Moderation

Team

All moderation and administration is done by our volunteer admin(istrator) and mod(erator) team:

Our admin contact email is: datasci.social@proton.me

Individual-based moderation

Sign-up

Moderation for individuals begins with checking whether a new user provided an adequate reason during their sign-up application, as stated in our server rules. Inadequate reasons include any generic statements such as “joining to learn”, “networking”, “interesting instance”, “coming from twitter”, etc. We expect people on our server to actually read and follow our server rules and reserve the right to decline any such inadequate sign-up application. This process also provides a layer of protection for our server from spam bots attempting to sign up, which is a common issue on Mastodon.

We process sign-up applications as leniently as possible and are happy to welcome everybody, but please read the rules - they are to the point. We also aim to be as fast as possible; in the worst case it can take up to 12 hours, usually much faster.

Conduct

To report a post, click on the three dots below the post and select “Report”. Please include all relevant context to help us process the report.

When our team receives reports through Mastodon’s report interface, we decide whether to resolve without action or which action to take depending on severity and repeat offense. The action can range from deletion of offending posts, warning, temporal limiting an account’s posts from showing in feeds, or account suspension. If an account from a different server is suspended, that account is banned from interacting with our server.

If an action is required, the first action for minor offenses is usually a warning, ramping up in severity for repeat offenses. We aim to be as reasonable as possible, and we do not let racism, sexism, etc. off the hook - even if perceived as minor. Though we have done our best to formulate our server rules concisely and comprehensively, this list is not all-inclusive and there can always be unforeseen situations that need to be handled on an individual basis.

Please always use Mastodon’s report interface - reports communicated directly to mod/admin accounts (for example via direct message) will not be processed. If for any reason using Mastodon’s report interface is not possible, write us to our admin contact email address as a last resort.

Server-based moderation (blocklist)

Blocklists are a way that a Mastodon instance can handle unwanted content on the instance level. When a Mastodon domain is on our blocklist (see Moderated servers), this means that our admins have limited or completely suspended activity with the server at that domain.

How we curate our blocklist:

• Initial import from the trusted instance mastodon.social
• Adding or removing new instances as needed

Need to add can arise for example when many accounts from a specific instance are reported and if the inadequacy of that instance’s local moderation is known. We try to be reasonable: It can be important to block fast, but too indiscriminate blocking can also be harmful. If you have good reason we should add or remove an instance from our blocklist, please contact us at our admin email address and include clear context.