1. What is the difference between muting and blocking a server?
2. Why are servers muted or blocked?
3. Which servers does flipping.rocks mute/block?
4. How can I get a list of all my follows/followers from a particular server?
   1. CSV
   2. Ye olde command line
5. How to access accounts on blocked servers
   1. Alternate accounts
   2. Web
   3. RSS

   On Hometown/Mastodon, you can mute/block users or servers. However, the server admin (me) can also mute or block remote users/servers for everyone on flipping.rocks. I regularly monitor for bad servers/users and communicate with other admins. When it concerns a server with users who follow or are followed by flipping.rocks users, I ask our users for feedback. I will also let you know if I have to temporarily limit a server for spam.

   Muting a server is also known as limiting or silencing.

   Blocking a server is also known as suspension or defederation.

   What is the difference between muting and blocking a server?

   Muting a server limits how visible posts from its users are. You can still look up and follow people on muted servers, and you will get notifications and replies from them like normal. However, posts from people on muted servers who you don't follow will not show up in your reply notifications or hashtag searches. When someone on a muted server tries to follow you, you will have to manually approve them, even if you have manual follower approval turned off.

   Blocking a server essentially blocks every account on that server. That means:

   • you will not be able to follow anyone on the blocked server, and they will not be able to follow you.
   • your existing follows and followers from the blocked server will be permanently removed. If I later unblock the server, you will have to look up and follow each other again manually.

   Why are servers muted or blocked?

   The main reasons servers are muted:

   • a lot of spammers are currently making accounts there and it is a temporary measure
   • they are poorly moderated: e. g., they have rules against bigotry and harassment, but the rules are not well-enforced
   • they are a major source of low-effort picspam accounts, "reply guys", etc.
   • the admins/mods do not have their shit together

   Very large servers with open sign-ups tend to fall into this category.

   The main reasons servers are blocked:

   • they are a consistent source of spam, illegal content, etc.
   • they are sources of harassment
   • they permit or endorse bigotry like racism, misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, and other things against our rules. This includes servers that advertise themselves as "free speech" zones.
   • they federate/interact with many servers that fall into any of the previous categories

   Which servers does flipping.rocks mute/block?

   All the servers flipping.rocks has silenced or blocked are listed on the About page under "Moderated servers".

   How can I get a list of all my follows/followers from a particular server?

   In Settings → Follows and followers (flipping.rocks/relationships), you can see a list of all your follows/followers. You can sort and filter by the type of relationship, activity level, and more. However, there currently isn't an easy way to list follows/followers from a particular server.

   CSV

   In Settings → Import and export → Data export (flipping.rocks/settings/export), you can export a list of all the people you follow in .csv format. You can import this file into a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, or LibreOffice Calc, and split the "Account" column by using @ as a delimiter. (You may be able to do this in the same step.) This will let you sort or filter the spreadsheet by users' servers.

   Ye olde command line

   If you can use a terminal/console, you can use the command-line programs curl and jq to generate a list of follows/followers from a given server using the Mastodon API. Most operating systems have curl built in, and have jq in their repositories. If you don't have them installed, you can get instructions here:

   curl: https://curl.se/
   jq: https://jqlang.github.io/jq/

   For Linux users, I've written a Bash script for retrieving one's follows/followers for a specified server. Download and run in your terminal with bash mastodon-fws.sh.

   This script outputs lists of usernames in the format username@example.com (without an initial "@") to a file called [server-url]-follows-followers.txt in the same directory. Output format, filename, file location, etc., can of course be customized by editing the script, and I have included some notes on that in the script comments.

   It requires the GNU version of grep (as it uses the -P flag for lookahead/lookbehind), but it can likely be modified to work with other versions and other shells. If you aren't able to run it yourself, contact the admin account at @a@flipping.rocks and I can send you the output.

   Note for other users: if your own server does not allow unauthorized API access, you will need to get an API token and pass it to curl as a header. [Detailed explanation to come.]

   How to access accounts on blocked servers

   If a server is blocked by flipping.rocks, you will not be able to see any of its users using a web, phone, or desktop app. However, there are still ways to see users' posts. (Likewise, this applies to users whose servers have been blocked by flipping.rocks but who still want to see updates from flipping.rocks users.)

   Alternate accounts

   If you have an account on a different server that does not block that particular server, you can follow and be followed by people on the server. Likewise, if people on the server have accounts on different servers that flipping.rocks does not block, you can follow and be followed by them.

   Before the server is blocked, you can ask people if they have any alternate accounts or share your own.

   Web

   If the server allows it (most do), you can view user profiles in your web browser. For example, if the user is @user@mastodon.example.com, their profile URL is https://mastodon.example.com/@user. You can see all their public posts, though you will not be able to interact with them with your flipping.rocks account.

   RSS

   Mastodon automatically generates an RSS feed for an account's public posts. If the user has their RSS feed enabled, you can access it by adding ".rss" to the end of their profile URL. For example, if a user's handle is @user@mastodon.example.com, the RSS feed is at https://mastodon.example.com/@user.rss.

   If you use an RSS reader, you can add the feed to get updates whenever there is a publicly visible post. However, you will not get followers-only posts or direct messages.

   You can also turn any RSS feed, including user feeds, into a Mastodon account you can follow using feedsin.space. This can be a bit finicky, so if you need help, contact me and I can set it up for you.

Obligatory disclaimer that while these are currently well-moderated as far as I know and I am in touch with a few of the servers' admins, things may change. These are suggestions, not endorsements. If you think a server should not be on the list, or if you want to suggest one to add, please email admin@flipping.rocks or toot at a​@flipping.rocks.

• scholar.social
• scicomm.xyz
• ecoevo.social
• photog.social
• mastodon.art
• sunny.garden

Your account can be as public or locked-down as you like. Please look through the settings thoroughly. Here are some things you may want to adjust.

Public profile → Privacy and reach

Options at flipping.rocks/settings/privacy:

Reach

• Feature profile and posts in discovery algorithms: These features aren't used on flipping.rocks, but other Fediverse servers may recommend accounts to follow or highlight popular posts from other servers. If you don't want your profile or posts to be featured, uncheck this box.
• Automatically accept new followers: If you want to approve followers, uncheck this box.
  Note: If you do check this box, you will still need to approve follow requests from people on servers silenced by you or by flipping.rocks.
• Opt out of an RSS feed for your public posts: Hometown/Mastodon automatically generates an RSS feed of your public posts. People can use various apps to subscribe to this feed to see your new posts, even if they are not on the fediverse. It is just like subscribing to a podcast. (In fact, it is exactly like subscribing to a podcast—a podcast is just an RSS feed with audio files in it.) If you don't want this enabled, uncheck this box.

Search

• Include public posts in search results: Mastodon now allows searching the full text of public posts, not just hashtags. You can opt out of this by unchecking the box.
• Include profile page in search engines: What it says on the tin. Note that not all search engines may respect this preference.

Privacy

• Show follows and followers on profile: If you don't want people to see who you follow and who follows you, uncheck this box.
• Display from what app you sent a post: Which apps you use can reveal personal information about you—for example, if your phone is iOS or Android. If you have multiple accounts and use a less common app, someone may be able to figure out the accounts belong to the same person. For most people, this is not a big deal, but if you really need to hide your Internet tracks, uncheck this box.

Other preferences

Other preferences (flipping.rocks/settings/preferences/other): You can set default posting privacy and federation status here. (You can still change it per post.) If you uncheck "Allow my posts to reach other servers by default", only other flipping.rocks users will be able to see your posts. You probably want to keep this box checked.

Automated post deletion (flipping.rocks/statuses_cleanup): You can have old posts automatically deleted. You can choose when posts are deleted, anywhere from 1 week to 2 years after posting. You can also choose certain categories of posts to not automatically delete, like direct messages, posts with media, and posts with a specified number of favourites or boosts.

Account settings (https://flipping.rocks/auth/edit): You can see what devices you are logged in on, and log out of those sessions manually.

Two-factor authentication (flipping.rocks/settings/otp_authentication): You can require entering a code from an authenticator app to log in to your account.

Authorized apps (flipping.rocks/oauth/authorized_applications): You can see phone, web, or computer apps that have access to your account. If you haven't used an app for a long time, it's a good idea to revoke its access.

Mastodon/Hometown is designed to be public social media, not secure messaging. Most of the privacy/blocking features only work with platforms that respect the same rules, and there are Fediverse platforms that have been explicitly designed to get around these rules. Flipping.rocks does block scraping apps when possible, but we can't catch everything. Assume people or servers you block can still see your posts if they really want to.

Moderation

This server is for public outreach and assistance as well as socializing among ourselves. Therefore, you will be able to interact with people on many other servers with different rules and levels of moderation. Please do so judiciously. If you want to argue with trolls or get into vendettas with other users, don't do it here.

Mute, block, and report generously. Report problematic posts both to me and the user's server, so that server's mods know about it. If you come across a server that proudly hosts Nazis, transphobes, police, CHUDs, insufferable reply guys, etc.—anyone who might harass or cause trouble for our server as a whole—let me know.

If I've invited you/accepted your application, it's because I trust you know how to conduct yourself online. That said, I only have so much time for moderation and mediation. Even if you do not explicitly break any rules, if you have a history of doing so or if you cause undue trouble for me or other users, I will boot your ass.

They repost photos or memes that have gone viral elsewhere, like Twitter, Instagram, or Reddit. The text of the post is scraped as well; google a distinctive sentence and you'll turn up a previous post. Credit, if it's ever given, is a handle with no URL or indication of what social network it belongs to. Tellingly, on the fediverse, there are virtually never image descriptions.

I loathe these accounts. They are the pink slime of the Internet.

Since I end up having to give this spiel every time I raise the alarm about such accounts, I'm putting it down here in a more permanent place. Read more…

Animals

• :blue_tick: - Melissa Schmitt, The Noun Project
• :centipede: - Grégory Montigny, The Noun Project
• :crayfish: - Design Circle, The Noun Project
• :dragonfly: - Wouter Koch, PhyloPic
• :horseshoe_crab: - Eucalyp, The Noun Project
• :millipede:- Yu luck, The Noun Project
• :oribatid: - Birgit Lang, PhyloPic
• :pseudoscorpion: - Gemma Martínez-Redondo, PhyloPic
• :tapir: - Brand Mania, The Noun Project
• :weevil: - Emil Schmidt & Maxime Dahirel, PhyloPic
• :beebleborg:, :weevil2: - based off palmas' iNaturalist observation

Websites

• :inaturalist: - iNaturalist.org, edited by me

Other

• :dreidel: - Creazilla
• :RockFlip: - me & Noto Emoji font

We run a flavour of Mastodon called Hometown and are hosted by fedi.monster.

This is not the place for high-res photos, long videos, or irreplaceable data. Photo uploads are limited to 8 MB and video/audio to 40 MB. If you would like help backing up your content or having it cross-posted to Twitter, let me know, and I'm happy to help you set it up.

I'm open to hosting other services for users, like wikis, Git repositories, etc. If you think of anything you want, let me know! Just know that it will probably be run off an ancient netbook in my living room with 2 GB of RAM, so, you know, nothing too resource-intensive.

Backup plans

There are daily backups, courtesy of our host fedi.monster.

If I ever decide to shut down the server, I'll give you at least 3 months' notice so you can export your data.

1. Image descriptions/alt text
2. Content warnings
3. Sensitive media
4. Turning off CWs and hidden media

Image descriptions/alt text

Please do your best to add image descriptions, a.k.a alt text! This is so people using screen readers or text-only clients can understand your posts. It is a basic point of fediverse etiquette, and many people will not boost images without them. Here's a guide to writing good image descriptions.

If you can't add an image description, you can use the hashtag #Alt4Me in your post to ask for help, and someone may write one for you. Likewise, if you see a post with media missing a description, you can write your own in a reply and tag it with #Alt4You.

Here's what the media description interface looks like in the web client:

Content warnings

Content warnings are good for hiding many things: book or movie spoilers, Wordle and Metazooa results (or anything else with lots of emoji that will mess up screen readers), depressing/enraging politics, all-caps rants, joke punchlines, common triggers for conditions like PTSD, addictions, eating disorders, etc. Here is more about content warnings and how (and why) to use them.

If you attach an image to a post with a content warning, it will automatically be marked sensitive. However, you can also mark media sensitive without using a content warning. The post text will be visible, but the image will be blurred until the reader clicks/taps it.

Sensitive media

Many people have an irrational fear of spiders, insects and other arthropods, and snakes, and they don't appreciate being surprised with pictures of them. On the other hand, it is important to destigmatize and demystify these animals by not treating them as inherently scary or different from any other wildlife.

If you are posting a picture of an arthropod, snake, or any other creature people commonly have phobias about, use informative descriptions or hashtags (like #spiders, #snakes, #insects, #bugs, etc.) so people can filter out the post if they want. This will also allow people who want to see your photos to find them easily!

Optionally, you can also choose the "Mark media as sensitive" option, which blurs the image so users must click to reveal it.

Turning off CWs and hidden media

If you want to disable content warnings and hidden media, go to Sensitive Content in Appearance preferences. You can choose to always show sensitive media and always expand post content warnings.

Timelines

Basically:

• Home: all posts from the people you follow, plus posts they boost.
• Local: all public posts from everyone else on flipping.rocks.
• Federated: all public posts from people that anyone on flipping.rocks follows, plus posts they boost.

Here is a more detailed explanation:

Post visibility options

If you post something unlisted, your followers will see it, but it won't show up in Local or Federated timelines, or in searches for any hashtags in it. This is good for long threads, for example.

Direct messages, where only people mentioned can see them, are not end-to-end encrypted, and theoretically I could see them if I really wanted to. (In reality, I don't actually know how, also I am far too lazy and I just don't care.) If you need a secure communication channel, use something like Signal.

Local-only posting

The flavour of Mastodon this server runs on, Hometown, has an extra feature: local-only posting. This means that the post will only be visible on flipping.rocks; it doesn't get sent to other servers. It will not be sent to followers on other servers, and it won't show up in other servers' federated timelines. If the post is public or unlisted, it will still show up on your profile page if someone visits it in a web browser. You can make a post local-only by clicking the chain-link icon below the post field. If you are using an app that doesn't have that option, you can use the custom emoji :local_only::

1. Don't be racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, fatphobic, etc., you know the drill. Don't interact with people if they've asked you to stop doing so. Don't be a "reply guy".

2. Be considerate when posting photos of commonly feared animals like bugs, snakes, etc.: use informative descriptions or hashtags so people can filter them out if they want, and/or mark media as sensitive so it is hidden behind a click.

3. Act as an ambassador for wildlife; aim to stimulate people's curiosity, not shame them for fear or ignorance.

4. Credit other artists/photographers/creators appropriately when posting their work.

   Do your best to only post images and other media that you have permission to use, and credit the original creators. Accounts (on flipping.rocks and elsewhere) that only exist to post other people's work without permission or adequate credit (i. e., picspam accounts) will be suspended.

5. Don't do/discuss doing/link to illegal shit. Neither I nor this server's host are willing to go to jail for you.

Introduction

This server is for people who want to appreciate, share, and learn about arthropods, herps, fungi, etc.—and who are open to helping other people appreciate them, too.

You don't have to only post about nature, though. If you also want a general fediverse home for chatting with friends and posting about other interests, that's okay too.

If you like, you can chip in for hosting costs.

For non-members

You don't have to join this server to follow people, see posts, or participate! We would love to see the cool fungi, bugs, spiders, snakes, etc., that you find. For accounts to follow, check out the public user directory. If you'd like to get a better sense of what the server is like without following a bunch of people, check out the public timeline.

If you would like to join, I'd like to get a sense of who you are. If you already have a profile or social media presence elsewhere, e. g. Mastodon, Tumblr, or iNaturalist, please state it in your reasons for applying.

If someone on here is breaking the rules, posting objectionable content, or just generally being an ass, please report it—don't assume I already know about it!

No.

Why not?

The genocide, mostly.

Sweet. Who else blocks Threads?

Check out the Anti-Meta Fedi Pact for a list of signatories.

Here's why I think you're wro—{#`%${%&`+'${`%&NO CARRIER

In my opinion, a major factor in these events is servers growing too fast for the existing mod/admin team to manage, and it's important for admins to set some ground rules for themselves ahead of time about when to pause registrations or recruit more moderators. But that's a pretty complex matter and it will be different for everybody.

However, at the bare minimum, more than one person should have the "keys" to a server, so to speak—even if it is a very small server where admin and moderation work can be done by one person. It's even part of the Mastodon covenant—the standards required for a server to appear in the list at joinmastodon.org. Read more…

Flipping.rocks is a Mastodon server (running the Hometown fork) that is a cozy online home for arthropod enthusiasts, fungi fans, herpers, and other lovers of weird little creatures. Learn more about us here.

For major updates and news, see the blog. You can subscribe to the RSS feed for updates.

The owner and admin is Neville Park, a Torontonian politics blogger and arachnid enthusiast. My personal account is @nev@​flipping.rocks; if the site is down, my even more personal account is @nev@​bananachips.club.

Contact

Admin account: @a‌@flipping.rocks
Email: admin‌@flipping.rocks

Donate

We are hosted by fedi.monster. If you'd like to chip in for hosting costs, you can support us on OpenCollective. You can also support affordable, accessible fediverse hosting by contributing to fedi.monster directly.

I've also set up a page on OpenCollective so people can donate and see where the money's going. It's just me reimbursing myself, but this way it's easy to publicly keep track of the budget and ongoing costs.

* Even the RSS feed!

After a lot of discussion and reflection, I've decided to ditch the rule about marking Public images of spiders, snakes, etc., as sensitive. I think there are good arguments both for and against it (which are better described at greater length elsewhere). Ultimately what changed my mind was that the rule was putting off the very people I wanted to stick around.

Instead, I'd like users to simply mention what's in the photo in the body of the post or in hashtags, so other users can filter out the posts if they want. For example, a post I'd ask the author to re-draft:

Found this beauty in the yard today! [photo of crab spider]

But either of these versions are acceptable:

Found this beautiful crab spider in the yard today! [photo of crab spider]

Found this beauty in the yard today! #spiders #CrabSpider [photo of crab spider]

I still think hiding images for people with phobias has value, and obviously flipping.rocks users can still do so if they want. I also want to start a hashtag (either a weekly thing or just a general one) specifically for such posts, so they're easier for people to find and follow. (I just need to settle on what to call it!)

In related news, Darius Kazemi is currently working on a new version of Hometown which is based on Mastodon 4.0. So when that lands, flipping.rocks will get hashtag following and other Mastodon 4.0 features.

A few recent developments you may have missed:

• I've created an official admin account, @a@flipping.rocks, for server news and announcements (so it's not all mixed in with whatever I'm posting about). Please follow if you haven't done so already!
• We are pretty much fully funded for the next year. So if you haven't donated but were meaning to, don't worry, there's absolutely no rush. I'm extremely grateful for everyone who's donated; thank you for keeping flipping.rocks going.

—Neville Park

—Neville Park