SoNoMu = Sound Noise Music

We are a mastodon instance for musicians, sound-artists, producers of any kind of aural noise, songwriters, bedroom producers, sonic manglers and algorave livecoders.

Please do not ask for account here just to try out Mastodon. Our resources are scarce and we'd like a close-knit community of fediverse-active music-makers who are already familiar with fediquette and in need of safe space that they can and know how to use.

When you request a new account on our instance, make sure you introduce yourself thoroughly - as a sound-maker, AND as user of fediverse. Again, please don't ask for an account here if you don't know what are content warnings (CWs) and ALT image/media descriptions for within the fedi/masto culture and you are annoyed at people trying to make safer and better spaces for those less privileged.

We take moderation seriously.

You can support this service by donating via LiberaPay: liberapay.com/SoNoMu.club

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Our Rules in Just a Few Points

• this is a safer space, not free-speech maximalist place. we try to protect freedom from (bigotry, harassment, etc) and not freedom to (say anything, or be a d*ck). this means that we take extra care about all disadvantaged groups, be it based on gender, race, or disablity. be kind, check your privilege, etc.
• nazis, racists, TERFs, transphobes, edge-lords, or similar are NOT welcome. if you "disagree" with SJWs, wokeness, and consider some people snowflakes, you are not welcome.
• we expect generous use of CW and ALT text descriptions to all media (including audio and video), but we will not police you though. try your best.
• we expect from users to treat local timeline (now also called "Live Feeds > This Server") as a communal space which should be well taken care of. making sure to think about it before you post public, and perhaps use unlisted (now known as "Quiet public") privacy as default. in other words: no shitposting on the local timeline.
• we expect you to be active member of this small community. don't use it to just self-promote, but rather engage in our discussions and sharing of communal online space, contribute to its cosiness.
• on instance level we are defederating/blocking pre-emptively servers that are clearly not moderating bad actors.

Please read below Rules and Etiquette! If you still want to join us under these conditions, please get in touch with a nice letter introducing yourself, thank you.

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sonomu.club Rules and Etiquette

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.

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.

These apply to this instance and elsewhere on other instances, other social networks and IRL.

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

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. :)

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)
• Refusing to CW content that should be in a CW (see the Etiquette section), or refusing moderator requests to CW content.
• 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 repost something with a CW or 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 😄.

Local Timeline

(Mastodon has different 'timelines' that different people can see - the Local Timeline is a timeline everyone in this instance can see. You post to it by choosing 'Public' (the globe icon) in your post toolbar.)

We really want our Local Timeline to be an antidote to traditional social media posting; a more down to earth place where people talk about themselves and what they're up to.

• Let everyone have space to share things. Be selective about your Local posts and avoid posting too many things at once.
• Avoid posting lots of external links on the local timeline. We want everyone to share things about themselves, and reposting stuff from elsewhere can make the space feel impersonal.

Use CWs for sensitive content.

CWs (Content Warnings or Content Wrappers) are a really cool way for people to keep climate control over their Mastodon browsing experience. It's especially useful in these stressful times, but it's also useful if you or other people have particular mental health conditions or are just having a bad day.

You should CW a post when it contains any of the following topics, whether the content is good or bad. Feel free to add (+) for positive content, (~) for mixed content and (-) for negative content.

• Political current events such as elections and government actions (normally abbreviated to 'pol' along with the country/region, ie. 'UKpol', 'DEpol', etc.)
• Potentially triggering Mental Health topics (normally abbreviated to 'mh'). Many of our members come here to discuss their mental health journey, and we seek to be as welcoming and open as possible, but for the sake of other users: please CW 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, should be CW'd differently from "ooh yummy" types of food posts.
• 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.)
• Long posts or posts with multiple parts (please also use the 'unlisted' privacy setting for posts after the first in a thread, so that the local timeline doesn't get flooded)

Also CW 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 CW their identities. We particularly don't want to ask marginalized people to CW their marginalization. We're not going to be hardline about the rules in cases where there are compelling reasons to frame what you're saying differently...

...but "this is important, so I won't CW" and "this is urgent, so I won't CW" are non-sequiturs - the importance and the urgency have nothing to do with whether that content is more accessible with a content warning.

Always write descriptions for your images.

Mastodon has an image description feature, meaning that you can attach text descriptions to the images you upload so the blind or visually impaired can understand what the image is.

There is never a time that this would not be potentially useful to someone.

Some tips for writing image descriptions:

Write:

• Placement of objects
• The kind of image it is (photo, painting, drawing, CG, chart, text, screenshot etc.)
• Colours
• People and animals
• Placement of text
• Emotions (ie. smiling)
• General surroundings)
• (Generally what is important to understanding the picture, or what the point of the picture is.)

Don't write:

• Descriptions that are too detailed.
• Details of the picture that would be obvious in the given context (like, you don't need to say that a face has two eyes, a nose and a mouth because you've said it's a face).
• Details that aren't the point or the focus of the picture.
• (Generally what isn't important to understanding the picture, or what the point of the picture is.)

Unfortunately, not all mobile apps do image descriptions, but just try your best!

Be explicit about region-specific posts.

Keep in mind that Mastodon has users from all over the world.

If you have a post (like advice or politics) that's only relevant to a certain part of the world, mention what part of the world it is for.

Avoid subtooting when you can.

Subtooting (like subtweeting) is talking about something someone else has said without talking to the person who said it directly.

This is a tempting thing to do (and sometimes an ideal thing to do) if you don't want to get into a particular situation, but it has a negative side effect if you're not careful. It can make the entire environment hostile because subtooting can make people unsure whether you might be talking about them or not.

Be careful when considering giving unsolicited advice.

We try to be respectful of the opinions and views of others. Often unsolicited advice or prosletyzing, 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 like Twitter and Tumblr 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, make a report or DM one of your local moderators.

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
• Making jokes at the expense of content warnings ('triggered' 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.
• Not using CWs properly (see the CW section above for guidance).

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

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Credits

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

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Historical note

SoNoMu (SoundNoiseMusic) was a website that existed in 00s in the context of UK underground electronic music - it supported labels, events and artists and was created by "State51 Conspiracy". This Mastodon instance has no connection to that effort apart from the name. We'd like to acknowledge that slice of history: https://web.archive.org/web/20120829164558/http://sonomu.net/about/