This is a general-purpose Mastodon server administrated in the Greater Boston, Massachusetts area. All are welcome to sign up, so long as the rules are followed.
We federate with Threads, some do not. Read our
Threads FAQ.
We use Cloudflare to block artificial intelligence (AI) bots, crawlers, and scrapers from scraping your content for training large language models (LLM) to recreate posts without your permission.
While most Mastodon servers are limited to 500 character posts, here posts can be up to 12,000 characters because we think you have important things to write.
We also relay with over 1,500 other servers, some quite large. This means that we have all the active accounts and posts from those servers, in addition to the accounts and posts seen by people following and being followed here. So, while this server appears to have a moderate number of members, the experience and content is equal to the larger servers while having the benefits of a smaller instance: Stronger moderation, better protection, and consistent performance. How can we handle so many posts? We have unlimited storage.
You can see the incoming messages arriving here from all over the Fediverse by going to our
Live feedHere, Admins and Moderators are forbidden to secretly shadow-ban our own users ("limit" or "silence"). We will always notify the account owner of the action and the reason. Hidden shadow-banning, sadly, is done on some other servers when the Admins do not agree with what the account owner posts and the account owner is therefore unaware that nobody is reading their posts. We consider this unethical. We do block/limit
remote accounts that violate our policies and terms of service without notifying them, but not accounts that are created here.
When signing up, you must read the quick, short, set of rules presented to you. Requesting an account is confirmation that you have read and agree to abide by our rules.
Donations:Donations are appreciated, but are never required! They go toward supporting this Mastodon instance and the other apps that I run, which are now averaging about $300/month in total. Besides this Mastodon server, I also run:
Peertube:
https://my-sunshine.videoBlueSky PDS (Private Data Server)
https://blue-ocean.social: If you are interested in a Bluesky account where your data and identity are not kept on their corporate server, but rather on the blue-ocean.social server, email
Jerry@blue-ocean.social and I will send an invitation code. Your Bluesky account will be named similar to mine, @jerry.blue-ocean.social
Where you can donateBuy me a coffee:
https://ko-fi.com/JerryLPatreon:
https://www.patreon.com/JerryFediverseLiberapay:
https://liberapay.com/JerryFediverseBitcoin: bc1qqgjydw28athy9jare342eh703jagmwecmmgemm
ETH: 0x07aD621C7661f75123b0667407C007B4A3acb5c6
Things you MUST know before choosing a serverWhen people choose a Mastodon server, I don't think they think much about it. They either find one listed on some website, or they want to go to the biggest. But, you should consider some other things:
Is it running the latest version? Currently, the latest Mastodon version is 4.2.12. There is also an alternative glitch version which should be v4.3.0-alpha.5+glitch or higher. The version number is in the lower left on the "about" page. Any server that has not upgraded either has an Admin incapable of doing it or isn't interested much in maintaining the server. This might mean your data isn't being backed up either, and you certainly are not getting the best experience. Reliability and security could become a concern. Please avoid servers that are running old versions. Some of the biggest are not updated.
Is it the biggest server? If you appreciate moderation, or you are in a targeted group, a huge server may not be best for you. A smaller server has more moderation. You also can get the Admin's attention when you need it. Performance on larger servers is not always the best either. And you may prefer a server that focuses on a particular interest rather than a general-purpose instance. We are general purpose.
Enjoy!
Excellent Mastodon FAQTips on using MastodonLots of information on how to use MastodonTechnical information and work logImportant to know to get the most from Mastodon, is to understand the difference between hashtag use on Twitter and on Mastodon.
You can follow hashtags in Mastodon so that any posts visible to this server that have the hashtag, will appear in your timeline. You don't have to search for a hashtag as you do on Twitter.
Therefore, using hashtags in Mastodon is important if you want people in other instances to see your post. And it's a great way to be discovered and to discover other interesting people.
You can follow a hashtag by clicking on it within a post and then clicking the "+" in the top-right corner.
On this server, the maximum number of characters in a post is 12,000. The Mastodon default is 500, but I bumped it higher. Also, note that a URL in a Mastodon post always counts as 23 characters, regardless of its true length. URL shorteners are not required for Mastodon posts.
Leaving Twitter? Add your Mastodon account name to your Twitter profile, so others can find you on Mastodon. Your Mastodon account name looks something like this: @jerry@hear-me.social
DMCA Takedown Notices: We adhere to the rules regarding DMCA Intellectual Property takedown notices. Please send notices to DMCA@hear-me.social. This email address is registered with the U.S. Copyright Office
This server prohibits posting copyright-protected materials, and we will remove these materials when notified. Anyone found posting copyrighted materials may or may not be notified before having their account suspended. A suspended account has 30 days to contact us, at
admin@hear-me.social, to appeal.
This server prohibits posting Child Sexual Abuse Materials (CSAM). Images are actively scanned. Their mathematical hashes are compared to the hashes of known CSAM images in the NCMEC.ORG database. Any matches are automatically reported, and the image is blocked. Nobody, nor any software, looks at the actual images, it's just a mathematical calculation on the bits.
While I do not believe anyone on this server posts CSAM material, since we relay with over 1,500 other servers, it is necessary to scan the images the server is exposed to.