Be really, really careful if you're blocking an entire server (also known as "block domain").
If you block an entire server, that will remove all your follows and followers from that server. If you unblock, the follows and followers will not be restored automatically, you have to manually do them again.
There is (or should be) a warning about this if you try to block a server. If you are not seeing this warning, please reply in this thread with which app or interface you use.
Mastodon has a built-in translation system for posts in other languages. For it to work, three things have to happen:
- Your server has to offer the service
- Your language settings have to be correct
- The person posting has to use the correct language settings
If all these are ok, you will see a "Translate" link below the post or in the post's ⋯ menu when you encounter a post in a foreign language.
Lots more info and questions answered at:
➡️ https://fedi.tips/is-there-a-built-in-language-translation-system-on-mastodon
On Mastodon, if you've clicked a "Follow" button and it turns into "Pending" or "Cancel Follow" or "Request Sent", it means the follow hasn't actually happened yet.
Usually it's because the account has follow requests switched on, so you just wait for them to approve your request.
However, sometimes it's due to other reasons, and you may have to do something special to get the follow to work. Lots of info and full instructions at:
➡️ https://fedi.tips/why-does-it-say-follow-request-sent-when-i-try-to-follow-an-account
It's really important to add text descriptions when you're posting images, video or audio files. However, it's not always easy to remember to do it, so there is a special account which reminds you if you forget:
Just follow the account, and it will follow you back and DM you if you post something without a description.
To stop getting reminders, unfollow the account, then block and unblock it so that it unfollows you.
More info at: https://fedi.tips/how-do-i-remember-to-add-text-descriptions-on-mastodon-and-the-fediverse
If you see something nasty or problematic on here, report it. Reporting is how admins find out about problems, so it's important that you speak up if you see something is wrong or if someone is being bullied.
To report something, click on a post or profile, then ⋯ and then "Report". There's a complete guide to reporting problematic posts and accounts here:
➡️ https://fedi.tips/how-do-i-report-a-post-or-account-that-is-doing-something-bad
The guide also answers questions about reporting. Let me know if I've missed something 🙂
Am looking for a new host to move to, not because this one has a lot of down time but because Mastodon . Social refuse to up the 500 character limit and it's getting to be too much of a limitation & too annoying for me, suggestions on hosts welcome (not Aus . Social or Mastodon . Au, I've tried those).
Prerequisites needed:
- Minimum 1000+ character posts
- Minimum 99% uptime
You can set Mastodon's web interface to be in another language if you want:
1. Log in through your server’s website or the web app
2. Click ⚙️ Preferences
3. Select the language you want from the dropdown "Interface Language" menu
4. Click "Save Changes" button
You don't have to use your server's default language, all the languages are available on all the servers.
This only works when you're signed in though, so you will still see your server's language on the sign-in page.
How to see which hashtags you are following in Mastodon:
- If you're on the website go to your profile page, click ⋯ and then "Followed hashtags"
- If you're on the official app, go to your profile page and click # at the top
- If you're on a third party app, it will be various different interfaces but it's often in the settings or profile settings
When you're signing up on a server or moving your account to a different server, you have to choose a username. This is the name that appears when people mention you in posts (when they @ you). It's worth spending a bit of time on choosing a good one, because it's difficult to change it later.
Here are some tips on how to choose a good username:
➡️ https://fedi.tips/choosing-a-good-username-on-mastodon-and-the-fediverse
It also goes over options for changing the username if you have to.
If you see "🧵 1/3" or "2/5" or "🧵" or similar at the end of a post, it means it's part of a thread of posts.
You can create a thread here by replying to your own post, then replying to that reply, and repeating this until you have a long chain of posts called a thread.
You can see the thread a post comes from by clicking on it, this takes you to an enlarged view where you can scroll up or down to see the whole thread.
More info about creating threads at:
There are four main timelines on Mastodon:
Home - Your default timeline, posts from people & tags & groups you follow
Explore/Trending - Shows most boosted recent posts, most used tags, most shared links
Local - Latest public posts from people on your server (also called Live Feeds: This Server)
Federated - Latest public posts visible to your server from across the Fediverse (also called Live Feeds: All)
More info about these on the timelines guide:
By request, I've tried to do a guide for organisations that are interested in joining Mastodon and the Fediverse:
➡️ https://fedi.tips/tips-for-organisations-on-mastodon-and-the-fediverse
Any kind of feedback would be appreciated, especially if you are involved with an organisation of any kind.
If you're only using Mastodon through the official mobile apps, you're missing out on many of its features such as pinned posts, temporary mutes, scheduled posts, different poll types, account redirects and more.
If you want the complete Mastodon experience, you might want to try using your server's website, third party apps, web apps, desktop apps etc.
More info on all the different ways of accessing Mastodon in the guide here:
➡️ https://fedi.tips/which-apps-can-i-use-should-i-use-the-official-app-or-a-third-party-app
💡 FEDI. TIPS
Boosting is really important on the Fediverse because it makes whatever you boost federate its gayness to the entire servers of your followers. A boosted post makes your followers' timelines more gay, and also contributes to the gayness of everyone on the servers of your followers.
Instead of venture capital, the Fediverse relies on human beings sharing gayness. This process creates a wonderful rainbow of gayness.
Ω🪬Ω
new release of #Fedialgo, the customizable timeline algorithm / filtering system for your Mastodon feed, counts the number of times each hashtag appears in your timeline even if people don't use a "#" character to give you a better sense of what people are talking about in the Fediverse.
there's a little bit of art vs. science here because some strings are disqualified from this kind of counting (e.g. a word like "the" should not be counted even if some maniac decided to make it a hashtag) so let me know if you see any weirdly high counts.
* Link: https://michelcrypt4d4mus.github.io/fedialgo_demo_app_foryoufeed/
* Code: https://github.com/michelcrypt4d4mus/fedialgo_demo_app_foryoufeed
* Video of FediAlgo in action: https://universeodon.com/@cryptadamist/114395249311910522
#activitypub #algorithm #algorithmicFeed #algorithmicTimeline #Fedi #FediTips #FediTools #Fediverse #Feed #FOSS #Masto #MastoAdmin #Mastodon #mastohelp #MastoJS #nodejs #node #opensource #SocialWeb #timeline #TL #webdev #hashtag #typescript #hashtags
If you're looking for interesting accounts to follow on here, there are lots of ways you can discover them:
(I've tried to list every method, let me know in the replies if I've missed something!)
BookWyrm is a Fediverse alternative to Amazon Goodreads. BookWyrm has a built-in book catalogue you can choose details from, but if you can't find a particular book you can add it to BookWyrm manually:
➡️ https://fedi.tips/how-to-manually-add-a-book-on-bookwyrm
This guide also answers some common questions about adding books manually.
If you're unfamiliar with BookWyrm and want to find out more about it, there's a general guide to it at:
➡️ https://fedi.tips/bookwyrm-a-social-network-for-people-who-enjoy-reading
Have you ever seen a post or thread that you want to look at again after a certain amount of time?
There is a Fediverse reminder bot which you can use to remind you about a particular thread after a specified time period (it can be minutes, hours, days, weeks, months or years later).
To use the bot, reply to the post or thread you want reminding about, mentioning the bot's account with the amount of time you want. More info and instructions in the guide:
➡️ https://fedi.tips/is-there-a-reminder-bot-for-mastodon-and-the-fediverse
1. Is anyone else getting routed to chinese language when they visit this URL? because i am: https://docs.joinmastodon.org/methods/apps/ (i end up at the URL https://docs.joinmastodon.org/zh-cn/methods/apps/ - note the "zh-cn" in the path.
i doublechecked my browser locale, VPN, etc. etc. and there's nothing configured for mainland chinese locale, but this happened even after clearing cache data for joinmastodon.org
2. who maintains the #JoinMastodon site?
cc: @mastodonmigration @FediTips @fediversereport @LaurensHof
Just to put into context the "copy & paste" trick on the Fediverse:
- If your server has already noticed an account or post, you can search for it and interact with it totally normally without any copy-pasting.
- If your server *hasn't* noticed an account or post but you know it exists, you can make your server notice it by copy-pasting the account or post address into your server's search box.
Copy-pasting is just meant as a last resort for stuff your server hasn't noticed yet.
If you're on mastodon.social, you might want to move your account to a different server:
➡️ https://fedi.tips/its-a-really-bad-idea-to-join-a-big-server
The Fediverse is protected from takeover as long as we are spread out on many servers. If one server dominates, takeovers become easier.
Mastodon.social is currently 25.5% of the active Fediverse. This proportion is way too large and seems to be increasing.
Larger servers also tend to have worse moderation and are harder to defederate, threatening safety.
Want to publish videos on the Fediverse? Here are some #PeerTube servers with sign-ups open:
https://tubefree.org (general)
https://spectra.video (general)
https://makertube.net (for creative people who make or fix things)
https://video.gamerstavern.online (gaming-related videos)
https://urbanists.video (urban planning & public transport)
https://video.hardlimit.com (tech & gaming in English & Spanish)
https://video-cave-v2.de (German-language videos)
More info:
➡️ https://fedi.tips/how-to-publish-videos-and-audio-on-peertube
