438 PUNK HOUSE

Welcome to 438 PUNK HOUSE

438punk.house is a Mastodon instance intending to serve the local DIY hardcore punk scene (and our friends) in Tiohtià:ke aka Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Our intention is for this instance to serve users who are based in Montreal. So, locals only please. If you are looking for an anarchist instance with open registration, we recommend kolektiva.social.

What is Mastodon?

Here is a cute video that explains what Mastodon is:

438punk.house is just one Mastodon server, but users on different Mastodon servers can talk to each other.

The Fediverse is not just restricted to Mastodon. There are also servers for PixelFed (like Instagram) or PeerTube (like YouTube) which are all part of this network.

438 PUNK HOUSE USER GUIDE

If you are new we strongly suggest you read The Counterforce Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse for a good explanation and tips on getting started.

Creating an account

To get an account here, you need an Invite Link from another user (ask a punk!). Do not try signing up with the Mastodon App from the App Store if you want to be on 438punk.house.

Get an Invite Link and open in a web browser to create your account. Then if you want to log in from an app, make sure you indicate that you want to Log In and be sure to enter your server: 438punk.house. Apps we currently recommend: - Tusky for Android - Ice Cubes for iOS

Local-only posting

438punk.house actually uses a fork of Mastodon called Hometown which gives Local-only posting. If you want to make a post only visible to other users on 438punk.house, use the magic :local-only: emoji in your post:

GUIDELINES

We are anarchists so we don't like rules, but there are guidelines to help maintain the sustainability and health of the instance. These may change as things go on. Please contact @admin@438punk.house if you have input or suggestions!

Please note that if you disagree with any of these guidelines in theory or practice, you are welcome to set up your own Mastodon instance with your own guidelines/rules!

Don't post content that is flatly racist, sexist, transphobic, homophobic, ableist, misogynistic, or otherwise bigoted.

This will defacto include any symbols, slogans, memes/jokes, or vapid talking points of the reactionary far right. Don't be an edge-lord either.

Don't use your account to harass or troll other users on 438punk.house.

Don't use your account to harass or troll other users on other instances.

When interacting with users out in the broader fediverse, you represent 438punk.house to some extent (it shows up at the end of your username, after all!). So avoid trolling or harassing other users, even if they are on other instances. This can lead to other instances blanket blocking (defederating) with 438punk.house which is usually bad. If you pick fights with bad people, they can also follow you back to 438punk.house and harass other users here - if you want to pick fights on Mastodon, even with bad people, consider launching those attacks from your own instance and not from here!

Don't use your account to harass or troll regular people in general.

Become familiar with the privacy and account moderation settings on Mastodon and use them.

Every post on Mastodon has its own individual privacy setting that you set when you make the post. You also have many ways to deal with unwanted content/users. You can filter posts by tag or keywords, mute or block users, block an entire instance, and report problems to moderators. More info here.

Don't post any illegal content, or talk about illegal acts, or otherwise post anything that could cause legal trouble for the server (where your images and posts live).

It's a stupid idea to do that here for your own safety, but also don't bring the heat to the punk house. Go smoke down the block.

Use Content Warnings for the following types of content

• Nudity
• Gore
• Drug use/paraphernalia
• Text detailing a sexual act
• Text mentioning suicide, self-harm, abust, rape, or sexual assault
• Spoilers

When it doubt, it's easy to include a Content Warning, so why not err on the side of caution? It's polite!

Try to use Image Descriptions

Mastodon allows the easy appending of image descriptions to any image being posted. This is more of a strong suggestion than a firm guideline - but consider writing an image description every time you post an image. Image descriptions are very helpful to anyone who uses a screen reader, and offer many other benefits to a lot of users. It's a bit of a polite social norm here - a lot of users will not boost your posts if you do not include an image description. And it's easy and fun once you get used to it!

Toots aka Posts

The main thing you do on Mastodon is post. You follow people and see their posts. People follow you and see your posts. You can boost posts. You can reply to posts. Posts used to be called Toots (as in, the sound a mastodon makes) and then they changed it to Post. RIP Toots.

Unlike on most Mastodon instances, our post character limit is currently 1312 characters.

There are different options available when making a post.

Attachments

You can attach images, photos, or videos to your posts. Videos have to be pretty short.

Once an image is done uploading, you will see a preview of your image. If you click 'Edit' in the corner you can add an image description.

Content Warning

You have the option of adding a content warning to your post by clicking the CW. The body of your post will be hidden until a user clicks 'Show More'. Whatever you write as the content warning will appear above the 'Show More' button. Please use content warnings for any of the types of content mentioned in the guidelines. But you can also use them other things you have deemed appropriate for content warnings, but also as a way to hide some content from the user, for example for long posts, or for a joke, or to simply indicate the topic of your post.

Emojis

Mastodon has a built in emoji picker, and you will find many custom emojis that we have added ourselves. If you use these custom emojis they will be visible to anyone seeing your post, even users outside 438punk.house. If you want to see a specific emoji added, either one you've seen users on other instances using, or one you want us to make custom, just message @admin@438punk.house with your request!

Post Privacy Setting

Every post has an individual privacy setting determining who can see it. Beyond our special local-only posting, the options are "Public", "Unlisted"/"Quiet Public", "Followers Only", and "Mentioned Only"/"Specific People". See more here.

Tips for new users!

Here are some tips for new users of 438punk.house to optimize your landing here!

If you are coming from one of the mainstream social media networks like Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, there is definitely some culture shock.

First of all, a pep talk: give Mastodon an honest effort. Regular social media wasn't easy to get used to the first time you used it, but over many years it has trained your brain. Mastodon is different and it will feel very different at first. If you don't give it an honest effort, you won't get anything out of it either.

One thing that is important when you create a new account is to fill in some basic info in your profile. Remember this profile is public, so act accordingly. You need to include some info about yourself (pronouns are a good idea) and what you are interested in if you want to meet some strangers (no one follows-back an empty profile with 0 posts). You need to include some kind of info if you want your friends to find you and know who it is.

A popular thing to do here when you are feeling comfortable is to make an #introduction post (using that hashtag). Check out that hashtag in the search bar for some ideas. You can pin this post to your profile so people can always see it, and it's something other users can boost for you so that people who might be interested in following you can find you!

When you first create an account, there is a good chance you will have trouble finding any content on your timeline at all. It will be shockingly empty. Mastodon has no real recommendation algorithm. Mastodon will not do much work for you to find content or users to follow. It can be a bit of a shock to have to do all that work yourself, but remember that the plus-side is there is no algorithm analyzing all your content and deciding who/what to recommend to you. You are in full control of who you follow and what posts you see in your home timeline.

A good way to find people to follow on 438punk.house is to find a few friends (hopefully you know some who brought you here). Look at who they follow and who follows them, look for your other friends! Another good place to look is the Local timeline. This will show you all posts from other people on 438punk.house - have a look and start following!

Being on here you are also not just on 438punk.house. We are part of the greater fediverse. There are many other instances like ours full of anarchists, queers, weirdos, people who post cat pictures, etc. You can see a lot of this on the Global Timeline. Exploring this world is a lot easier on a browser logged into your account. For example, the profile directory lets you see users who have opted to be listed either on our instance, or in the known fediverse (on all instances that 438punk.house knows about). There are lots of interesting people there (especially anarchists, queers, and nerds).

The last thing is to use it! Post and interact. Everyone here is also new. Any social interactions (liking, replying, boosting) go a long way to building the social network. So get tootin'!

Safety

The fediverse is a big place, and anyone can run a Mastodon instance. There are corners of the fediverse that are far-right, or trolls, or spam-bots, or lolita porn. We can (and will) blanket block any instances that cater to users and content like that, and we have already preemptively blocked a long list of known bad-instances. But it is worth being aware that that stuff can pop up in the Global timeline. It's very helpful if you report that kind of stuff using the built in Moderation tools so that we can take appropriate action.

As a user, you also have a lot ways to deal with unwanted content (or people):

• Mute people forever, or with a time limit so you don't forget to un-mute them (like a timeout for someone on an annoying shitposting rampage).
• Block people.
• Block entire servers.
• Report users/posts on your own server that break your servers guidelines. Your local mods will deal with them.
• Report users/posts from other servers that might be harmful or dangerous to your fellow users.
• Mute words/phrases (e.g. if you don't like hearing about the ska revival, you can just mute "ska").
• Block notifications from people you don't follow.
• Hide boosts from annoying people who boost too much dumb shit.
• Auto-delete your posts after a certain time has passed.

On Mastodon you have much more control over your data, but you should also be aware of what the limits are for your own safety, security, and privacy. Your profile and any public posts are visible by anyone. All of your posts and content is stored on our server in an unencrypted way. The server keeps all kinds of logs. Direct messages are not end-to-end encrypted and should not be used for anything that requires security, or extreme privacy. Use Signal if you need that. If you have concerns about this, see Mastodon Opsec.

1. Don't post content that is flatly racist, sexist, transphobic, homophobic, ableist, misogynistic, or otherwise bigoted
2. Don't use your account to harass or troll other users on 438punk.house
3. Don't use your account to harass or troll other users on other instances
4. Don't use your account to harass or troll regular people in general
5. Don't post any illegal content, or talk about illegal acts, or otherwise post anything that could cause legal trouble for the server (where your images and posts live)
6. Use Content Warnings for the following types of content: nudity, gore, drug use/paraphernalia, text detailing a sex act, text mentioning suicide/self-harm, abuse, rape, or sexual assault.
7. Try to use Image Descriptions
8. Read more on our About page https://438punk.house/about

1. nothing.tacowolf.net: suspension