@Aunormal
@lemmy.autism.placeIt makes sense to first start with the Fediverse. The Fediverse is a collection of instances (i.e. servers) that host Fediverse services and communicate with other instances to disseminate information. One of those services is Lemmy.
Lemmy is free and open-source software (FOSS) that can be used to host link aggregation and discussion forums. It is similar to Reddit in appearance and user experience, but with the major differences being (1) that Lemmy is FOSS, (2) rather than one Reddit there are many Lemmy instances, and (3) Lemmy can communicate with other Fediverse services running ActivityPub.
You are currently reading a post that was made to lemmy.autism.place. This is a Lemmy instance with the specific purpose of autistic users and allies to have an online place of their own founded on the principle of autism acceptance. As such, we have specific rules and guidelines to help meet that purpose which can be review at out Terms of Use.
Lemmy.autism.place and all other autism.place services are financially maintained by private persons because we believe in it purpose. If you would like to help pay for our costs, please any of the donation links in our instance sidebar.
Each instance is managed by its own team and connects to other instances they allow connections with (i.e. federate/federation) while blocking federations with instances chosen by the administrators. All instances have their own purpose and rules set forth by their administrators.
Users can create communities (similar to sub-reddits) on Lemmy to aggregate posts and comments based on their desired purpose. Once a user creates a community, they become a moderator in charge of maintaining that community. Other users can then join the community and participate by posting links, making text posts, or commenting within posts. Posts and comments can also be voted on by users. Common understanding is that upvotes suggest that the content is worthy of being seen and downvotes suggest that the content is not worthy of being seen. It is important to consider that voting does not imply agreement or disagreement. Therefore, a user that disagrees with a comment but believes it is an interesting discussion could upvote it for visibility.
Lemmy can be personalized so that users can increase the content they are exposed to and discussions in which they participate.
Communities are created to share and discuss content typically revolving around a common interests. Users can create or subscribe to communities so that their posted content is shown in the user's home feed. Communities can be found through the search function which can be accessed by clicking on the magnifying glass on the top right of the main feed.
Sometimes, communities on instances that have not been federated with may not show up at first. To force lemmy.autism.place to federate with another instance that hosts a community you would like to join, search for the community by placing the community name followed by the instance as follows: ![community]@[instance]. For example, one would enter "!autism@lemmy.world" which would force our instance to federate with lemmy.world. This will mostly be an issue in the beginning of our instance since users will eventually cause our instance to federate with other popular instances as they make use of our lemmy.
We have created a moderation guide for our instance.
When someone logs onto a Lemmy instance, they are typically shown their home feed. This is a list of content posted onto Lemmy. However, the feed can be adjusted to aggregate communities based on certain factors.
The order of content in the news feed can also be adjusted.
Because the content on Lemmy is submitted by users, there is a vast diversity of what is shared. Some of the content will be material that is not appropriate for places of business/work, public, or minors. This content is referred to as Not Safe For Work (NSFW), and can include nudity, pornography, erotica, and violence. Our rules require that users mark NSFW content accordingly. Lemmy settings allow users to filter out NSFW posts from their feeds to avoid accidentally accessing it. Do block NSFW posts, go to your profile settings and uncheck the box next to "Show NSFW content".
Lemmy.autism.place allows users to select among various aesthetic themes. To review and change themes:
Users can adjust their user profiles to control how they represent themselves on Lemmy. A user can choose to have a display name (name presented on posts/comments) that differs from their username (name used to create and login to their account). Users can also change their avatar (small picture shown in posts/comments) and profile banners. Additionally, users can opt to include their Matrix username so that other users can contact them via that system.
Users can contribute to the site by posting and commenting in communities.
Users can make posts to either (a) share a link, (b) share an image, or (c) create a discussion (i.e. text-post). Posts must be made into an appropriate community. Therefore, to make a post, go to the main feed of the relevant community, and click on the Create Post button on the right and complete the form. Including a title is mandatory. Including a URL, image, or body is optional, but at least one of them must be included. Posts that include content that is not appropriate to access from employment locations, in public, in family settings, or by minors must be marked as NSFW (i.e. not safe for work). This informs users of the content nature of the post before accessing it. The following content must be marked as NSFW:
Comments are statements that users make within a post. They are hierarchical in nature so that users can either respond directly to a post (i.e. top-level comment) or to another comment. Top-level comments are flushed left, where as next-level comments are indented one-over from the comment it is a response to.
The text included in post bodies and comments can be formatted using Markdown syntax.
For more information on how to use Lemmy, review the "For Users" section of this guide.
The intent of autism.place is to create a multi-service online community for autistic people and allies with the principle of autism acceptance. As such, autism.place is designed based on autistic culture so that autistic users can feel at home and flourish. Our first service is a lemmy site, with hopes of establishing other Fediverse services as we grow.
Autism acceptance is founded in the perspective of neurodiversity, which recognizes a diversity of human cognition as fact and an evolutionary consequence of our environment. As such, autism is not seen as a problem to address or condition to cure. Rather, it is a valid neurological expression with its own strengths and difficulties. From a sociological approach, this perspective implies that many of the difficulties that autistic people experience are not inherent to their neurological type, but a consequence of general human culture. Therefore, autism acceptance involves not only accepting autistic people as they are, but also adjusting human society to be inclusive of them.
We have provided an intro and guide to using lemmy.autism.place that can be accessed here. For list of our current communities, please visit this link.
Make sure to read our Terms of Use to abide by the instance's rules.
Note: This document will be expanded and updated on as we grow.
Thanks for creating and/or moderating a community on lemmy.austism.place! As previous moderators, we know that it is a difficult job that is often thankless, so we want to make sure your work is appreciated. To help you with moderating communities on our server, we have provided the guidelines posted below. As a reminder, the purpose of lemmy.autism.place is to provide an lemmy instance that is tailored for autistic culture. Please keep that in mind with all moderation practices.
If you have any recommended changes or additions to these guidelines, please post them below. This instance will become what we make of it, so lets work together in our aunarchistic fashion to create the best place we can as an autistic and allied community.
The intent of autism.place is to create a multi-service online community for autistic people and allies with the principle of autism acceptance. As such, autism.place is designed based on autistic culture so that autistic users can feel at home and flourish. In order to meet this goal, we have established the following Terms of Use (ToU). Anyone using or accessing any autism.place website or service is agreeing to these Terms of Use.
"We", "us", "the website", and "the instance" refer to any site hosted by autism.place.
"Community" and "communities" refer to any sort of grouping of users based on a common interest within autism.place. This includes Lemmy communities and Matrix chat rooms.
These ToU will be updated occasionally. It is the users responsibility to stay updated by checking them regularly.
Autism.place provides Fediverse instances that grant users media to share digital information with other users. As such, content that is shared on autism.place is not representative of or endorsed by autism.place.
Users are not allowed to use any autism.place website or service for illegal activities. Autism.place will place systematic measures to prevent the use of its services for illegal activities as best as possible. Users that become aware of any other users using any autism.place services for illegal activities are required to report the content to autism.place moderators or administrators.
All users must adhere to the following rules in order to access and use any autism.place sites or services. Violation of these rules may result in being banished from the site permanently.
In order to provide services that meets our purpose, autism.place maintains the following rights:
We may modify the ToU as we see fit.
Modify services to help meet our purpose as we see fit.
We may remove content or users that violate our ToU. We may also ban users permanently for gross or repeated violations of the ToU.
Banishing communities for gross or repeated violations of the ToU.
Autism.place is currently hosted on a server in Germany, so we are governed by German and European Union laws.