How to use ten4

ten4 is a CB channel for truckers on the fediverse: post what's happening on the road, answer with 10-codes, and follow drivers here and on Mastodon. Everything here is safe for work.

1. Getting started

Request an account

1. Open Sign in and choose Request an account.
2. Pick your handle: your CB name, 2–30 lowercase letters, numbers, or _. It becomes your address (like @rubberduck@ten-4.us) and can't be changed later.
3. Choose a password of at least 10 characters.
4. Tell us about yourself: what you drive or haul, how long you've been on the road, how you found ten4. An admin reads this.
5. Read the Terms of Service and tick the box. You must be 18 or older, and posts must be safe for work.
6. Press Request my account.

Waiting for approval

You're signed in right away, and a bar at the top says your request is waiting. You can read channels, road reports, and profiles. Once an admin approves you, the bar goes away and you can post, reply, follow, and upload. If the request is denied, the account is removed and you can send a new request.

Have an invite code or link from someone? Paste it in the Invite code box. Invites skip the wait: your account works immediately.

Updated terms

If the Terms of Service change, a bar asks you to read and accept them. Until you press I agree, you can read but not post.

2. Posting (getting on the air)

• On the home page, type in the box and press Transmit (or Ctrl+Enter). Posts can be up to 500 characters.
• Leave the page and your unsent text is kept as a draft in this browser.
• Pick a channel from the menu next to + 10-code, or post from the channel's own page.
• Start a post with a code and a colon, like 10-13: chains on Vail Pass, and the code shows as a badge.
• Delete appears on your own posts. It asks first and can't be undone; replies to it stay up.

Safe for work, always: no nudity, gore, hate, harassment, or anyone's private information. See the Terms. And never post while driving.

3. Answering with 10-codes

• Tap 10-4… under any post, then tap a code. That sends a reply that's just the code: one tap to answer.
• When writing, use + 10-code to add any code, with or without text.
• Typing only a code, like 10-4! or ten-four, is turned into a code answer automatically.
• Chips like 10-4 ×3 under a post show how drivers answered. Tap a code to see its meaning on the 10-codes page, where you can search every code and slang term.

4. Photos and video

Photos

Press 📷 in the post box to add up to 4 photos (JPEG or PNG, 8 MB each). Each needs a short description so drivers using screen readers can follow along. ten4 removes all hidden data from every photo, including the GPS location phones record. Your profile photo works the same way.

Video

Press 🎬 to add one clip: up to 60 seconds and 50 MB (MP4, iPhone MOV, or WebM). A video goes in a post on its own and needs a description. After you press Transmit, ten4 uploads and converts it (a few seconds to a minute) so it plays everywhere, and removes the location data phones put in videos.

Longer video

Put it on YouTube, PeerTube, or Vimeo and paste the link into your post. ten4 shows a "Watch on…" card. It doesn't embed the other site's player, so nobody's feed loads YouTube's trackers just by scrolling past.

Photos and videos from other servers show as links; ten4 doesn't load them automatically.

5. Your storage (5 GB)

• Every driver gets 5 GB for photos and videos. Text posts don't count. See your meter on the Storage page.
• At 80% and 95% full, a bar at the top lets you know.
• Go over 5 GB and just enough of your oldest photos and videos is scheduled for removal 14 days later. The Storage page lists exactly which ones and the date.
• To keep them: press Download my content to get a .zip of all your posts and media, and/or delete posts with photos or videos you don't need. Within an hour of being back under the limit, the removal is cancelled.
• After the date, the scheduled photos and videos are deleted for good. The posts stay, marked "media removed".

6. Channels and feeds

• Channel 19 (home page) shows every new post on ten4 (not replies).
• Home shows your posts and those of drivers you follow, with their replies and relays.
• Channels has topics (Road & Weather, Parking, Scales, Shop Talk, Off Duty) and interstates (I-5 to I-95). Each has a hashtag (like #I80), so fediverse drivers you follow who use it show up there too.

7. 10-13 road reports

Open 10-13 to file a report: highway, direction, mile marker (optional), condition, and how long it's good for (6 hours unless you pick otherwise). ten4 writes it up, like "I-80 WB MM 235: Chains required", and puts interstate reports on that highway's channel. Reports vanish when they expire; press Mark cleared on yours if things open up sooner. Filter by highway to see just your route. Keep reports honest; drivers rely on them.

8. 10-20 check-ins (optional)

Check-ins are off until you turn them on in your profile. A check-in is a public post with a town or truck stop and a state (plus a highway if you like). ten4 never uses GPS and refuses coordinates. Your latest check-in shows on your profile for 24 hours. Never post anyone else's location.

9. Following, replies, relays

• Click a driver's name to open their profile, then Follow. "follows you" means they follow you.
• ↩ Reply opens the conversation with a reply box.
• ⟲ Relay (10-5) passes a post along to your followers. Click again to undo.
• ✓ Copy means "copy that": you heard it. Click again to undo.

10. The fediverse

ten4 can talk to Mastodon and other fediverse servers, but only ones the ten4 admin has approved. Your address is @yourhandle@ten-4.us.

• Follow someone elsewhere: open Find, type their address (like @name@mastodon.example), open their profile, and press Follow. Some accounts approve followers by hand; until they do, the button says Requested.
• If Find says the server "isn't connected to ten4", it hasn't been approved yet. Your lookup puts it on the admin's waiting list; try again once it's approved.
• Their public posts show up in your Home feed with a fediverse tag. Followers-only posts and direct messages aren't shown here.
• Codes work across servers: a "10-4!" from Mastodon shows as a 10-code here.
• Posts with a content warning stay folded until you open them.

11. Mute, block, report

• Mute (on a profile) hides someone's posts and relays from your feeds. They aren't told.
• Block also ends follows both ways, hides your posts from each other here, and stops them following or replying to you. Their server is told so it can do the same.
• Report (under a post or on a profile): pick what's wrong and add a note. ten4's admins review every report. For drivers on other servers you can also send it to their server's admins, without your name.

12. Your profile and data

• Click your @handle in the header to set your display name, profile photo, rig, years driving, home 20, a sign-off, and a short bio. These show here and on other fediverse servers.
• Download your content any time from Storage: a .zip with posts.json (every post) and all your photos and videos.
• To delete your account, write to the admins on the contact page.

Contact the admins

Open Contact (also in the footer), pick a topic, and write. Anyone can use it, even without an account or while your request is waiting. Signed in, you'll see the admins' reply on the Contact page and a notice at the top of the page. Signed out, leave a way to reach you if you want an answer. To flag a specific post, use its Report button instead.

13. For admins

The Admin page (link in the header, with a red count when something is waiting) is where you approve account requests and servers, make invites, review reports, and block servers. It has its own admin guide.

Running ten4 (developers)

1. Copy .env.example to .env.
2. Run docker compose up (add --profile fedi for the GoToSocial test peer).
3. Create the first invite with docker compose exec app go run ./cmd/server invite and sign up with it: while the server has no admin, the account made with an invite becomes the admin. Account requests never do. (Production: see DEPLOY.md.)