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The s3x_SOCIAL Nostr relay

About our relay

The s3x_SOCIAL relay is an explicitly sex-positive, LGBTQ-friendly Nostr relay that genuinely values your privacy.

Even though most of what is posted on Nostr is public, and the rest of it is fairly well encrypted, we still act on the premise that what you post to Nostr may be "personally-identifiable information". To that end we take steps most relays can't be bothered with:

  • Our database is on an encrypted drive partition even though encrypting the drive is of limited value when the relay is running.
  • When we copy data from the relay, we copy either to database tables that are encrypted or into databases that are on encrypted drives.
  • All of our database backups are encrypted.
  • We only allow encrypted connections to our server. People can see that you're requesting something from our server, but not what that something is.
  • We have enabled "HSTS" (HTTP Strict Transport Security) which greatly reduces the chance someone can trick you into using their proxy server to see your data. We'd rather the service fail in those situations than have your data exposed.
  • We block you from accessing the relay / site from countries where your life may be in danger for viewing certain types of sensitive content. The countries we currently block are: Iran, Iraq, Mauritania, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Please use a VPN to access our relay / site if you are in those countries.

relay.s3x.social has restricted access

Anyone can read from our relay for free. To write to it you need to sign up with us or pay to use the relay…

Before you sign up with us…

This site / relay is not for everyone. Please take a moment to understand our values. If they do not align with your values, think twice about signing up.

TL;DR (read this section!)

While there are Nostr relays that allow any type of behavior, this relay does not take that approach. It's probably most concise to say we approach content moderation from a "left-leaning libertarian" perspective.

This site / relay is:

  • LGBT-owned and operated
  • Very closely associated with the porn industry (hence the euphemism of s3x implying sex)

⚠️ Please Take Time To Understand Our Approach To Content Moderation…

Legal Parameters
  • We are legally required to comply with US law. We try to comply with at least the spirit of laws outside the US provided they do not contradict our values.
  • While we believe sex work is real work and there is no shame in being a prostitute, sadly FOSTA/SESTA is the law in the US and and we are forced to comply. As a result we cannot allow content which promotes or facilitates prostitution.
  • In order to preserve Section 230 protections, we do not proactively moderate content. We only moderate content that is brought to our attention.
  • We cooperate with law enforcement up to the point that it would compromise the privacy of our user. Beyond that point we require a warrant signed by a US judge. We will attempt to challenge warrants that go against our values.
  • We proactively report egregious things such as Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). That said, we reject the idea that a minor is a sexual offender for sharing photos/videos of themselves (e.g. "sexting" and its Nostr equivalent).

Here is where we stand on recent hot-button issues:

Politics
  • We are deeply concerned by the rise in authoritarianism around the world.
  • We believe Trump, DeSantis, Bolsonaro and others like them are authoritarian figures who threaten democracy.
  • We believe politics is circular or horseshoe shaped and there's no meaningful difference in the policies of the extreme left and the extreme right. They do the same things - just for different reasons.
  • We believe people who advocate "Second Amendment Solutions" in a democratic country are violent terrorists.
Science & Medicine
  • We believe in science.
  • While we believe opinions can be useful, we believe opinions are not facts, and some opinions are more true than others.
  • We believe vaccines and other public health measures save lives. We also believe it was appropriate for those mandates to be relaxed/eliminated as the crisis abated.
  • We support people's right to refrain from certain public health measures, but we also support restricting those people's public activities if their activity may pose a significant risk to others. (i.e. Your right to swing your fist stops at my nose.)
Immigration
  • We believe the immigration issues along the US-Mexican border are a humanitarian crisis, not an "invasion".
  • We believe immigrants are a net benefit to US society.
Erotica & Porn
  • We believe sexual expression is protected free speech.
  • We do not believe casual nudity is harmful.
  • We believe young children should not accidentally see porn online and we do what we can to see that that's the case (but sadly it's easier said than done - so far).
  • We believe parents should say what kind of sensitive content is appropriate for their children - and in what contexts. We do not believe government should make that decision for them.
  • We believe in private contexts "obscenity" should be defined by the individual or the family. We believe government should only set obscenity standards for public contexts.
LGBTQ+ 🏳️‍🌈
  • This site is LGBT-owned and we will fiercely protect the LGBTQ+ community.
  • We believe trans women are women.
  • We belive trans men are men.
  • We believe people should be free to express their gender in whatever way they choose.
  • We believe in gender-affirming care for minors where surgery is only performed when absolutely necessary.
  • We believe there are more than two sexes. Some people are born intersexed and it's not a condition that needs to be fixed.
Other Civil & Human Rights Issues
  • We do not believe hate speech is protected free speech.
  • We believe religion is a private, personal matter. While we believe people should be free to be religiously observant, we are opposed to any attempt to impose one's religious values on others.
  • We believe Black Lives Matter and that it needed to be said because it wasn't clear everyone understood the truth of that statement.
  • We believe healthcare and housing are fundamental human rights.
  • We believe women should be free to make their own reproductive choices, in consultation with their doctors.

Please Take Time To Understand Our Infraction System

We use an infraction system to moderate content. These are the categories our moderators currently issue infractions for:

  • Illegal activity
    • Drugs
      • Promoting/encouraging drug use
      • Trying to initiate a drug transaction
    • Promotion/facilitation of prostitution (required by FOSTA/SESTA)
    • Illegal sex acts & obscenity
      • Bestiality
      • "Scat" and other legally obscene content
      • Promotion of sex with minors
      • Distribution of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM)
    • Copyright violations (e.g. distribution of pirated material)
    • Violence / cruelty
      • Suggesting / attempting non-consensual harm to another real person
      • Bullying / Uncessary rudeness
  • Bigotry / intolerance
    • Promoting / suggesting policies and actions that would harm a protected minority (e.g. the LGBT community)
  • Verifiably false statements and conspiracy theories (except in the context of satire)
    • Posting false statements as statements of fact when they are contradicted by the preponderance of the evidence.
    • Repeatedly trying to convince others of conspiracy theories by downplaying or ignoring the arguments against the conspiracy theory.
  • Spam

Our moderators are unpaid members of our community. We trust some of them more than others and we take that into consideration. We may act on the efforts of moderators working for other relays as well as automated moderation tools.

When an infraction is given we will usually delete the content from our relay / server and send the offending person a warning. We may also ban a person from our relay temporarily. Repeated violations will eventually result in being banned permanently from our relay and our other sites. We may ban permanently on the first offense if the infraction type is severe enough (e.g. CSAM or a flood of spam).

WE WILL NOT REFUND ANY AMOUNTS YOU MAY HAVE PAID TO USE THIS RELAY IF YOU VIOLATE OUR TERMS AND ARE BANNED FROM THE SITE AS A RESULT.

If you have questions about any of this you can reach us at support@studio3x.com.