Hi Code of Conduct, I'm Dad!
Fatherhood is a spectrum, respect that.
dads.cool is an instance for dads; if you apply to become a user, it’s expected that you have, had, or are expecting, at least one (human) child—sorry, but pets are not children, no matter how much we love them. Being a father does not mean identifying or being labeled as a man, nor does it mean that you were involved in the conception of the child you take care of. Foster dads, adoptive dads—anyone who cares for a child and identifies as a dad is welcome here. In that spirit, dads.cool welcomes all sexualities, gender identities, races, levels of mobility, and ages.
If a user posts a message that mocks, harasses, endangers, threatens, or otherwise puts at risk any other person on the basis of the criteria above, they will be banned from dads.cool. There is not an appeals process.
Replying to Other Users
Sharing your experiences as a dad is what we’re all here to do, but take care to distinguish between “this is what worked for me” and “this is what you should do.” Whatever the intentions behind it, unsolicited advice—especially involving a user's health and wellness—is often indistinguishable from harassment and will be treated as such. This is especially true when the health or safety of children is concerned. Please ask permission before giving advice to another user.
Generally, seek to understand what a user is looking for when they post their feelings. Is it encouragement, explanation, empathy? It never hurts to ask before you post your reply.
Reporting another User
Please use the Report button on posts you feel put our community at risk (including those that might come from other instances, but are directed at dads.cool users); it is the easiest way for an admin to identify abuse.
Content Warnings
Mastodon’s robust support for content warnings (CWs) is a valuable part of the platform. Please consider using CWs for images that might be considered “not safe for work” like nudity or sexual content, for stories of loss or injury, for video in general, and for photos with eye contact.
We do not have formal rules around what exactly should or should not be placed under a CW, but repeated posts of sensitive content without them may result in a message from an admin. Before you ask another person to CW something that is disruptive to you, consider whether one of the myriad other options for personal content moderation—muting, blocking, unfollowing, or filtering words—would achieve the result of removing that content from your own timeline.
A table of CWs in regular use around Mastodon is below:
| CW | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ec | a photo with eye contact |
| pers | intimate or personal information |
| mh | concerning mental health, with a - to indicate negative feelings and + for positive |
| ph | the same, but with physical health |
| lewd | sexually suggestive content |
| meta | referring to a wider conversation across mastodon |
| pol | political content, often localized with uspol, eupol, asiapol, etc. |
Instance Blocks
dads.cool implements the open source "BLOCKchain" to block interactions with instances that might put our community at risk. Detailed reasons behind each ban can be found on the list's GitHub page. dads.cool will not federate with any instance associated with the white supremacist platform Gab. dads.cool will not federate with any multi-user instance that lacks a code of conduct or has a code of conduct that does not forbid harassment. Further domain block decisions will be posted on the admin's feed as a local-only post or discussed on our members-only Discord; an invitation will be made available to new members.
Changes to this Code of Conduct can be tracked on the dads.cool GitHub repository.