Kitty.Town is an online community founded May 1st, 2017 on the concepts of kindness, empathy, and putting general goodness out into the world. We started as a small Mastodon instance to provide a space free of abuse in response to the tolerance of hate speech and harassment elsewhere in the Fediverse.

We don’t pull our punches, especially where fascist bullshit is concerned. We see the value in organizing to lift each other up and improve both ourselves and the world, and we deserve to have a place to post our cat photos/selfies/pontifications in peace. (All pet photos are welcome, not just cats.)

So you’re political?
You could say that. We adhere to anti-fascist and anti-capitalist beliefs, and our Code of Conduct will inform how our community applies those beliefs.

Who runs this place?

Kitty.Town was created and is run by Ginny McQueen. You can find her @GinnyMcQueen, or email her at admin@kitty.town.

@nursemchurt is a mod and general community helper

Who pays for all this?

Kitty.Town relies 100% on support from the community. If you enjoy what we do and would like to help us grow, please consider contributing to the Patreon or Paypal.

Who or what does Kitty.Town block?

We suspend any and all instances that are incompatible with our Code of Conduct. Most reasons fall under abuse or fascist-friendly speech. For example, we block mastodon.social even though they are the “flagship” instance because they do not meet our community safety standards. We also mute all instances with over 10,000 users unless they have a particularly robust moderation team. Our list of instance mutes and blocks is available to all Kitty.Town members via our Zulip server.

How do I get involved?

You can request an invite to our governance Zulip server after 30 days of membership. You can request an invite from

@GinnyMcQueen, or email her at admin@kitty.town.

You can also follow @Katya for community announcements and info.

Any conduct that is deemed oppressive is grounds for removal from Kitty.Town. Any language or action that expresses, reinforces, upholds or sympathizes with any form of systemic domination is considered oppressive and is grounds for removal at any level deemed appropriate by the Mayor (Admin).

Post Etiquette:

We ask that you put the following topics behind a content warning (CW) (photos must be marked with the eye symbol – after uploading, before posting):

•graphic violence or gore

•sexual content/nudity

•spoilers

•depression/suicide/mental health

•flashing video/gifs

•drug/alcohol use

•food/diet/weight

•medical

•religion

When in doubt, CW. Our goal is to create a space where we have the option of consent with certain topics and are not bombarded by the 24 hour news cycle. This does not apply to posts on oppression that you experience.

Residents are free to post about their work and ask for support (crowdfunding links, etc).

No-Nos:

The following types of content (including posts, messages, imagery and/or usernames) will be removed from the public timeline, and may result in a ban from Kitty.Town:

•Unapproved bots

•Plagiarism (see definition)

•Posting other people’s work/photos/art without credit.

•corporate advertising

•Untagged pornography and sexually explicit content

•Untagged gore and graphic violence

•Racism, misogyny, transphobia, or any other oppressive language or imagery

•Intentionally posting or disseminating libel, slander, or other disinformation.

•Trolling, insulting/derogatory comments, and/or personal attacks

•Making light of/making mocking comments about content warnings

•Inciting users to engage someone in continued interaction or discussion after a user has requested for said engagement to cease and desist

•Continuing to engage in conversation with a user that has specifically requested for said engagement to cease may be considered harassment, regardless of platform-specific privacy tools employed.

•Any of the above even when presented as “ironic” or “joking”

The following types of content are explicitly disallowed and will result in a permanent ban from Kitty.Town:

•Sexual depictions of children

•Promotion of fascism in any form

•Promoting the oppression of any group based on gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, personal appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, age, religion, nationality, class, or other identity*

*Any attempt to present “reverse-ism” as examples of oppression. Examples of reverse-isms are “reverse racism”, “reverse sexism”, “heterophobia”, and “cisphobia”. You can tell cishet dudes and white people to fuck off all day long.

•Any conduct intended to stalk, harass, or intimidate other users, or to impede other users from utilizing the community

•Aggregating, posting, and/or disseminating a person’s demographic, personal, or private data without express permission

This Code of Conduct applies online and offline, and your behaviour outside of the community can be considered in the eligibility of your membership.

Enforcement

If you see a Code of Conduct violation, you can let the person know that what they did is not appropriate and ask them to stop and/or edit their message(s).

If you are uncomfortable speaking up for any reason, or the other person does not immediately correct the issue, please contact an admin or moderator.

When reporting, please include any relevant details, links, screenshots, context, or other information that may be used to better understand and resolve the situation. Screenshots and other communications involved in disputes should only be shared in a private setting with the appropriate admin or moderator.

Our admin is: @ginnymcqueen
Our mods are: @nursemchurt

The Mayor (Admin) reserves the right to revoke any user’s content on or access to Kitty.Town, at any time, for any reason.

No creepy crawlies (robot.txt set to disallow).

No secret crypto-mining operations (yes, that’s a thing people do now).