bigshoulders.city is a Mastodon instance for Chicagoans current, former, and future.¹ Its name comes from Carl Sandburg, who once compared ships pulling out to “mastodons, arising from lethargic sleep.”²

Our goal for bigshoulders.city is to build a community of friends and neighbors across the Windy City. Toot your pho place recommendations, meet-up ideas (like at the mastodon exhibit at the Field!), pothole gripes, creative dibs, and cross-town baseball taunts—whatever you want, as long it abides by our short and sweet content policy.

For now, membership in bigshoulders.city is subject to approval. if you don’t have an invite or referral, email our admin with a Toot-length intro.³

Membership is also free: hosting, administration, and domain registration are provided by our admin. Right now that runs about $100 a year, not counting labor. You can buy him a coffee if you like.

Boundless credit to our sister instances in Portland and Philadelphia for inspiration.

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<sup>1. For the purpose of inclusivity, bigshoulders.city includes greater Chicagoland in its definition of "Chicago," though you personally should never do that.
2. From “Docks,” in Chicago Poems, 1916. Rejected URLs included noketchup.dogs, woptheb.am, dibs.team, and malort.report.</sup>
3. No more than 500 characters.