Code Of Conduct
cooler.mom is an instance for moms; 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 mother does not mean identifying or being labeled as a woman, nor does it mean you are physically capable of giving birth or breastfeeding. In that spirit, cooler.mom 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 cooler.mom. There is not an appeals process.
Sharing your experiences as a mother 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.
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 cooler.mom users); it is the easiest way for an admin to identify abuse.
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 breastfeeding 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.
cooler.mom 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. Cooler.mom will not federate with any instance associated with the white supremacist platform Gab.