues of popular debate (e.g. techbro billionaires, privacy issues, elections, etc.),
• mentions of death or violence,
• references or links to Facebook/Twitter/other big tech companies,
• spoilers of popular and recent TV shows or other media,
• ASCII art (this one is important to ensure that someone using a screen reader doesn't have to listen to an attempt to read out a bunch of obscure symbols)
• stress sources, particularly complaints about personal life, work, academia, and study.
• anything else where another user might want to decide for themselves whether or when they want to interact with your post.

Established science is not considered triggering or stressful. We welcome posts on any scientific subject, but please use hashtags Content Warnings to help your fellow Astrodons to identify content they want to engage with.

There is a setting in your preferences to open all posts with Content Warnings automatically, if you don't want to click through each one.

Image descriptions

It is an expectation of this instance that you add accurate descriptions to all images and video that you post to aid in accessibility. (A description like "image.jpg" that does not aid in accessibility would not meet this expectation.)

If you post an image of a screenshot of text, it is an expectation of this instance that you transcribe the text in the image description.

It is required that if you are reposting images or media that is not your own, the source is fully attributed both in your post and in the image description.

Posts on the Local Timeline (ones with the "Public" privacy setting) will be checked to ensure that Content Warnings are applied, images are described, and other expectations are followed. Unlisted posts will not be proactively reviewed, but will still be subject to rules regarding abuse and other hate-speech.

NOTE: The "official" Mastodon app is NOT recommended for use on Astrodon Social, as it does not allow for posting using the "Unlisted" privacy setting.

Use a CW if you're not sure that your post is "on-topic." Astrodon Social is not meant to be a current events news aggregator, and if your post seems to fall into this category, you may be asked to delete and re-draft it with a CW or as an Unlisted post. Let's try to avoid turning the Local Timeline into the same rehashing of the outrage-of-the-day that we see on Twitter!

Not every post on the Local Timeline should be CW'd, but most should. Do your best to try to accommodate each other, and try to be understanding when there is a clash of expectations or needs.

Bots and automated accounts

Whilst the community is growing, bots and automated accounts are not allowed on this instance. As the community establishes in the coming weeks this restriction will be reviewed to allow for automated posting.

To be clear: cross-posting from other social media accounts that you use as an individual is perfectly okay, and a good way to manage multiple accounts whilst keeping your sanity.

Regarding attempts to abuse these anti-abuse tools and policies

Do not attempt to weaponize our Community Standards or anti-abuse tools/policies against marginalized groups such as people of colour, women or queer people. Users of Astrodon Social are expected to have the literacy to understand that "reverse discrimination" is not real, and so attempts to re-centre discussions of marginalized people around the feelings of the privileged will be taken as manipulative behaviour undertaken deliberately in bad-faith. (E.g. white people should not demand that people of colour put CW's on every discussion of race; a straight person who reports a queer person for writing "I hate straight people" may find their own account suspended.)

1. No hate speech, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, discrimination, or harassment of any kind.
2. Be respectful and treat others the way you want to be treated. Disagreement and collegiate discussion is acceptable, and rational debate is to be encouraged. Rudeness, insults, exclusion of others, dogpiling, and other anti-social behaviour is not.
3. No advertising or spam content. It's okay to promote yourself (especially your work and publications!), but not paid products or services.
4. Public images and media must be annotated. Where the material is not yours, source attribution must be provided, preferably with a link to the original.
5. No impersonation of others, or false representation of yourself, your credentials, or institutional affiliations.
6. No shortened links, e.g. bit.ly, t.ly, goo.gl, ift.tt, lnkd.in, is.gd or t.co (These are malicious because link-shorteners track users without their consent and obscure the destination address, which also prevents users from being able to decide whether they want to visit the link beforehand)
7. Use content warnings to help keep this a stress-free community. You are expected to mark off-topic content with a descriptive CW to allow other community members to engage with it or not. Stressful or triggering content (see community guidelines) must be marked with a content warning.

1. mytter.jp: suspension
2. nothing.tacowolf.net: suspension