This server hopes to build a respectful community, with a diverse group of people: inclusive of the LGBTQIA+ community; and standing up for POC, trans, and other marginalized communities.

About the Name

CONNECTOPUS /kuh-nektəpʊs/

When we (Octo and John V) had the idea for Connectopus, the friendly octopus connecting you with your community, back in 2016, the landscape seemed prime for a new social platform. We followed many creatives, performers, photographers, and others who had posts constantly reported while hateful and anti-science stuff was left up. After much thinking and when development stalled the idea was scrapped. Now seeing the need for more support to the distributed platforms, the time seemed right to bring the domain back as a Mastodon instance and turn development efforts towards contributing to the open source ActivityPub based ecosystem. Like a friendly octopoda, riding on the back of a proboscidean, here's our instance!

Moderation Team

Fearless leader: @Octo (she/her)
Tech nerd: @johnvenr (he/him)

You should follow @technuition (not a personal account - used for administrative purposes) to see real-time posts for information regarding the server. Also keep an eye out for announcements that appear at the top of your “Home” timeline under the little trumpet icon.

About the Server and Funding

Thanks to Octo, the server this instance runs on is administered and funded by Technuition, a woman owned small business providing IT, technology, and software development services.

If you are able, head to https://patreon.com/johnvenr to pledge your financial support to keeping the instance running - sadly servers and storage cost money and we don't have unlimited financial resources.

Trustees

Special thanks to our “Trustee” level Patreon supporters: @CAman

About the Instance

This Mastodon instance welcomes members of the LGBTQIA+ community and allies. Hate speech and bullying won’t be tolerated. Just because you're behind a computer screen doesn’t mean that you don’t need to respect other people.

We intend for this instance and its moderation to run smoothly. We may or may not notify you when a report you've made has led to a punitive action. Not all punitive actions will be visible to users. First time offenders may have their offensive content removed, but repeat offenders may experience harsher measures up to and including the removal of access to this instance.

This group will not tolerate racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, Nazis, or hate speech which will be determined at the sole discretion of the moderators. All defamatory, abusive, bigoted, threatening, offensive, or illegal material (particularly things illegal in the US as that is where our server is hosted) is strictly prohibited. If you feel that you are experiencing bullying or harassment of any kind please report it to the moderators - report the post or email the administrator account.

We want our community to be able to discuss topics that may be of interest to others but triggering to some. Consent is important in all matters. Some may choose not to see your material so please label things accordingly. If you feel the topic you want to discuss may harm someone who comes across it, please mark it with a content warning (CW). The “CW” button or shield bubble icon with the “!” inside of it. This feature will hide an image that has sensitive content behind a warning banner that can be clicked on to access the material. Sensitive and triggering content may include but not limited to the following: NSFW (we will get into more detail about this later), images with direct eye contact, abuse, wars, graphic images, and mental or physical disorders. Be respectful that everyone has their own experiences and may be triggered by something that you are not triggered by so ensure that you have the proper labels on material. The bottom line is if someone in good faith asks you to CW your post, then kindly use the three dots and select "Delete and re-draft" but this time post with the proper CW.

Since this server is hosted in the US and as a result of (misogynistic) social expectations here, let’s be safe and put all toplessness regardless of gender presentation behind a CW. Any erotic content must also include a CW. If you’re looking to trade your favorite explicit adult content, this is not the place for that. There are other venues for that type of posting.

Further, NSFW is content that you wouldn’t want your manager to see or things you wouldn’t be caught sending to a minor. Minors may be able to see publicly posted non-CW content, so be mindful that your public posts might make their way in front of younger eyes. Please clearly mark explicit content with a CW.

Be respectful of others. We want this to be a welcoming place for people to share and discuss topics that mean something to them. Please try to discuss in good faith. Bad faith arguments are never beneficial. Any conduct intended to stalk or harass other users or moderators will not be tolerated. If one user has asked for another user to stop certain actions this can be considered harassment and will be addressed accordingly.

Posting or sharing someone's personal information, private data or demographic information without their permission is strictly prohibited.

Some of us make a living by advertising our products and services; however, we’d like to avoid having the instance devolve into a stream of advertisements or requests for money. We also understand that sometimes people need help and mutual aid requests are going to be necessary. If you are unsure if your post is going against this rule, please reach out to the administrator.

If you wonder why we mention actual Nazis this gives a pretty good idea: https://www.upworthy.com/bartender-explains-why-he-swiftly-kicks-nazis-out-of-his-punk-bar-even-if-theyre-not-bothering-anyone

tldr; Karl Popper in 1945:"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." Bartender at punk bar: "you have to ignore their (the Nazis) reasonable arguments because their end goal is to be terrible, awful people."

Summary of the Rules

1. This group will not tolerate racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, Nazis, or hate speech which will be determined at the sole discretion of the moderators.
2. If you are experiencing hate speech or harassment, please report it to the moderators.
3. Consent matters. Use content warnings (CW) often and always where required (see details above)
4. NSFW content is allowed behind CW banners
5. Be respectful of others
6. No harassment or stalking
7. No posting or sharing another user's personal information
8. No excessive posting of advertisements or requesting for cash (see details above)

Note on Privacy

Posts made public are replicated on servers across the fediverse. Your content may spread further than you expect.

"Direct messages" (which are @ only posts) are not end-to-end encrypted and sit on servers of the users mentioned unencrypted. If you need secure truly private conversations we suggest you DM a means to communicate using a more secure channel outside of the fediverse.

This is the breakdown of known stored information and who can see it:

• username
  
  
  • used to identify you here on the server and with @connectop.us identifies you in the fediverse
  • the public, moderators, and technical admins
  
  
• email address
  
  
  • used to send you notifications, restore access to your account, identify you for login
  • moderators and technical admins
  
  
• ip address (public facing ip only)
  
  
  • used by the server to prevent flooding attacks, may appear in mastodon logs for up to 2 days, may appear in web server logs for 7 or more days depending on the amount of server traffic
  • accessible to the moderators (for up to 2 days) and technical admins
  
  
• date/time joined
  
  
  • used to show on your profile
  • the public, moderators, and technical admins
  
  
• date/time of last activity
  
  
  • used for maintaining sessions, used for server statistics
  • moderators and technical admins
  
  
• interface language
  
  
  • used for server statistics
  • moderators and technical admins
  
  
• password
  
  
  • used to log you into the system, stored hashed in the mastodon database
  • the hash could be accessed by admins but there is no reason they would do so
  
  
• 2FA status
  
  
  • used to log you into the system, status (enabled/disabled) for user administration
  • moderators and technical admins
  
  
• number of posts
  
  
  • used for system statistics, used for system administration, shown on profile
  • the public, moderators and technical admins
  
  
• size in bytes of media attachements
  
  
  • used for system statistics, used for system administration
  • moderators and technical admins
  
  
• number of followers
  
  
  • used for system statistics, used for system administration, shown on profile
  • the public, moderators, and technical admins
  
  
• number of users following you
  
  
  • shown on profile
  • the public, moderators, and technical admins
  
  
• number of time you made post or user moderation reports
  
  
  • used for system statistics, used for system administration
  • moderators and technical admins
  
  
• number of times other users reported you or your posts for moderation
  
  
  • used for system statistics, used for system administration
  • moderators and technical admins
  
  
• profile text and links
  
  
  • used to show on your profile
  • the public, moderators, and technical admins
  
  
• usernames of followers
  
  
  • used to show on your profile, can be hidden in user settings
  • the public (if shown) and technical admins
  
  
• usernames of users you follow
  
  
  • used to show on your profile, can be hidden in user settings
  • the public (if shown) and technical admins
  
  
• public posts
  
  
  • used to show on your profile
  • the public, moderators, and technical admins
  
  
• unlisted posts
  
  
  • used to show on your profile but excluded from explore/discovery
  • the public, moderators, and technical admins
  
  
• followers only posts
  
  
  • used to show to your followers, stored in this server and the servers of your followers
  • your followers, moderators (local and on remote servers), and technical admins(local and remote)
  
  
• mentioned users only posts
  
  
  • used to show to the users mentioned, stored in this server and the servers of the users mentioned
  • the users mentioned, moderators (local and on remote servers), and technical admins(local and remote)
  
  

1. This group will not tolerate racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, Nazis, or hate speech which will be determined at the sole discretion of the moderators
2. If you are experiencing hate speech or harassment, please report it to the moderators
3. Consent matters - use content warnings (CW) often and always where required (see details in the about)
4. NSFW content is allowed behind CW banners
5. Be respectful of others
6. No harassment or stalking
7. No posting or sharing another user's personal information
8. No excessive posting of advertisements or requesting for cash (see details in the about)