hey folks. here's a new FAQ on the community, since the currently pinned thread is a bit haphazard and crammed now, and we've had more time to go over stuff.
What is Beehaw?
in summary, we're a community that wants to cultivate a sense of real belonging to something, to foster meaningful conversations, and to ensure everyone feels valued and respected in a way that isn't the case with other social media out there. we've thought and written a lot about this. if you'd like more than that summary, we strongly encourage you to read the following three essays, which explain how this community is run, what we priortize in running it, and why we've designed it this way generally:
This sounds very cool! How do I join?
you don't need to write a whole essay, however: please answer the question fully, and try to engage with at least some of the content above/on the sidebar before you register.
this is not personal, but we've grown a lot in the past week and are primarily interested in users who really care for the philosophy of our community. if you don't answer the question fully, you will likely get caught in registration limbo (see below).
How long should I expect to wait to be approved?
anywhere from a few minutes to a day. in general, try logging in after about 24 hours.
if you haven't been approved within 24 hours your application is almost certainly in limbo because you didn't answer our entry question to our satisfaction. this doesn't mean we're rejecting you, per se, but it generally means we didn't think you engaged with the content above/on the sidebar. we finally have a hack solution to denials devised and automated, so as of now if you're a new registration you should eventually get a denial email (and have the username you chose wiped, so you can reapply with it). if you're in registration limbo you should also eventually get an email, although we have no idea how long it'll take to get.
if you have been approved and you used an email to sign up you should receive an email for that, although it might be marked as spam. we're still trying to get Gmail to consistently take our emails, so again the 24 hour rule is best if you're unsure or haven't received one.
if you have issues of this sort, please report them in the following thread!
I'm in! How can I keep Beehaw running, or otherwise contribute?
our instance is 100% user-funded. you can one-time donate or become a monthly donor here. you can donate anonymously both ways. as far as we're aware cryptocurrency is accepted by OpenCollective, it's just more laborious and you'll probably have to contact them to clear it.
if you have volunteer labor or advice you're willing to give us on how to keep the site running smoothly, we also generally appreciate that. our Matrix and Discord communities are the best way to offer that stuff to us.
How do I help keep the community running smoothly?
be considerate! think about the things you say and how you want to say them; be kind and charitable; don't assume the worst of people; but above all: Be(e) nice!
it might seem trite, but genuinely we've found there is no better distillation of what we want to accomplish here than that ethos. if something makes you feel like that ethos is being violated, err on the side of caution and report it (on desktop it's the flag button in the three dot menu on any post). it can't hurt. so far though we've found most people kind of know what we mean, and we're hopeful you'll be able to pick up on that too.
as for non-moderation ways you can keep things running: contribute to discussions! share stuff you find interesting! contribute your expertise and help out folks when they ask for it! it's okay—and very understandable—to lurk based on the toxicity commonplace on other social media, but we really do try to make this space as welcoming as possible to everyone here and we hope you'll find it a safer place to come out of your online shell.
What else should I know?
we always take feedback. while we can't promise any changes, you can provide thoughts and comments on just about anything on the site in Beehaw Support, or on Discord or Matrix (where we maintain real-time chat). we try to get a sense of what the community wants and needs all the time, so we'll frequently be asking for input from you to help inform our decisions.
downvotes are disabled on this instance and will probably always be. we find them unproductive. communities cannot be made by users on here. we do take feedback on what gets made and when to make communities, as a part of the above point. you can always find a running list of communities we have at this link, or under the Communities button on desktop.
we are all volunteers, and this is not a job for us. we would like to not have it be one, so we can just be members of the community with all of you. please help keep it that way!
in the very, very long term, we aspire to become a co-op or similar, as a part of fulfilling our ethos.
as with the last thread, feel free to sound off on other questions you have. i, other mods, and community members will try to get to them as able.