Socel Admin @admin@socel.net

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

Updates will take place later today. Some downtime is possible but should be minimal.

Updates complete!

We're now running v2.9.0 which includes some exciting new features!

Check them out here: https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2019/06/mastodon-2.9/

Updates beginning momentarily. Some downtime is possible but expected toe be minimal.

Updates will hopefully take place in approximately two hours from now.

An update will be sent out when complete :)

I am noticing that spammers are signing up and using existing roots from real users to evade detection.

Please report any accounts on this instance or others that enengage in spamming or feature spam links on their profile pages.

Socel appears to have been delisted from the directory of Mastodon.

Apparently a new covenant went into effect without any notification to me: https://joinmastodon.org/covenant

I am working to get us relisted so that we can continue to grow the community and maintain a place for animation and related arts within the fediverse.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

Updates complete!

Updates beginning momentarily. Again, some downtime is possible until they are complete.

Updates should take place later this evening (Saturday). As usual some downtime is possible but expected to be minimal.

An update will be posted when complete.

Upgrades will hopefully take place this coming weekend. As always, an announcement will be made before they commence :)