Pre-Holidays Update: the ATL.social

Server Updates, Moderating Content, and Future Planning

TL;DR:

1. Interested in becoming a volunteer moderator? Reach out to michael@theatl.social/@michael@theatl.social! Moderators are needed who reflect the diversity of the theATL.social’s users.

2. The server is operated as a “hobby project” by an individual currently. If the server continues to grow, establishing a legal entity to operate the server is needed.

3. Server costs and revenues are now publicly-published.

Server Update

Counts

From the Mastodon Dashboard (as of 12/23)

The screenshot above from the Mastodon admin panel tells the story of growth on the server! What started off as a hobby project has quickly expanded by users and interactions. It is a joy to watch the community grow and meet each other.

Moderation Report

Going forward, I will provide periodic reports on moderation actions for purposes of transparency:

1. Two accounts were “suspended” after signup - both with an opportunity to contest the suspension. One account was a spam account pulling non-sensical information from other public web sites, and the other account was a “get rich quick” spam account.

2. No reports have been received regarding users or posts on the server by theATL.social members, or members of other servers.

More about Moderation

Moderation is not easy. Moderating a public forum, such as a Mastodon server, is a challenging and contextual task whose implementation across various platforms has risen to national political debates in the United States. 

Writing from my personal perspective, I envision responsibilities for moderators of public forums, such as theATL.social, as:

1. Legal responsibilities (thank you, EFF, for this article!)

2. Ethical responsibilities

3. Duties to their users and stakeholders (donors, leadership, etc.)

4. Recognition of the cultural context of their local communities

On legal responsibilities, moderators must comply with legal restrictions on speech and content, according to the laws of the United States: CSAM (cw: link to wikipedia page with descriptions of abuse), illegal violent threats, and compliance with the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), for example.

On ethical responsibilities, moderators must decide if a user's post on theATL.social - or another server's user - causes harm. Harm, of course, is a subjective determination of the moderator and their community.

On duties to users and server stakeholders, moderators must be aware of their users' priorities and interests, and the extent to which active moderation is applied to the server's culture and tone.

And on a cultural context, moderators must be cognizant of the issues and concerns of their local communities and provide space for those conversations to occur.

theATL.social's current server rules are a combination of the standards established by the Mastodon non-profit ("Server Covenant"), and my view of moderation through the responsibilities noted above.

While the list of rules for this server are not long, they are intended to serve as guiding principles for conduct and content. This approach, as opposed to a more comprehensive set of rules, however requires more subjectivity and discretion to implement.

To this end, it is similarly important that moderators for theATL.social reflect the diversity of the user community. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer moderator, please reach out to michael@theatl.social (email) or @michael@theatl.social (Mastodon). 

Future Planning for theATL.social

Some quick notes on this topic - more to be written in the next newsletter.

Computing

I'll cover this in a future post!

Legal Organization

The server is currently operating as a "hobby project" in my individual capacity. In other words, there is no legal organization, other than my own name, under which the server is operated. If total costs, membership, and revenues stay relatively flat, this current arrangement is probably satisfactory for the time being, given the time and money costs associated with forming a legal entity under which the server operates.

However, if server user counts, interest, and activity continue to grow, then it is likely prudent to establish a legal entity, which could (perhaps) be a non-profit (501c3) or a public benefit corporation. This next step would, however, be contingent on:

1. Leadership interest from users

2. Access to legal resources for incorporation

3. The willingness of leadership and other users to raise funds for server operations 

I am not certain at what specific point discussion on the establishment of a legal entity might occur. Of course, there are also no guarantees that the server maintains its usefulness to the community - after all, someone else might set up an Atlanta-focused server that is ultimately preferred over theATL.social!

However, for those interested in those next steps, when those next steps happen, perhaps it is a possibility to keep in mind in the coming weeks and months. 

Funding

From now and going forward, funding and operating costs will be maintained in a Google Sheet. This information is provided as a measure of transparency to users regarding costs and ownership and of course our current (and future!) Patreon donors to see where their contributions are directed.

And of course, new memberships via Patreon are much appreciated! ❤️

Happy Holidays!

Hope everyone has a wonderful and Happy Holidays! During the holiday season, I will be monitoring the server to make sure everything is functioning OK. There is also adequate computing capacity allocated for anyone who might be feeling a bit bored and decide to join theATL.social in the coming days.

Thank you for reading this newsletter and if you are a user of theATL.social, participating in this growing community!