Alaskan.Social is an independent, ad-free, open-source, decentralized social media community; created, moderated, and owned by Alaskans.

About Us

Alaskan.Social is an independent social media community, created, moderated, and owned by Alaskans. Welcome to greater Alaska’s corner of the Fediverse, an ad-free, open-source, decentralized social network powered by Mastodon.

By signing up and continuing to use Alaskan Social, you agree to be bound by the terms set out below.

Donations

Donate here!

Alaskan Social is co-owned by all of us! We are managed by a small group of volunteers and are dependent on donations to cover our hosting costs. Thank you for donating to Alaskan Social!

Our costs include webhosting on Fedi-Monster, annual domain name, and an annual fee for a secure password manager. This comes out to around $300/yr at our current activity level of 50-100 active users.

Mastodon Server Covenant

Alaskan.Social follows the Mastodon Server Covenant which guarantees basic server stability as well as active moderation against racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia.

What is Mastodon

Mastodon uses the ActivityPub computer language, or protocol, and is inter-operable with all other platforms who use ActivityPub. The entire network is known as the fediverse, a collection of servers who federate with one another for the benefit of all users. From Alaskan Social you will see and can follow users from other platforms besides Mastodon.

The fediverse is currently expanding and is, to our knowledge, the largest user-owned, volunteer-run social media network in existence.

Tips from the moderators:

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  Use a 3rd party app to make Alaskan Social easy and fun to use. Iphone users like Ivory, Mona, Mammoth, and Ice Cubes. Android users recommend Tusky. All the apps have different features and emphasize different things. Elk and Ivory also make desktop applications.
  
  
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  Before you start following new people, ensure you have a profile pic, a bio, and maybe a pinned post or two so people have enough info to follow you back.
  
  
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  Your "local" feed will feature public posts from our Alaska server, but your "home" feed will feature everyone you follow throughout the entire fediverse. The "federated" feed is all the accounts our server connects with through our individual follower relationships.
  
  
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  Explore hashtags to find community. For example: #BikeTooter for transit types, #BloomScrolling for flower enthusiasts, #BlackMastodon or #BlackFedi for Black community, etc.
  
  
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  Use an #Introduction post to introduce yourself and your interests, people love to boost those to help you find new friends. Use hashtags so it remains searchable.
  
  
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  We've found that Mastodon has a different culture than corporate social media due to responsiveness of moderation on community servers. However no one gets to tell you how to Mastodon. You can shitpost, quote post (some apps allow it or use screenshots), yell into the void, post lewds and nudes or #NSFW, have alts, etc. as long as you adhere to our safety rules. Mute or block scolds or report them to the mods if they are tone policing your posts about racism or other systems of oppression.
  
  

Our Guidelines

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  Alaska: Users do not need to show their Alaska card to be on the server, nor do users need to only post about Alaska on this server, but Alaska users are encouraged and our goal is to build community among Alaskans and people with meaningful connections to Alaska.
  
  
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  Self-promotion: Boosting causes, events, or your own work is fine. Just avoid being spammy. We request commercial entities using the server make a modest donation, as this is a volunteer-run server that relies on crowdfunding (see below).
  
  
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  Don’t be a jerk: Like similar place-based Mastodon servers, Alaskan Social aims to promote dialogue and community, which means we ask that you avoid targeted harassment, bullying, etc. Please treat others with respect, practice de-escalation, and report posts that break server rules.
  
  
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  Content warnings: Consider using Mastodon's Content Warnings (CW) feature for posts containing sexual, violent, or extra stressful content. Please also CW if you are posting about fascists/racist accts or posts you want others to know about. CW are not encouraged or expected for posting about topics such as racism or transphobia.
  
  
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  Hashtags: Use them for posts you wish to be searchable. Some apps will show your frequent hashtags as part of your profile. Using #CamelCase rather than #alllowercase makes them accessible to visually impaired users.
  
  
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  Use Alt Text on images so that visually-impaired users can understand your posts. You can be brief, just describe what's in the photo.
  
  

Safety and Moderation

We actively prioritize user safety and moderation. We will suspend or block users who violate our rules. Like many other Mastodon servers, we will "fedi-block" entire servers who host bots, racists, trolls, or fascists, etc. or who otherwise harass users on our server.

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.

Your data and privacy

You choose how public to make your posts from the options Mastodon provides. Don’t share information publicly that you do not want to share with the whole internet.

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. We do not share your information with any third parties or run analytics. Server admins 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 (or equally on Twitter) because the messages are not end-to-end encrypted. WhatsApp and Signal are currently end-to-end encrypted applications.

Liability

You are responsible for the content that you make available to the server, including its legality and appropriateness. Please abide by the stated server rules when using Alaskan Social. In case of breach of rules, the administrators reserve the right to remove you.

In no event will Alaskan Social, 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.

Our Goals:

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  Build inclusive community by being a safe, fun, and friendly forum for all things Alaskan including news, politics, the arts, sports, events, organizing, environment, Alaska Native issues, networking etc.
  
  
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  Operate a reliable and functional Mastodon server that Alaskans can count on.
  
  
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  Use transparent moderation to promote our code of conduct and server rules.
  
  

Alaska is Indigenous land

We recognize the Alaska Native communities that have lived throughout what we now call "Alaska" since time immemorial. We are committed to honoring Alaska's Indigenous people and cultures by actively decolonizing our own server community as it evolves.

Moderators

• @mielke@alaskan.social
• @AlaskaWx@alaskan.social
• @seachanger@alaskan.social
• @isposdef@alaskan.social
• @alaskalute@alaskan.social

Want to join the team? Inquire with one of the folks above…

1. Be a respectful community member, Alaska is a small town!
2. 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. Misgendering, deadnaming, or promotion of so-called "conversion therapy" is prohibited.
3. Do not post disinformation.
4. Do not post spam or excessively commercialized content, do not post crypto ads
5. Ableism and any form of harassment and discrimination on the basis of physical/mental disabilities will not be tolerated.
6. Extreme depictions of graphic violence, content containing sexual abuse of minors, or unauthorized sexual content are not permitted.
7. Racist, anti-Indigenous, anti-Black, antisemitic, etc. content , or any form of harassment and discrimination on the basis of culture/background will not be tolerated.
8. Avoid tone-policing or replies that criticize *how* ideas are presented. This rule is here in part because our server supports Mastodon's move away from patterns of white supremacy and toward vibrant, multiracial community.

1. mastodon.openjw.com: suspension
2. nothing.tacowolf.net: suspension