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Fediverse instances with an explicit system of shared governance, usually made legally binding through an incorporated association or cooperative.
This page will list also instances which are closed for registrations and dead instances, so that we can collectively learn from their experience.
Originally created by @nemobis@mamot.fr inspired by a @Matt_Noyes@social.coop thread.
List
Different jurisdictions have different requirements on what kinds of entities can hold various assets, what kind of agreements are legally binding. Some flexibility is used in this list.
Incorporated instances
Where the instance (or the fediverse) is the/a main purpose of the entity.
- social.anoxinon.de - Anoxinon e.V., DE, EU (Mastodon)
- toot.aquilenet.fr, tube.aquilenet.fr - Aquilenet, FR, EU (Mastodon, PeerTube)
- chaos.social - chaos.social e.V., DE, EU (Mastodon)
- cosocial.ca - CoSocial community cooperative, CA (Mastodon)
- social.data.coop - for members of the cooperative, DK, EU (Mastodon)
- freiburg.social - freiburg.social e.V., DE, EU (Mastodon)
- hostsharing.coop - for members of the cooperative, DE, EU (Mastodon)
- kolektiva.social - Center For Ethical Livelihood, CA, USA (Mastodon)
- pol.social - Fundacja Technologie dla ludzi / technology for the people, PL, EU (Mastodon)
- sigmoid.social - The Gradient Inc., CA, USA (Mastodon)
- social.coop - transnational coop fiscally hosted by a UK coop (Mastodon)
- social.spaceint.fr - association SpaceInt, FR, EU (Mastodon)
- toot.kif.rocks - KIF e.V., Dortmund, DE, EU (Mastodon)
Run by a non-profit
- colearn.social - Corporate Learning Community gUG, DE, EU (Mastodon)
- digitalcourage.social - Digitalcourage e.V., DE, EU (Mastodon)
- dju.social - DJU/Ver.di, DE, EU (Mastodon)
- fem.social - FeM e.V., DE, EU (Mastodon)
- imd.social - Interactive Media Design Förderverein e.V., DE, EU (Mastodon)
- mamot.fr - La Quadrature du Net (LQDN), FR, EU (Mastodon)
- mastodon.sdf.org - SDF, USA (Mastodon)
- mastodon.pirateparty.be - PPBE, BE, EU (Mastodon)
- mastodon.acc.sunet.se - Academic Computer Club in Umeå, SE, EU (Mastodon)
- pouet.chapril.org - Chapril/April, free software association, FR, EU (Mastodon)
- sociale.network - Altrinformazione and Peacelink associations, IT, EU (Mastodon)
- social.bau-ha.us - Maschinenraum Weimar (physically hosted by Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, part of the student council), DE, EU (Mastodon)
Nowadays more may be listed on https://joinmastodon.org/servers
Self-publishing organisations
"Corporate" instances reserved to people who represent the corresponding entity are not listed here; these include party-only instances like social.linksfraktion.de, gruene.social. Publicly-owned and government instances might be listed in the "notable mentions" on the main list or in a list of Self-publishing organisations.
Affiliated with a non-profit
These may or may not be technically controlled by the non-profit yet, for example the domain name may be registered in the name of an individual, but seem likely to become so where needed.
- en.osm.town - for the OpenStreetMap Community (Mastodon)
- swiss-chaos.social - Chaos Computer Club Switzerland (Mastodon)
Under clarification
There are also multiple instances connected to hackerspaces, anarchist groups and other unincorporated collectives. Because it's hard to draw a line to describe such situations, they're currently not included here.
Other instances with explanatory resources:
- sunbeam.city - an associative/cooperative instance with a governance policy
Resources on running an instance
- Social.coop guide to democracy in the fediverse: How to make the fediverse your own
- See also: Social.coop: A Cooperative Decentralized Social Network, at OpenCollective (2020)
- See also: Fosstodon (lack of) succession plan
- See also: No management but self-management by Doug Belshaw (2022)
- See also: The Lawprofs Mastodon Instance – A Call for Community Volunteers (a discussion on governance with USA legal matters in mind)
- See also: Is Mastodon a commons? by Doc Searls, applying Elinor Ostrom's 8 principles for a common pool resource.
- Fiscal hosts
- Mastodon fundraisers at OpenCollective
- OpenCollective fiscal hosts
- OCF, OCE may be able to hold domain names, trademarks etc.
- On running chaos.social, by Tobias "rixx" Kunze (discussion)
- Run your own social by Darius Kazemi
- Grow your own services by FediThing
- Privacy policies, terms of service etc.: models and discussion
- EU: Mastodon Privacy Policy Generator and https://eupolicy.social/terms
- EU: Mastodon data protection guidance by privacat
- DE, EU: https://wisskomm.social/privacy-policy
- FR, EU: sciences.re Mentions légales, ropa
- IE, EU: https://github.com/clening/MastodonPrivacyGuide
- UK/EU: Notes on operating fediverse services
- EU: discussions on a coop for legal services, DSA VLOP provisions and delegated acts
- CA: discussions at #coSocialCa on a cooperative instance for Canada
- List of managed hosting providers
- EFF: "Who Has Your Back" recommendations
Related resources
- Elements of journal freedom (on the difficulties of preventing enclosure of academic journals)