IntroductionThis server is for people who want to appreciate, share, and learn about arthropods, herps, fungi, etc.—and who are open to helping other people appreciate them, too.
You don't have to
only post about nature, though. If you also want a general fediverse home for chatting with friends and posting about other interests, that's okay too.
If you like, you can
chip in for hosting costs.
For non-membersYou don't have to join this server to follow people, see posts, or participate! We would love to see the cool fungi, bugs, spiders, snakes, etc., that you find. For accounts to follow, check out
the public user directory. If you'd like to get a better sense of what the server is like without following a bunch of people, check out
the public timeline.
If you would like to join, I'd like to get a sense of who you are. If you already have a profile or social media presence elsewhere, e. g. Mastodon, Tumblr, or iNaturalist,
please state it in your reasons for applying.
If someone on here is breaking the rules, posting objectionable content, or just generally being an ass,
please report it—don't assume I already know about it!
Back to top ↑More about Hometown/Mastodon and flipping.rocksCheck out
our documentation for a full guide to how flipping.rocks works. A quick overview of what’s covered:
Timelines, post visibility, local-only postingHometown/Mastodon displays several different kinds of post timelines. Your timelines include:
- Home: all posts from people you follow, plus posts they boost.
- Local: all public posts from people on flipping.rocks.
- Federated: all public posts from people (on other servers) that anyone on flipping.rocks follows, plus posts they boost.
You can choose various levels of visibility for your posts:
public,
unlisted,
followers-only, and
mentioned people only. Note that posts for mentioned people only (a. k. a. direct messages) are
not end-to-end encrypted. Theoretically, flipping.rocks admins or fedi.monster staff could see them, though we all have better things to do. So if you really need a secure communication channel, use something like
Signal.
You can also choose to make your posts
local-only. This means the post is only visible on flipping.rocks and doesn’t get sent to any other servers. You can make posts local-only by clicking the chain-link icon below the post field, or (if you’re using an app that doesn’t have that option) by including the custom emoji :local_only:.
Documentation page on timelines, post visibility, and local-only posting → ·
Back to top ↑Alt text, content warnings, and sensitive mediaPlease do your best to add
image descriptions, a. k. a.
alt text! It is a basic point of fediverse etiquette, and many people will not boost images without them. If you can’t add an image description, you can use the hashtag #Alt4Me in your post to indicate you want someone to write one for you.
Content warnings are good for hiding many things, like movie spoilers, Wordle or Metazooa results (or anything else with lots of emoji or non-standard characters, which messes up screen readers), depressing/enraging/tiresome politics, joke punchlines, common triggers for PTSD, addictions, eating disorders, etc., or anything else you want to give your followers the option to skip.
If you attach an image to a post with a content warning, it will automatically be marked sensitive. However, you can also
mark media sensitive without using a content warning. The post text will all be visible, but the image will be blurred until the reader selects it.
If you are posting a picture of an arthropod, snake, or any other creature people commonly have phobias about, consider marking it sensitive. You don’t have to, but if you don’t, you
must use informative descriptions or hashtags (e. g. “Pet snake”, #spiders, etc.) so people can
filter out the post if they want.
Documentation page on alt text, CWs, and sensitive media → ·
Back to top ↑Safety, privacy, and moderationHometown/Mastodon has many settings that let you control how locked-down or public your account and posts are. See the documentation page for a guide to all the options.
Documentation page on safety, privacy, & moderation → ·
Back to top ↑Server blocks/defederationOn Hometown/Mastodon, you can mute or block users, but you can also mute or block entire servers. Flipping.rocks admins can also mute or block users or servers for
everyone on flipping.rocks. We communicate with other admins and proactively mute and block servers that are sources of spam, harassment, bigotry, and more. We consult flipping.rocks members when considering muting or blocking a server if it has
any users that people on flipping.rocks follow. See the documentation for an explanation of the difference between muting and blocking, why servers get muted or blocked, what to do when a server with people you follow gets muted/blocked, and more.
Documentation page on server muting/blocks/defederation → ·
Back to top ↑Backups & technical informationThere are daily backups, courtesy of our host
fedi.monster.
If I ever decide to shut down the server, I'll give you at least
3 months' notice so you can export your data.
Documentation page on backups & technical information → ·
Back to top ↑Custom emojiWe have a wide range of custom emoji, some of them hand-made for flipping.rocks. See the documentation page for the full list and credits.
Documentation page on emoji → ·
Back to top ↑More resourcesLike-minded servers/groupsSpecies ID helpBack to top ↑