Code of Conduct

By using this site and the Mastodon instance hosted at montereybay.social, you are expected to follow the Server Rules that are listed on the About Page. These rules may change from time to time.  The site administrators will post notifications of any rule changes, and you are responsible for knowing the current set of server rules and abiding by them.

This instance is hosted in the United States of America and follows all of the laws of that country and of the State of California.

Moderation

Submit moderation requests to @paul@montereybay.social or support@montereybay.social. If you have a concern about copyright violation, please read our DMCA Policy.

Goals

We want MontereyBay.social to be a fun, engaging, and welcoming environment for everyone, especially those who live in or love the Monterey Bay area.  All topics are welcome, within the boundaries of the Server Rules and the guidelines on this page.  You will notice that we talk about "members" here, not "users" or "accounts".  We want this Mastodon instance to be the online equivalent of talking to your neighbors or chatting with a stranger in a park.  You don't always have to disagree, but you do need to maintain a minimum level of respect and courtesy in your communications.

What actions can I take if I'm not happy with what I'm reading?

Tired of reading about the latest shocking news story?  We understand.  Mastodon gives you several tools to help craft your own experience:

  1. You can set up filters so you no longer see posts with specific words or phrases.  Filters can be temporary or permanent.
  2. Don't want to see the boosts from someone you follow?  You can turn them off for a while or forever.
  3. You can mute an account if you no longer want to see anything from them but are ok with them reading your posts.
  4. Blocking an account prevents you and the blocked account from seeing each other.
  5. Finally, you can tune out an entire Mastodon domain if necessary.

Moderators become involved if a post on the instance violates the server rules, which are listed on the About page. Please use the reporting functions on your mobile app or the MontereyBay.social web site if you see content on the site that is in violation of the rules.  Moderators will investigate and take the appropriate action.  We will do our best to investigate reports within 48 hours.

As a rule of thumb, posts which violate the server roles will be removed.  If the moderators find that a member is repeatedly violating the server rules, they may be suspended.  If you disagree with or do not understand the actions of the moderators, you can ask for an appeal.  If possible, we will have a different moderator work with you on your appeal.

Mastodon admins help each other by reporting Fediverse servers that they consider bad actors.  Our moderation team considers these reports and takes action when we feel that these actors will degrade the operations of the site or the experience of our members.  You can find a list of moderated servers on the About page.

We report on all moderation activites in the monthly Transparency Report on the Blog.