Socel Admin @admin@socel.net

Welcome new members!

Please take a minute to:

1. fill out your profile details ✏️
2. Read the rules of the instance
3. Check out the local and federated timelines
4. Post an introductions toot 👋

Lastly, feel free to ask questions; the community here and in the wider fediverse is very welcoming and helpful

And now it is lunchtime 😋

A few changes to be aware of now that the instance has been moved.

We are now hosted by @mastohost and as such, obey their terms of service which can be found here: https://masto.host/tos/

The server location has also moved from the USA to the EU (in France). This should not ever become an issue, but please be aware that French and EU law is not the same as American law.

All other aspects of the community will remain the same as before.

The move is almost complete.

Some media files may be absent for the next couple of hours as those files transfer over, but all access and feeds should be restored. Uploads should also work.

Please reach out if you have any issues at all.

We're back!

Downtime to begin in 5 minutes.

The move will commence shortly.

Again, there WILL be some downtime for potentially as long as an hour. If you cannot log in, please try again later.

An update will be posted once all is complete.

🚨⚠️ IMPORTANT NOTICE⚠️ 🚨

This coming weekend the instance is scheduled to transfer to a new server.

This is being done primarily for cost reasons but should also put the long-term future of the community on a more stable footing.

There WILL be some downtime most likely on Saturday and potentially for periods of up to an hour.

You will be able to access the instance as usual once the move is complete.

Updates will be posted when they can.

Please let me know if you have any questions :)

Added some new custom emojis!

Maintenance complete!

Some brief maintenance in the next few minutes. Apologies for the inconvenience and short notice.

Due to a proliferation of spam within the last 24 hours, Socel now requires approval for sign-ups.

This change does not affect existing users who are encouraged to use the invite feature available in their preferences if friends wish to sign up.

And we're back.

Sorry folks, the hard drive got full!

All sorted now.

Upgrades complete!

Read all about the latest changes here: https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/releases/tag/v3.0.0

Upgrades will begin shortly. Some downtime is possible but should be minimal. A follow-up will be posted when complete.

Apologies for the unannounced downtime. The SSL cert was up for renewal and although I renewed it, I was not aware that that still requires installation on the server.

We should be all good to go now though.

The domain freefedifollowers.ga has been pre-emptively blocked based on reports from other instances (following bots spam)

The domain weedis.life is preemptively blocked as it is excessively spamming users on other instances.

You may have seen some talk regarding blocking recently so now is a good time to outlay the Socel policy.

Actions start with the user and escalate from there:

1. Always report problematic toots and accounts

2. If that fails or clearly won't work, the next action is to block that user.

3. If an instance collectively causes issues, Socel users can block the entire instance.

4. If an instance causes problems for enough Socel users, then the instance will be blocked at the admin level.

And done! We're now running v2.9.2!

Updates beginning now. Will post when done