A year ago, I realised that competing with other people via Strava wasn’t good for my physical or mental health. I wondered about setting up a friendly Fediverse instance for exercise-related updates and chat. This turned into exercise.cafe, running on Pixelfed.
A year later, I’ve posted screenshots of most of my runs there, as well as swims and gym sessions. Other people have done likewise about the different activities they’re into. One person in particular (@ryancoordinator) has been using it every day.
It was only yesterday that I was once again describing how I subscribe to the SOFA principle of starting things but not necessarily keeping them going. So I’m delighted that, at a time when I was thinking of shutting it down, Ryan has volunteered to take over the ownership and running of exercise.cafe. We’re currently in the midst of handing things over, but I’m really pleased that it will keep going.
Ryan has experience of running all kinds of platforms and events, so I think that the site is in good hands. If you’re interested in joining exercise.cafe, registrations remain open!
Configuration is ongoing, and I’m on the lookout for moderators, but I wanted to keep the momentum going on this project. Please register if you would like to share and discuss things related to exercise and fitness (and can agree with the Code of Conduct below!)
For those new to the Fediverse, this is an instance of Pixelfed, which is kind of like a federated/decentralised version of Instagram. The difference is that your updates can be followed by anyone from a compatible instance.
Code of Conduct v0.1
Exercise.cafe is a community focused on sharing and discussion of exercise and fitness-related activities. It’s a friendly, non-judgemental space.
The following behaviours all help make exercise.cafe a positive environment:
Demonstrating empathy and kindness toward other people
Being respectful of differing opinions, viewpoints, and experiences
Giving and gracefully accepting constructive feedback
Accepting responsibility and apologizing to those affected by our mistakes, and learning from the experience
Focusing on what is best not just for us as individuals, but for the overall community
Examples of unacceptable behaviour include:
Public or private harassment
Sexual attention or advances of any kind
Trolling, insulting or derogatory comments, and personal or political attacks
Publishing others’ private information, such as a physical or email address, without their explicit permission
Other conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate in a social setting, including excessive advertising
We welcome members regardless of qualities such as gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, body size, age, race, nationality, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, family structure, spirituality, religion (or lack thereof), education, or other personal traits. We particularly celebrate diversity and do not tolerate bigotry or prejudice. Diverse opinions on politics, religion, and other matters are welcome as long as they align with our core values. For the avoidance of doubt, this is anti-racist, anti-fascist, and anti-transphobic space.
Enforcement
Instances of abusive, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable behaviour may be reported using the built-in tools of the platform. All complaints will be reviewed and investigated promptly and fairly, respecting the privacy and security of the reporter of any incident.
Consequences for actions deemed to be violations of this Code of Conduct:
1. Correction
Community Impact: Use of inappropriate language or other behaviour deemed unprofessional or unwelcome in the community.
Consequence: Removal of contravening content. A private, written warning from community leaders, providing clarity around the nature of the violation and an explanation of why the behavior was inappropriate. A public apology may be requested.
2. Warning
Community Impact: A violation through a single incident or series of actions.
Consequence: Removal of contravening content. A warning with consequences for continued behaviour. No interaction with the people involved, including unsolicited interaction with those enforcing the Code of Conduct, for a specified period of time. This includes avoiding interactions in other spaces, too. Violating these terms may lead to a temporary or permanent ban.
3. Temporary Ban
Community Impact: A serious violation of community standards, including sustained inappropriate behavior.
Consequence: Removal of contravening content. A temporary ban from any sort of interaction or public communication with the community for a specified period of time. No public or private interaction with the people involved, including unsolicited interaction with those enforcing the Code of Conduct, is allowed during this period. Violating these terms may lead to a permanent ban.
4. Permanent Ban
Community Impact: Demonstrating a pattern of violation of community standards, including sustained inappropriate behavior, harassment of an individual, or aggression toward or disparagement of classes of individuals.
Consequence: Removal of contravening content. A permanent ban from any sort of public interaction within the community.
This instance is run by Doug Belshaw (@doug) and the moderators are:
[looking for volunteers!]
If you feel that you have been treated unfairly by a moderator of this instance, please make this clear to another moderator. Please be aware, however, that direct messages are not yet end-to-end encrypted.
Funding
This server will be supported by donations. The ability to do this will be set up at a future date.
Blocked servers
Exercise.cafe is a node of the Fediverse network. While users can block individual users from other servers, the following servers are blocked for all users of exercise.cafe. This is due to actions which contravene our code of conduct.
[list of known problematic servers will be found here]
