Code of Conduct / Community Guidelines

This instance is founded on the premise of “kindfulness”.

kindfulness (/ˈkīn(d) f(ə)l nəs/)

• the quality of being mindful and kind,
• being conscious and aware of the importance of kindness,

AND

• using kindness or kind acts as a way to care for yourself and others

synonyms: empathetic, considerate

see also: radical kindness

This is a term our admin coined at some point in late 2018, and finds it as a good measuring tool for interactions with folks online. With that, please know that our Code of Conduct is written with this in mind.

In addition: This instance is (obviously) Stardew Valley themed, but this does not mean that the only content you are allowed to post here is Stardew Valley related content!

You may use this instance as your main/personal/private/whatever instance. It is a “general” instance, just with a cute theme. This is also does not mean that you are disallowed from having a purely Stardew Valley account on this instance. You may do as you wish, as long as it follows our Code of Conduct.

Posting Etiquette

Part of kindfulness is consent to interactions. Some folks may not want to see certain content, and thus being mindful of this as well as kind to others we ask that you use the Content Warning (CW) function and/or the eyeball function to hide photos for the following topics:

• Sexually explicit content (nudity, kink talk, etc.)
  • Examples of CW subject:
    • Lewd, nudity
    • Kink, BDSM
    • Photos of me in lingerie
    • Sexual frustration, masturbation
• Politics / news
  • Examples of CW subject:
    • USPol, police brutality
    • UKPol, Brexit
    • USPol, trump
    • Political theory

• Violence, either implied of explicit (images of guns/weapons, images with blood, written post about injuries, etc.)
• Drugs or alcohol
• Food, dieting, or weight discussion
• Mental health issues (especially those that could trigger others: suicide, self-harm, disordered eating, etc.)
  • Examples of CW subject:
    • Mental health talk, anxiety
    • Mental health, suicidal ideation
    • Mental health questions, therapy
    • Mental health medications, side effects, negative
• Spoilers to television shows or movies
• Flashing images or videos
• Posts that may qualify as “body horror”
• Jump scares or other scare tactics
• Cross-posts from other social media sites (mainly Twitter)
  • Example CW subjects:
    • Twitter cross-post (user / OP of tweet)
  • While cross-posting is not outrightly banned, if it becomes your main or only form of posting on the instance, you will be asked to move to another instance
• Medical/Physical health (especially those others may find triggering: cancer, hospice, vomit, other bodily fluids, etc.)
  • Abortion and miscarriages are included under this
• Sexual violence
  • Examples of CW subject:
    • Rape, sexual assault, Title IX (USPol)
    • Childhood sexual abuse (CSA)
    • Stalking, abusive relationship
    • Abusive relationship (not me), asking for help
• Animal abuse/cruelty
• Death
• Hate topics (heterosexism/homophobia, racism, transmisogyny and transphobia, etc.)
• “Meta” discussions of issues on the fediverse
  • Examples of CW subject:
    • Meta (admin/moderation)
    • Meta (pixelfed)
    • Meta (blocking)
• Emoji spam or ASCII posts
  • This includes spelling things out with emoji letters
• If the post is a joke, or a “shitpost” please say so!

We find it exceptionally important to be specific, but not detailed, in our CW subjects. This takes practice, and will never be a perfect science as we do not always know what will trigger others. That is okay! It is okay to make mistakes, and it is not something that will cause a ban from our instance unless it becomes a larger issue. Many topics may overlap, so please just try your best.

It is not required to use the format or even specific examples mentioned for posts of that subject matter, they are only there as a guide for those who may be unfamiliar with the CW system, and as a guide for specificity for those who are used to it but are new to this instance.

Abbreviations/Short Cuts in CW Subjects

If you like to use abbreviations, please type out the full word/phrase in the first toot and put the abbreviations next to it (i.e. “childhood sexual abuse (CSA)”, “Austrailian Politics (AUSPol)”, “suicidal ideation (sui), negative (-/neg)”, etc.) and then continue to use the abbreviation in your subject as you thread your discussion/posts.

Abbreviations are tricky and not always recognizable to users, especially new ones. Some folks on the fediverse have pinned a toot of their commonly used abbreviations, so feel free to use this method as well!

Please do not purposefully misspell words or censor words (l*ke th*s) as it bypasses the filter system in place, causing posts with words originally filtered out to sneak through.

We also ask that if others come to you to request a CW, you respond kindly and do your best to remember them—however if they are not listed specifically here, the admin is not responsible for enforcing this request. If strong enough desire is shown by a particular user or group of users, and the admin agrees, the topic may be added here in the future.

We highly encourage the use of filters for triggers that may be specific to you, or less common to the general public as it will help protect you from having to interact with or even see posts surrounding that word/topic/person.

When in doubt, use the CW and/or hide your images!

Accessibility

With that, we would like to add that we encourage all users to do their best with image descriptions! This can be done via that instance UI on the image, or within the text of the post itself. This is not required to be on the instance, and is also not something that would result in a ban, but please push yourself to remember to caption/describe your images (including: memes, selfies, screen captures of text, etc.). Your description does not have to be perfect or of exceptional detail and length. We only ask that you try your best. If you’re ever unsure about what to say in an image caption, just ask!

We also encourage capitalization of hashtags #LikeThis, rather than #likethis (in addition to the emoji spam/ASCII content rule) so that screen readers can properly read hashtags.

Be kind and mindful in hopes to make our instance and the fediverse a more accessible place.

Self-Promotion

An exception to the idea of “when in doubt, use a CW” would be self-promotion or asking for help. Please do not feel obligated to CW these posts. You should never feel bad about earning money through skills you have, or asking for help when you need it!

However, it may become an issue if that is the only kind of post you seem to be making, and/or you are continuously making the same post super often (spamming).

Serious Offenses

The following content is prohibited on Stardew.City and will result in an immediate removal of content, and likely a removal of your account:

• Sexual depictions of children / pedophilia
  • A minor (or child) is someone below the age of eighteen (18) years old
  • This includes but is not limited to:
    • Drawings, photographs, videos, or writing of children engaging in sexual activity (including fictional characters)
    • Aforementioned with “aged-up” fictional child characters
    • Characters that are of age, but have an intentional child-like appearance engaging in sexual activity
    • Engaging in sexual conversations with children as an adult
      • This is not to say that if a minor has questions, you as an adult may not offer help/answers. Be respectful and understanding of boundaries laid by minors, as well as your responsibilities as an adult to not encourage or engage in sexual relationships with minors.
• Holocaust denial
• Nazi imagery, or other promotion of fascism/radical nationalism
  • Yes, even “ironically”
• Promoting the oppression or discrimination against any person or groups based on race, ethnicity, nationality, sex, gender (identity or expression), sexuality/sexual orientation, disability, class, profession, body size or personal appearance, age, or religion.
• Harassment, stalking, or threats/intimidation of other users, or encouraging others to do so
  • This includes but is not limited to:
    • Continuously trying to engage a user who has requested to end interaction(s)
    • Encouraging or inciting other users to (re)engage with another user after said user requested to end interaction(s)
    • Screen capturing or quoting a user without their express permission
    • Collecting or posting a user’s private or personal information or data without express permission
      • This includes but is not limited to:
        • Addresses associated with a user
        • A name they previously had or were associated with
        • Contact information such as a phone number or email address
        • Any of the aforementioned in relation to a partner or family member of a user
• Intentionally spreading libel, slander, or other disinformation
  • Certain websites that tend to target others, or right-wing websites, will not count as “proof” to the admin if concerns about certain folks arise
• Plagiarism, or art theft (posting other’s work without citation or credit, or claiming it as your own)
• Crypto mining operations
• Unapproved bots
  • Contact your admin for approval!
  •  Untagged:
    • Sexually explicit content
    • Gore or graphic violence

These rules apply to Stardew.City or any affiliated location (such as an offline meet up, or if you promote the instance elsewhere/are representing the instance elsewhere on the web or offline).

Reports will be reviewed and decisions will be made as soon as possible. Admins and moderators must maintain confidentiality with the identity of the reporter of the incident.

The admin reserves the right to delete a user’s content or revoke access to Stardew.City at any time or for any reason.

Any changes to the COC will be publicly posted about for users to read the changes.

Suspensions and Silences

Our list of blocked/suspended and muted/silenced instances is maintained solely by our moderation team. We follow already maintained block lists of other instances such as: kitty.town, dzuk’s blockchain list on github, and the posts of other admin’s our team trusts.

Users are absolutely encouraged to contact the admin to request a block, and/or report the instance through the moderation tools. Reporting is very useful, as it allows us to keep better track and write notes to remember what happened/why we blocked someone via the Mastodon interface rather than just keeping it in an Excel Spreadsheet (which we do also).

If users on an instance repeatedly engage in behaviors against our own COC, without appropriate reactions from the moderation team, and/or if the admin or mods of an instance engage in behaviors against our COC, the entire instance will be suspended rather than just the offending users.