The Social Music Network strives to be a friendly community. We try to make safer and better spaces for those less privileged. We take moderation seriously.

We want everyone to have a great time, feel welcome and to let cool ideas flow around. Giving everyone some guidelines helps you all to know what’s up and how we can keep this place an enjoyable, fun and interesting place to be.

Note that everyone can flag posts anonymously, by clicking the :black_flag: icon at the bottom of each post:

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Your moderators will take any flags seriously, and will handle them anonymously.

There’s two parts:

  • Rules: Things that are probably obvious to most people that are hurtful or unpleasant.
  • Etiquette: Things you might not be aware of that help keep the space awesome for everyone.

Rules

This section covers stuff that is not okay to do here - generally because one way or another, it hurts or represses people. These may not cover every situation, so moderators can still make decisions at their own discretion.

Groups of people that aren’t welcome here

If you have the following or similar kinds of ideologies or affiliations, you are not welcome here and you will be immediately banned if found out:

  • Neo-fascism (White supremacy / White nationalism / Neo-nazi / Alt-right / Alt-light / Identitarian / Male supremacy / Manosphere)
  • Reactionary (GamerGate / Anti-feminism / Neo-reactionary)
  • Neo-feudalism (‘Anarcho’-capitalism / ‘Objectivism’ / Right-wing Libertarians)
  • TERF, SWERF or otherwise anti-trans or anti-sex worker
  • Truscum, Transmed or other kinds of identity policing.
  • People who are generally phobic/shitty towards non-binary genders.
  • Religious fundamentalism or anti-abortion. (Other types of religion are A-OK!)
  • Militarism, Chauvinism, Ethno-nationalism, Xenophobia or similar.
  • Stalinism, Maoism or similar. (Non-authoritarian forms of Socialism and Communism are A-OK!)
  • Shitty furries (Nazifurs and any furry that thinks being a bigoted piece of shit is okay!)

If you work in any capacity (whether as a direct employee or a contractor) for any of the following types of organisations, you aren’t welcome here, and if you reveal yourself as such, you will be banned:

  • Police
  • Immigration enforcement
  • Intelligence/spy organisations

(This does not mean we will refuse legally valid requests for information, it just means that aside from this type of situation, you are not welcome here in any way.)

Apart from those listed, if you have any ideology that believes in - whether violently, non-violently or religiously - the repression of people based on race, gender identity, sexuality and so on, you are also not welcome here.

Ideologies or affiliations based on controlled counter-violence in opposition to oppression (like antifa/antifascism) are welcome here.

Actions and behaviours that aren’t welcome here

This covers a lot of mostly obviously unpleasant stuff.

Hate speech

Hate speech results in an immediate ban. Here are some examples of what we mean:

Comments, imagery, memes or publications that demean, dehumanise, malign or otherwise hurt a person or a group of people based on certain characteristics or group status, including but not limited to:

  • Race
  • Sexuality
  • Gender identity, including trans and non-binary gender identities
  • Age
  • Body size/weight
  • Disability
  • Religion
  • Sex work
  • Kinks or fetishes
  • Certain personas or forms of identity (furries, otherkin, plural systems, etc.)
  • Poverty/lack of wealth

Saying things or things in a particular way, like:

  • Racial slurs, ableist slurs, etc.
  • Intentional misgendering (intentionally using pronouns or phrasing to refer to someone’s gender incorrectly).

It’s okay to criticise things like religions, but only as long as that isn’t just a wedge/shield for bigotry (eg. using feminist concepts to malign all forms of Islam instead of rationally talking about the specific forms of Islam or Islamic communities which do have mysogyny issues).

Marginalised communities (like PoC or women) being fed up with systemic problems and complaining about certain groups’ lack of understanding or action about certain issues (ie. white people, men) is not hate speech. If you’re not a part of the problem, you don’t need to see it as an attack. :slight_smile:

Misgendering, the act of referring to someone using a gender or pronouns that do not correctly reflect their gender identity, is prohibited. Deliberate or targeted misgendering, where there is an intentional refusal to respect an individual’s self-identified gender and pronouns, is considered a form of harassment and discrimination.

Deadnaming, which involves referring to a transgender or gender-diverse person by a name they used before their gender transition, is prohibited.

The promotion or endorsement of so-called “conversion therapy” or any related programs or practices is prohibited. Conversion therapy, which aims to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, is a discredited practice that is harmful and disrespectful to the LGBTQ+ community.

Generally unacceptable behaviour

These result in an immediate ban:

  • Clearly being disrespectful or acting like an asshole.
  • Telling someone to or suggesting that someone should commit suicide, be killed, or die. (even jokingly)
  • Advertising or preaching (promoting your own work is fine; being paid to shill/advertise for someone else is not fine)
  • Making sex jokes or flirting with someone when they haven’t specifically said that’s okay on their profile.

Harassment and Threats

Any of these kinds of things will result in an immediate ban:

  • Intentionally sending posts to someone that are designed to distress or insult them.
  • Using posts, screenshots or out of context quotes to mock or make fun of someone else.
  • Submitting false reports against someone else.
  • Continuing to interact with someone after they have told you to stop.
  • Threatening to harrass, threatening to dox, threatening to DDoS, or any other kind of threat.
  • Sexual harassment or acting in a sexually predatory way.

Conspiracy theories, pseudoscience and scams

It’s important that our server is a place for constructive ideas, and not ones that are used as weapons, tools of disinformation, or spreading information that can cause harm.

Some kinds of conspiracy talk and discussions of the occult and woo are fine, but these are examples of the kinds of things that are unacceptable here:

  • Anti-vaxxer
  • COVID denial/doomerism: ideologies normalizing the spread of COVID, rejecting risk mitigation such as masking and testing, etc.
  • Climate change denial
  • Flat earthers
  • NWO, Illuminati, Chemtrails, Pizzagate, etc.
  • Hate group conspiracy theories like Holocaust Denial.
  • Pseudoscience like Homeopathy, ‘healing crystals’, etc.
  • ‘Creation Science’ and other religious forms of pseudoscience.
  • Promoting MLMs (Multi-Level Marketing schemes) or Ponzi schemes.
  • Promoting, supporting, or using this mastodon instance to do business with cryptocurrency, NFTs, play-to-earn gaming, or the like. (Anti-cryptocurrency posting is permitted.)

Guerilla ontologies and similar things are absolutely fine.

Sexual content involving minors

Do not flirt with someone who is under 18.

Do not post illustrated imagery featuring sexualised depictions of people who appear to be underage. Even if there’s something saying they are over 18, they should reasonably look like they are over 18.

Do not post erotica involving minors.

Child porn is absolutely not allowed.

Any of these will result in an immediate ban.

Etiquette

These are general things to be aware of if you use our instance. You may not be used to them, and that’s okay! We’re willing to help you if you stumble along the way.

If a moderator asks you to change or delete a post for a particular reason outlined in this section, it doesn’t mean you’re in trouble. You’re just being given a friendly pointer so you can help make this space awesome for everyone :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:.

Stay on topic

The Social Music Network is about fairness and autonomy for music lovers.

This is not a generalist forum. There is no lack of places to post about misc topics. Please stay on topic.

These are examples of topics that shouldn’t be brought here, or at least not lightly if you really have an on-topic reason to bring them in. In this case, check if there is already a topic open on that topic, and add your comment there instead of opening a new topic. Also, this forum allows you to “Hide Details” in your posts. Moderators may ask you to remove the hidden details anyway, especially if the post receives community flags.

  • Political current events such as elections and government actions, when not posted in connection of music-related topics (songs, concerts, campaigns…)
  • Potentially triggering Mental Health topics, especially references to self harm, suicide, helplessness and other moods and behaviours that may be contagious or trigger people in recovery*
  • Alcohol (‘alc’) and drugs
  • Diet talk or weight loss Discussion of dieting, including any judgments about “healthy food” even if you’re not counting calories.
  • Food in general
  • Sexual themes or content
  • Violent themes or content, blood and gore
  • Themes or content about abuse
  • Common phobias (Like certain animals such as snakes and insects.)

Also images that have nudity or these areas of the body exposed:

  • A certain area around the nipples (and/or the nipples themselves). From the end of the ribcage to the bust line.
  • Anything less than what boxer briefs or shorts would cover around the groin area.

This applies to all bodies regardless of gender.

We don’t want to ask anyone to hide their identities. We particularly don’t want to ask marginalized people to hide their marginalization.

Be careful when considering giving unsolicited advice.

We try to be respectful of the opinions and views of others. Often unsolicited advice or proselytizing, while well intentioned, can never the less make a person feel like their beliefs, values, or experience are invalid. For this reason, you should err on the side of caution.

If you see something bad, tell your moderator(s).

Corporate social media can often make people feel powerless to actually take people who behave badly out of the picture, and this can lead to an ecosystem where issues are taken out publicly, and they can create mobs that cause a lot of people stress and can also easily harm the wrong people.

Here, you have moderators who are willing and able to help you and investigate and deal with problems. Please don’t post publicly about these issues. Instead, click the flag :black_flag: at the bottom of the post and choose the appropriate option.

Leave edgy humour and societal baggage at the door.

There are things you might be used to doing that you think are okay, but they actually hurt other people or make them feel unwelcome.

You’ll need to keep in mind that these are not okay and you shouldn’t do these kinds of things if you decide to make an account here.

Here are some examples:

  • Rape jokes
  • Putting marginalised people in the position of having to defend or explain their marginalisation. It’s your responsibility to do your own research.
  • Microaggressions (you can find some examples of what that kind of thing is here)
  • Using phrases similar to ‘not all men…’ when someone is just venting about something they’ve experienced. If you’re not a part of the problem, then you don’t need to see it as a personal attack.

We’ll help you if you genuinely make mistakes along the way, but please really try to keep them in mind.

Credits

These Rules and Etiquette are adapted from sonomu.club and originally by weirder.earth, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Consequently, these are also available under same conditions.