One of the best features on Mastodon and other Fedi platforms is that you can follow hashtags. This makes posts using that hashtag appear in your main timeline even if you aren’t following the person who made it, helping you discover interesting and relevant stuff.

Most tags are obvious and you don’t need help to discover them

You can find out how to follow hashtags in the guide, and most hashtags people use are just straightforward topic names such as #Gardening or #Cooking or #BoardGames etc. Basically, for any topic just stick # at the beginning of the word or phrase and capitalise the first letters of each word.

Some widely-used tags are non-obvious, so here is a list to help you discover them

However, there are also widely-used hashtags which you may not be aware of as they use unusual portmanteau words or phrases. Here is an attempt to list some of them:

#3GoodThings	People listing three good things that happened to them that day, or which they appreciate that day.
#A11y	Abbreviation of accessibility
#AcademicChatter	Academics discussing academia
#ActuallyAutistic & #AutisticPoster	Discussion by and for Autistic people
#AfroIndigenous	Discussion by and for Afro-Indigenous or Indigenous-Black peoples in North America
#ArtForSale	Art for sale from independent artists
#AskFedi	General queries on any topic, asking for advice or help
#Asstodon	Donkeys
#Astrodon	Space and astronomy topics
#BandcampFriday	Independent musicians on days when musicians selling via Bandcamp get to keep all the money from their sales
#BikeTooter	Cycling and bicycles
#BIPOC	North American acronym “Black Indigenous People of Colour”
#BlackMastodon & #BlackFedi	Discussion by and for Black people
#Bleptember	Animals sticking their tongues out in September
#Bloomscrolling	Flowers
#Bookstodon	Books
#Breadposting	Baking and breadmaking
#Bugstodon	Insects and arthropods
#CarryShitOlympics	Using cargo bikes to carry more stuff than one might expect
#Catstodon	Cats
#Caturday	Cats on Saturdays
#ClamFacts	Clam trivia
#Defaidodon	Sheep
#DogsOfMastodon	Dogs
#DOScember	MS-DOS computers, games and software during December
#FairTradeMusicFriday	Independent musicians using alternatives to Bandcamp including Faircamp and Mirlo
#FediAdmin	Running a Fediverse server
#FediArt	Posting art that you’ve made
#FediBlock	Recommending blocks of servers doing bad things, usually blocks by admins
#FediBlockMeta	Discussing the general topic of blocking on the Fediverse without actually suggesting blocks
#FediDogs	Dogs
#FediGiftShop	Art for sale from independent artists
#FediTips	Tips on using Mastodon and the wider Fediverse
#FensterFreitag	Views from windows or views of windows on Fridays
#FernFriday	Ferns on Fridays
#Florespondence	Flowers
#FollowFriday	Recommending accounts to follow on Fridays
#FootpathFriday	Hiking and walking trails on Fridays
#FossilFriday	Fossils on Fridays
#FridayThrillerClub	Watching a thriller together on Fridays
#FungiFriday	Fungi on Fridays
#GetFediHired & #FediHire	People looking for work, people offering work
#HashtagGames	Humorous posts based on wordplay challenges
#HawkPants	Hawks that look like they’re wearing trousers
#Histodons	History
#IndigenousCreatives	Art and crafts by Indigenous people
#Inktober	Drawing with ink during October
#InsectSaturday	Insects on Saturdays
#Introduction	Brief introduction post about yourself
#JMusicFriday	Japanese music on Fridays, sometimes with a specific theme each week
#JoinIn	Everyday life of people looking for conversation, especially at Christmas
#JukeboxFridayNight	Music on Fridays, often with a specific theme each week
#KPopMonday	K-Pop music on Mondays
#LandBack	Return of land to Indigenous peoples
#LazySunday	Relaxing stuff on Sundays
#LichenSubscribe	Lichens
#MacroMonday	Macro photography on Mondays
#MagicInTheMundane	Beauty in everyday objects or situations
#MakanApaToday	South-East Asian food
#Marchintosh	Old Macintosh computers during March
#MarshMadness	Photos of marshes
#MastoAdmin	Running a Mastodon server
#MastoArt	Posting art that you’ve made
#Mastodaoine & #MastodonIE	Ireland and Irish people
#MeerMittwoch	Sea views on Wednesdays
#MMIP & #MMIW & #MMIWG2S	Discussions of missing or murdered Indigenous people, acronyms standing for “Missing Murdered Indigenous People”, “Missing Murdered Indigenous Women”, “Missing Murdered Indigenous Women/Girls/Two Spirits”
#MondayActionMovie	Watching an action movie together on Mondays
#MondayMotivation	Helping people keep going on Mondays
#MonDog	Dogs on Mondays
#MonochromeMonday	Black and white photography on Mondays
#Monsterdon	Watching monster movies together
#MosaicMonday	Photos of mosaics on Mondays
#Mosstodon	Moss
#MountainMonday	Photos of mountains on Mondays
#Movember	Growing moustaches during November to raise awareness of men’s health issues
#MovieClub	Watching films together, new film every two weeks
#Mushtodon	Mushrooms and fungi
#MusicWomenWednesday	Musical women on Wednesdays
#NowPlaying & #NP	Music
#NowReading	Books
#PhDLife & #PhDone	Discussion by PhD students and recent ex-students
#SaturdayScenery	Landscape photography on Saturdays
#SepTandy	Tandy computers during September
#ShrimpSunday	Shrimps and prawns on Sundays
#SilentSunday	Calm photos on Sundays
#SolarpunkSunday	Solarpunk topics on Sundays
#Sporespondence	Mushrooms and fungi
#Sportsball	Sport
#StandingStoneSunday	Photos and drawings of ancient megaliths on Sundays
#TeXLaTeX	Discussion of LaTeX typesetting system, hashtag used to avoid confusion with posts about Latex clothing
#TextureTuesday	Photography emphasising texture on Tuesdays
#ThickTrunkTuesday	Trees on Tuesdays
#ThrowbackThursday	Photos and/or memories from the past on Thursdays
#ThursdayFiveList	Lists of five songs on Thursdays, with a specific theme each week
#TilingTuesday	Tiling in art, crafts and maths on Tuesdays
#TimelineCleanse	Anything that brings pure innocent joy
#TinyBalancingSheep	Photos of sheep where they look like they’re balancing on fences and posts
#TongueOutTuesday	Animals sticking their tongues out on Tuesdays
#TOTP	Discussion of UK music programme “Top of the Pops”, also used by totally unrelated discussions of computer security feature “Time-based One Time Password”
#TrainTrackTuesday	Photographs of railway tracks on Tuesdays
#TransJoy	Positive experiences by Trans people
#TuneTuesday	Songs on Tuesdays, with a specific theme each week
#TurtleIsland	Indigenous term for the world or North America, Indigenous topics often discussed with this tag
#TwoSpirit & #2Spirit & #2S	North American Indigenous term for third gender or gender variant people
#VendrediLecture	French-language books on Fridays
#VintageAds	Retro advertisements
#WaterfallWednesday	Waterfalls on Wednesdays
#WeevilWednesday	Weevils on Wednesdays
#WhiskersWednesday	Cats on Wednesdays
#WildlifeWednesday	Wildlife photography on Wednesdays
#Wrensday	Wrens on Wednesdays

If you see irrelevant, offensive or spam posts on these or any other hashtags, you can report it by clicking ⋯ on the post and then Report.

Back to the front page

If you run your own PeerTube server, when you first load it up it’s totally empty. You can upload your own videos of course, and if you’re running a public server your members can upload videos too. However, it may still seem a bit bare compared to centralised video sites like YouTube etc.

That’s where federation comes in!

If you run your own PeerTube server, as well as uploading your own videos and your members’ videos, you can federate videos from other servers by following them using your server’s federation tools. You can curate who you federate with to produce a unique video catalogue on your site, sort of like creating a mixtape ⧉.

If you want you can allow other servers to follow your server as well, but this is optional and you don’t have to allow it if you don’t want to. See the section marked “How do I control who federates my server’s videos?” for more details.

Why would I want to federate videos on PeerTube?

When you use your server’s federation tools, the videos from the servers or accounts being followed will appear on your server’s website too and be searchable from your site. The videos won’t actually be hosted on your server so they won’t take up any of your server space, federation just means that people will be able to watch, browse and search videos from other servers on your server’s website.

Federation is a way of helping people discover videos on a wider range of servers, and for this reason you may want to federate your server’s videos to other servers too. By the way, federation only happens with the permission of the other servers and/or video creators. The other servers and/or creators have to set their PeerTube to allow it, and they can optionally do it with an approval system to check who is requesting federation.

Do federated videos take up space or bandwidth on my server?

No, the federated videos are hosted on the server where they were uploaded. Federating doesn’t take up any of your server’s storage space or bandwidth.

How to federate another PeerTube server’s videos to yours

There are two approaches to federating videos from other PeerTube servers:

• Following an entire other server, which is quickest and displays the most videos, but it may include accounts you would rather not federate.
• Following specific accounts or channels, which is slowest and most labour intensive, but it means you’re customising your server’s federated feed to be exactly what you want it to be.

You can federate a mixture of servers and specific accounts in whatever combination you want. To actually do the federation:

1. Log onto your PeerTube server’s website with your admin account.
2. Click on Settings (you may need to click ☰ and then Settings if you’re using a phone)
3. Click the Federation tab
4. Click Follow
5. In the new window, type or paste the domain names of the servers you want to federate to your server, and/or the accounts and/or the channels you want to federate to your server. You can type several as long as there’s a new line for each one.
6. Click the Follow button of the window

After you’ve done this, follow requests will be sent to the servers and/or accounts and/or channels, and when the federation has been accepted you’ll see an Accepted label next to their names on the federation list.

If you change your mind, you can remove a server or account or channel by clicking Delete next to its name.

If you’ve forgotten who you federated with, you can browse the list or search it using the Filter box above it.

Which servers, accounts and channels should I federate with?

If you want suggestions for specific creators, there are some good PeerTube accounts and channels listed over on Fedi.Directory ⧉.

If you want suggestions for of nice servers to federate, here are some good ones:

(DISCLAIMER: I have not watched every video from every channel on these servers, there are far too many. I’ve tried my best but cannot guarantee the nature of their content. Please view a server yourself before you decide to federate with it.)

• all.electric.kitchen – Experimental electronic music videos
• archive.reclaim.tv – American community television station promoting FOSS in education
• communitymedia.video – General server covering many topics, offering low cost video hosting to community channels
• conf.tube – Technology conference video archive
• dudelike.wtf – Personal server for a chilled-out dude posting on life, cooking, meditation etc.
• fedi.video – Creative commons and public domain feature films, documentaries and curiosities, also silent films with modern soundtracks added, run by the creator of fedi.tips
• flipboard.video – Official server for Flipboard, the news aggregation and curation platform
• makertube.net – Server for creative people who create, build, design or fix things
• media.fsfe.org – Official server of the Free Software Foundation Europe (NOTE: not affiliated in any way with the Free Software Foundation in the USA)
• media.privacyinternational.org – Official server of Privacy International, an NGO campaigning for privacy as a human right
• peer.tube – General server covering many topics, mainly in French, run by the creators of PeerTube’s server software
• peertube.art3mis.de – Educational and video game videos, mainly in German and English
• peertube.dair-institute.org – Institute set up by experts that are sceptical of the AI industry
• peertube.kaleidos.net – Official server of Penpot, FOSS UI prototyping software
• peertube.openrightsgroup.org – Official server of Open Rights Group, a UK NGO campaigning for civil liberties online
• peertube.tv – General server covering many topics, run by the creators of the mstdn.social Mastodon server
• peertube-us.howlround.com – Occasional livestreams from American theatre project
• puppet.zone – Artist’s server creating lovely muppets-style puppets
• solarsystem.video – Space and planetary science videos, including short documentaries, long-form academic lectures etc, run by the Planetary Research Cooperative
• spectra.video – General server covering many topics, run by creator of WeDistribute social network news site
• tilvids.com – Educational and entertainment videos, informative in some way
• tinkerbetter.tube – Official server of the popular Veronica Explains series about FOSS, Linux, retro technology etc.
• toobnix.org – General server covering many topics, run by the SDF Public Access UNIX system
• trentontube.trentonhoshiko.com – Film-making, cinematography and photography videos by low-budget film-maker
• tube.fediverse.games – Gaming video server, covering all forms of gaming
• tube.kockatoo.org – KDE software development community videos
• tube.tchncs.de – General server covering many topics, mainly in English and German
• tubefree.org – General server covering many topics, run by the non-profit BT Free
• tv.dilstories.com – Film-making and short films, run by award-winning Ugandan director
• urbanists.video – City planning, public transport and cycling enthusiasts
• v.basspistol.org – Music videos from independent and underground artists of many genres
• video.blender.org – Official server of Blender, the free open source 3D animation suite
• video.canadiancivil.com – City planning, public transport and cycling videos, covers world but often features Canada
• video.fedihost.co – Tutorials, tips and podcasts about hosting your own Fediverse servers including Mastodon, Peertube, GoToSocial etc.
• video.firesidefedi.live – Interviews with familiar faces from around the Fediverse, also gaming and programming videos by the server’s maintainer
• video.franzgraf.de – Hiking and cycling videos, in English but from the mountains of Germany
• video.gamerstavern.online – Video game videos from a friendly non-toxic gaming community
• video.hardlimit.com – Video game and technology videos in English and Spanish
• video.infosec.exchange – General server covering many topics, run by the admins of the infosec.exchange Mastodon server
• video.katehildenbrand.com – Gardener and marine biologist posting on nature, gardening, biology, food etc.
• video.stevesworld.co – Music videos by singer-songwriter
• video.thepolarbear.co.uk – Personal server for a fun livestreamer and his friends, often features pop culture and technology
• videos.elenarossini.com – Documentaries by Italian film-maker and Fediverse fan
• vod.newellijay.tv – Community television station based in the USA, hosting all kinds of programmes including music, theatre, sport, archive public domain films etc.

If you think I’m missing something, or if you think I shouldn’t be listing one of these, please contact me.

Can I find any other lists of servers or accounts/channels to follow?

Yes, if you go to any PeerTube server’s website you can view its network:

1. Go to a PeerTube server’s website
2. Click More Info (or ☰ and More Info if you’re on a phone)
3. Click the Network tab
4. The Subscriptions section shows the servers and accounts/channels that the server is following, the Followers section shows other servers that are following that server.

You can use these network pages of other servers to get suggestions for which other servers and accounts/channels to follow. The network page will be different on each server.

Which videos from a server get federated to my server? Is it just the server’s own videos, or all the videos that it federates with too?

It’s just the server’s own videos.

For example if you follow fedi.video the only videos it would federate to your server would be those hosted on fedi.video, it would not include videos that are visible on fedi.video but hosted on other servers.

How do I see just the videos on a particular server, and hide the videos it has federated from other servers?

To just see a server’s own videos and hide all the videos it has federated from elsewhere:

1. Go to the server’s website
2. Click the Browse Videos tab
3. Click the More Filters link just below the “Videos on…” heading
4. In the Displayed Videos dropdown menu, select “Only videos from this platform”

These are the videos that would be federated to your server if you follow them.

Which videos get federated?

By default all of the videos get federated. PeerTube uses “backfilling” so that when you federate with a particular server, account or channel it checks to see all the videos it has ever uploaded.

How do I screen out sensitive or “NSFW” videos?

Some servers may contain sensitive content such as adult content, or distressing images such as from a war etc. Most servers which allow such content require the uploader to mark it as sensitive, which means other servers can easily take appropriate action about this content.

If you want to hide or blur sensitive videos viewed via your server, do the following:

1. Log onto your PeerTube server with your admin account
2. Click on Settings (you may need to click ☰ and then Settings if you’re using a phone)
3. Click the Information tab
4. Scroll down to the section marked Moderation & NSFW
5. From the dropdown menu marked Policy on videos containing sensitive content, select “Hide” to hide them completely or “Blur” to show them but with a blurred thumbnail
6. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the Update Configuration button

This applies to all sensitive videos, including from your server and from other servers you federate with.

If you encounter a sensitive video that has not been marked as sensitive, you might want to stop following the server it came from and contact the owner of the server to let them know about it.

How do I control who federates my server’s videos? How can I switch federation on or off? How can I screen who federates my server?

Here’s how to adjust who can federate your server’s videos:

1. Log onto your PeerTube server with your admin account
2. Click on Settings (you may need to click ☰ and then Settings if you’re using a phone)
3. Click the Basic tab
4. Scroll down to the section marked Federation
5. If you want other servers to be able to federate your server’s videos, tick the box marked “Other instances can follow yours”.
6. If you are allowing federation but you want to manually approve each server that federates yours, tick the box marked “Manually approve new instance followers”.
7. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the Update Configuration button

If you’ve set your server to allow federation but with manual approval, you will get a notification to your admin account that there is a server wanting to federate your server’s videos. You can click on the notification or go to Settings > Federation > Followers to approve or deny the federation request.

I tried to federate an account to my server but not all of its videos are showing up. What’s going wrong?

In theory if you federate a PeerTube account to your server it should show all the videos from all of the account’s channels. However in practice it sometimes doesn’t do this reliably. This can be solved by also following all the channels that belong to that account, which makes all the account’s videos show up properly.

I just want to show one channel from an account but not the whole account, can I do this?

Yes. If you just follow the particular channel you want and don’t follow the overall account, only that channel’s videos will show up on your server.

If I federate an account or a server, does it show older videos uploaded a while ago?

Yes, it shows all the videos ever uploaded by that account or server. PeerTube uses “backfilling” to show everything a PeerTube account has ever posted.

(Obviously though, sensitive videos would be hidden if you have set your server to do so.)

Back to the front page

Do you publish videos on PeerTube? Would you like more people to follow you on PeerTube and watch your PeerTube videos?

This is a guide to how to make your PeerTube account, channels and videos more discoverable. You don’t have to do everything in this guide, but the more you do here the more discoverable your videos become.

Read tips on how to publish on PeerTube

If you want more info on how to actually publish videos, see the step-by-step guide to publishing on PeerTube. If you’re a serious video maker you might want to read the section on starting your own server, it’s a lot cheaper and easier than people realise (you don’t need to be rich or a techy person).

Check that your videos are searchable in Sepia Search

PeerTube has an official search engine at SepiaSearch.org ⧉. Check that your published videos are searchable there by searching.

If your videos aren’t searchable, give it some time for the search index to update. If it’s already been a while since your videos were published, add your server’s websites address on the official instances list ⧉.

Suggest your PeerTube account and channels to Fedi.Video

The author of this guide also runs a site at Fedi.Video ⧉ which features a human-curated selection of good PeerTube accounts. If you run a nice PeerTube account, get in touch with the Mastodon account @fedivideo@social.growyourown.services ⧉ to suggest your account be listed.

(For moderation reasons, Fedi.Video generally only includes English-language videos or videos with English-language subtitles.)

Add descriptions to your PeerTube account and channels

It’s really quick, easy and important to describe your PeerTube account and channels. These descriptions are crucial because people use them to decide whether or not to follow you or watch your videos. These descriptions are also used by other Fediverse platforms such as Mastodon for showing your profile and displaying it in search results.

To add an account description:

1. Log into PeerTube on your server’s website
2. Go to your profile page
3. Click Manage Account
4. Write your account description in the Description box
5. Click the Save Profile button

To add a channel description:

1. Log into PeerTube on your server’s website
2. Click Channels
3. On the channel you want to add a description for, click Update
4. Write your channel description in the Description box
5. Click the Update Channel button

Add descriptions to all your channels if you can.

Add tags to your videos

If you want to make them discoverable, it’s really important to add tags to your videos. These make people a lot more likely to discover them as a lot of people on the Fediverse follow hashtags, which means your video may automatically appear in the main timelines of people following that tag. Many people also search for hashtags, so including tags on a video it will be in the search results for those tags.

It’s best to add tags to a video before you publish it, you can find out how to add tags in section 7 of the PeerTube publishing guide.

Upload your videos gradually, don’t upload all your videos at once

A lot of people with an back catalogue of existing videos are tempted to just upload all of them at once onto PeerTube, then wait for people to discover them. This generally doesn’t work due to the way Fediverse servers discover and display content.

Most of the Fediverse deliberately doesn’t use algorithms. Instead, people see all the posts from all the accounts they follow displayed chronologically in their main feed. If you upload 500 videos all at once, most people following you will see 500 posts swamping their timeline all at once, and then they won’t see anything else from you until you upload new stuff.

Also, due to the way Fediverse servers “notice” content, uploading after you have gained followers will make your videos a lot more visible to a lot more people on a lot more servers. If you upload before you have any followers at all, the uploaded videos may not be visible at all to most servers.

Most of your potential followers and viewers are on Mastodon!

PeerTube is part of a much larger social network called the Fediverse. Most of your potential followers and viewers aren’t on PeerTube itself but on other Fediverse platforms such as Mastodon etc. Because the Fediverse uses common open technical standards, people on Mastodon etc can follow and interact with you on PeerTube, and it is from these other Fediverse platforms where most of your followers and viewers will come from.

For this reason, you might want to focus promoting your PeerTube on other Fediverse platforms such as Mastodon etc.

Create an account on Mastodon etc. to promote your PeerTube

You might want to create an account on Mastodon to complement your PeerTube. The most successful PeerTube accounts all have Mastodon etc accounts too, which allows them to join in with discussion threads rather than just publishing videos. For example a PeerTube account about gardening might set up a Mastodon account so they can join in with general discussions about gardening.

Share your PeerTube address with people on the Fediverse

You can encourage people on the Fediverse to follow your PeerTube account by telling them your PeerTube fediverse address, which will look something like this:

@(username)@(server)

All accounts on the Fediverse have a unique address in this form, which allows anyone on any Fedi platform to search for an account’s profile. The user can then just click on the profile and click its “Follow” button to follow it, even if they’re on a non-PeerTube platform such as Mastodon etc.

If you’re using Mastodon or another similar Fediverse platform, you can paste a Fediverse address into a post and it will appear as a clickable link that people can click on to see the account’s profile.

When viewed from Mastodon, a PeerTube account profile will contain the PeerTube profile image and text description and clicking follow will follow the PeerTube account itself. Videos published by that PeerTube account after the moment of following will start appearing in the follower’s Mastodon timeline.

You can usually find a PeerTube account’s or channel’s Fediverse address on PeerTube by clicking the ⧉ button next to a username on your PeerTube server’s website, but you may need to add @ to the start so that they work fully on Mastodon etc. (For some reason PeerTube seems to leave off the leading @ on this copy button.)

Use quality control

If you upload lots of videos regardless of how useful or interesting they may be to others, it will make it much harder for people to notice your good videos.

People will be a lot more likely to follow your PeerTube if you only upload videos that you know people will enjoy watching. The PeerTube accounts with the largest follower numbers are ones that only upload high quality edited videos, or at least video clips they have chosen carefully.

Nicely edited videos are wonderful of course, but you don’t have to be an expert video editor to exert quality control. For example some popular channels just show unedited clips of wildlife, but they only show clips they consider interesting or entertaining.

Engage with your viewers

If someone has commented on your video you will see a notification about this when you’re logged into PeerTube. Reply to their comment, engage with them, answer their questions or thank them for their feedback. People will be a lot more likely to follow you and watch your videos if they know there is a friendly human being behind them.

Think about time zones when publishing videos

Most people on the Fediverse browse non-algorithmic chronlogical timelines, so they see every post from every account they follow at the moment it is published.

If you have a video aimed at people in a particular time zone, publish it when people from that time zone are most likely to be browsing their timelines. If you’re trying to reach multiple timezones, try to find a sweet spot when most people are awake in those time zones (for example the evening in Europe is the morning in the Americas).

Use nice thumbnails on your videos

By default videos will just show a still from the video as their thumbnail. However, it’s usually a good idea to upload a custom thumbnail so that people get a good idea of what your video is about. To add a thumbnail:

1. Log onto your PeerTube server’s website
2. Click Videos
3. On the video you want to add a thumbnail to, click Update
4. Click the Advanced Settings tab
5. In the Video Thumbnail section click Select From Your Device and select the thumbnail image file
6. When the thumbnail has finished uploading, click the Update button at the bottom of the screen

You can monetise PeerTube by having sponsors and patrons

There is no advertising system on PeerTube so there are no adverts inserted into videos. However, PeerTube accounts can receive an income through sponsors and patrons, and you may see sponsors’ messages and/or there may be a list of patrons being thanked.

PeerTube has an option to upload videos to unlisted URLs and/or password-protected URLs. These can be used to give patrons early access to your videos.

You can also include a “support” link on your videos which people can click to find out how to donate to you. To add a support link in PeerTube:

1. Log onto your PeerTube server’s website
2. Click Channels
3. On the channel you want to add a support link for, click Update Channel
4. In the Support box add some explanatory text and links to your donation platforms (Ko-fi, Liberapay, Patreon etc)
5. Click Update Channel

If you’re uploading VODs of livestreams, either edit out the leadup or have a countdown timer

It can be very frustrating for people watching VODs (videos on demand) of livestreams to see it begin with a “starting soon” placeholder that goes on for many minutes without any clue as to when it actually starts. A lot of people will simply bail out and won’t even skip ahead.

People are much more likely to watch your VODs if the intro is either edited out or if there is a countdown timer visible so that people can skip forward easily.

People can also follow your PeerTube channels from podcast apps such as Apple Podcasts, or RSS-compatible news feed readers

As well as follows from PeerTube and other Fediverse platforms like Mastodon etc, PeerTube channels can also be followed by people totally outside the Fediverse who may not even have social media accounts.

All PeerTube channels have an RSS feed which is podcast-compatible, which means people can follow any PeerTube channel from any podcasting app that supports adding podcast addresses (such as Apple Podcasts) or any RSS news feed reader app. See the guide to following PeerTube from podcast apps for more details.

If people follow you from podcast apps or RSS apps, they won’t show up in your PeerTube follower numbers but they will show up in your PeerTube viewing figures.

Update your videos if you want to

PeerTube lets people upload new versions of their videos without breaking any links or losing any comments. To update a video:

1. Log onto your PeerTube server’s website
2. Click Videos
3. On the video you want to update, click Update
4. Click the Advanced Settings tab
5. In the Replace Video File section click Select the file to upload and select the video file from your device
6. The new video file will now start uploading, indicated by a progress bar at the top. Wait for it to finish uploading.
7. After the new version of the video has uploaded, click the Update button at the bottom of the screen.

If you can’t see an option for replacing video files, ask your PeerTube admin to activate this option in Administration > Settings > Configuration > Basic > Videos > Allow users to upload a new version of their video

You can optionally allow people to download your videos directly

If you want to spread your PeerTube videos as far and wide as possible, for example if you’re running a public service account or distributing Creative Commons and public domain content, you might want to optionally let people download your videos so they can watch it offline, share it with others or upload them elsewhere.

To activate the download option for a particular video:

1. Log onto your PeerTube server’s website
2. Click Videos
3. On the video you want to allow downloads for, click Update
4. Click the Advanced Settings tab
5. Tick the box marked Enable Download
6. Click the Update button at the bottom of the screen

After you’ve done this, people viewing that video on PeerTube will be able to download it as a DRM-free file by clicking ⋯ and Download.

This option has to be activated video by video, there is no way to activate it for all your videos at once.

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Websites powered by the Ghost blogging platform ⧉ are now compatible with the Fediverse, so they can be followed and interacted with from Mastodon etc.

(As well as my unofficial guide below, you might also want to check out the official ghost.org guide to using the Fediverse via Ghost ⧉. They call it “the social web” but they mean the Fediverse.)

How do I activate the Fediverse on my Ghost-powered site?

1. Log into your Ghost site with your Owner or Admin account
2. Go to your Settings page (the cog icon at the bottom left of the page)
3. On the left of the Settings page, scroll down to the section marked Growth and click on Network
4. Make sure the Network toggle switch is activated
5. Close the Settings page by clicking X in the top right corner
6. On the main admin page (NOT on the settings page) click on Network on the left of the page
7. On the right of the screen click on Profile
8. Click Edit Profile
9. Set your display name, handle and bio text for your Fediverse profile. NOTE: It’s really important to choose a handle that is distinctive and suits your blog, for example a good handle for “The Widget Blog” would be WidgetBlog. Do not put any spaces or special characters in the handle, just use letters. Do not use generic handles like “me” or “blog”.
10. Click Save

Congratulations, you now have a Ghost account that is part of the Fediverse!

Why would I want to do this?

Activating Fediverse features lets the millions of people on the Fediverse more easily discover and follow your Ghost site.

It also lets you follow and interact with the Fediverse including people on Mastodon, other Ghost sites, WordPress sites and lots more.

If people follow my Ghost account from Mastodon etc, do they see my Ghost blog’s posts?

There are now three ways of posting on Ghost:

• Newsletters, these work just like before.
• Blog/web posts, these work just like before, but people who follow you on Mastodon etc will be notified when a new blog post is published. They won’t see the blog post itself, just a link to the blog post on your Ghost website.
• There’s now a third option, Notes, which are short-form 500 character posts only shown to people who follow you from Mastodon etc.

There are also two timelines added to the “Network” section of your Ghost site’s admin page:

• Reader Timeline: Long-form blog posts from Ghost and WordPress accounts you follow.
• Notes Timeline: Short-form posts from Mastodon etc accounts you follow.

How do I get people to follow my Ghost account from Mastodon etc?

If you go to your Fediverse profile in Ghost, you’ll see your Fediverse address just below your display name (it looks something like “@MyBlog@example.com”). There’s also a button next to it, click the button to copy the address.

Share this address with anyone who wants to follow you from Mastodon or other Fediverse platforms. People on the Fediverse can paste this address into their search box (in Mastodon etc) and your Ghost account’s profile will appear, they can then just click on your profile’s “Follow” button.

This might seem fiddly but it’s mainly there to get you started. After enough people have followed you from Mastodon etc, your Ghost account will also start gradually showing up in search results, mentions and shared posts across the Fediverse. The more people who follow you, the more widely your account will start showing up in searches etc. People discovering your account by these other methods will be able to click on your account profile directly and won’t need to bother with the copy-paste thing.

Do my followers on the Fediverse see my blog posts on Ghost?

When you publish a blog post on Ghost, your followers on Mastodon etc will see a Fediverse post in their timelines linking to your Ghost blog post. The Fediverse post doesn’t show the actual text of your blog post, but it shows the blog post title, a link to the blog post and a preview below the link.

How do I follow people on the Fediverse from Ghost?

If you know an account’s Fediverse address, paste it into the Search box and then click “Follow”. You can discover lots of interesting Fediverse accounts and their addresses at Fedi.Directory ⧉.

What Fediverse platforms can I follow from Ghost?

At the moment Ghost is confirmed to work well with following Mastodon accounts, other Ghost accounts, WordPress accounts that have ActivityPub activated and others.

There is a current compatibility list on ghost.org ⧉ but it doesn’t mention most Fediverse platforms one way or the other, so it might be easier to simply try following an account and see what happens.

How do I interact with people on the Fediverse from Ghost?

On Ghost’s main Admin page, click on Network to see your Fediverse features available on the right of the screen:

• SEARCH: You can use this to follow Fediverse accounts, paste their Fediverse address into the search box to bring up their profile and then click their Follow button. You can discover addresses for lots of interesting Fediverse accounts at Fedi.Directory ⧉.
• READER: If you’re following long-form blogging accounts from Ghost etc, their posts will show up in Reader. You can interact with long-form posts by hovering the mouse over their preview image to see that post’s interaction icons (heart to like, speech bubble to reply, arrows to share, dots for more options).
• NOTES: If you’re following short-form microblogging accounts from platforms like Mastodon etc, their posts will show up in Notes. You can reply/like/share their posts here, and you can also create your own short-form 500 character posts by clicking “What’s new?” at the top of the page. This is totally separate from your main blog posts, and only shows up for your Fediverse followers.
• NOTIFICATIONS: If people follow or mention you on the Fediverse, this will show up in Notifications. You can reply to a mention by clicking the speech bubble, like it by clicking the heart or share it with your followers by clicking the arrows.
• EXPLORE: Suggests Fediverse accounts to follow, but at the moment it only seems to suggest Ghost accounts. You can discover Fediverse accounts from many different platforms at Fedi.Directory ⧉.
• PROFILE: Lets you edit your Fediverse profile and view its details.
• PREFERENCES: Various bits of info and settings related to the Fediverse. Click Moderation within here to see a list of all the accounts and domains you’ve blocked.
• NEW NOTE: Lets you create a short-form post up to 500 characters which goes out to your Fediverse followers only. It is totally separate from your usual Ghost blog posts. This is identical to the option at the top of the Notes section.

How do I block specific Fediverse accounts within Ghost?

Click on the name of the Fediverse account you want to block, which will take you to its profile page. Then click ⋯ in the top right of the profile and select “Block user”.

How do I see which Fediverse accounts I’m following and being followed by?

Go to Profile, then click Following for accounts you follow and Followers for accounts that follow you.

Does this work by linking my Ghost account to a Mastodon account?

No, Ghost works totally independently. Each Ghost site is a Fediverse server in its own right.

Does this work on self-hosted Ghost sites?

Yes, you can use the Fediverse either on sites hosted by ghost.org or on self-hosted Ghost-powered sites.

However, if it’s self-hosted you will need to use an ActivityPub service that can handle all the stuff you do on the Fediverse. There are two options for this at the moment:

• You can use ghost.org’s ActivityPub service ⧉ but this has limits on follower numbers, follow numbers and interactions per day.
• You can use Docker Compose and activate its ActivityPub ⧉ and this doesn’t have any limits.

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There are several different ways of searching and browsing videos and accounts on PeerTube, each with its own advantages and disadvantages listed in their sections below.

However, before getting onto the methods, just want to make clear you can follow and interact with PeerTube from entirely within Mastodon if you want to, the videos will show up in your main timeline like any other post and your replies in Mastodon will automatically become comments in PeerTube.

• To follow a PeerTube account from within Mastodon, copy-paste the PeerTube account’s Fediverse address into the search box in Mastodon. Its profile page will appear in the search results in Mastodon, where you can click “follow”. You can find a PeerTube account’s address at the top of its profile on PeerTube, just below its name.
• To interact with a PeerTube video within Mastodon, copy-paste the video’s web address into the search box in Mastodon. It will appear as a post that you can reply to or favourite or share.

Okay, now onto all the ways you can discover PeerTube videos and accounts!

Search on Sepia Search

Sepia Search ⧉ is the official PeerTube search engine run by the developers of the PeerTube server software. It tries to index all public videos from as many PeerTube servers as possible, but will remove problematic servers when noticed or reported.

Sepia Search has the widest range of search results, but also the greatest risk of seeing unsuitable or problematic content. You can use it at SepiaSearch.org ⧉ or see a list of the servers it indexes at instances.JoinPeerTube.org ⧉.

If you see anything unsuitable in the Sepia Search index, report it to the PeerTube server where you saw it via the server’s website (click on “More info” and then “Contact us”). If that doesn’t work or if the entire server is problematic, you can ask Sepia Search directly to remove that server from their index by going to instances.JoinPeerTube.org ⧉ and emailing the address at the Report an instance link in the top right corner of the page.

(For any techy people reading this, Sepia Search runs on free open source software ⧉ and people with the required technical knowledge are free to create their own alternative index using their own list of servers ⧉.)

Visit the Fedi.Video website

Fedi.Video ⧉ is an unofficial site trying to create a safer higher-quality human-curated way to search and browse the best accounts on PeerTube. Every account listed on Fedi.Video has been manually checked before it is included in the index.

You can search and browse Fedi.Video on its website ⧉. You can search using the search box at the top, you can browse lots of human-curated playlists on particular topics below the search box, or browse the latest videos and trending videos below the playlists.

Fedi.Video has a much narrower range of search results compared to Sepia Search, but because it’s human-curated it’s also a lot safer and higher quality. If you do see anything unsuitable, you can report it on the Fedi.Video website by clicking “More Info” and then “Contact Us”.

Follow the Fedi.Video account on Mastodon

There is a companion account to the Fedi.Video website on Mastodon which posts handpicked human-curated videos from a wide range of PeerTube accounts. Just paste this into the search box on Mastodon and click follow:

@FediVideo@social.growyourown.services

After you follow this account, PeerTube videos handpicked by the account will start gradually appearing in your timeline on Mastodon. If you see a video you like and want to see more, click on the video’s account name and follow the account that made the video.

Browse the PeerTube recommended account list on Fedi.Directory

The Fedi.Directory website lists interesting accounts from across the Fediverse, and has a section listing good PeerTube accounts ⧉ which you may want to browse.

When you find an account you want to follow on this list, copy its Fediverse address and paste this into the search box in your own server on Mastodon or PeerTube (or many other Fediverse platforms). This will bring up its profile which you can click follow on.

Note that the list on Fedi.Directory randomises each time the page is loaded in order to give accounts equal visibility. If you intend to gradually go through the list, leave it open in a tab while you do so and don’t reload it.

Use the search box on PeerTube servers

Each PeerTube server has a search box at the top, but these are not all the same. Each server’s admin decides what kind of results show up for searches

Some admins opt to just search channels that the server federates. Others have connected it to Sepia Search to give a wider range of results. Meanwhile some servers just show results for videos on that server.

If you’re unsure about what an admin has chosen for their server, you can contact them via that server’s “More Info” page on its website.

Use the search box on Mastodon servers

Because PeerTube is part of the Fediverse, its accounts and videos will often show up in searches on Mastodon etc servers. For example if you search for “Blender” on your Mastodon server you may well see the official Blender PeerTube account in the results. Mastodon search boxes show all the results for all the accounts and posts that that Mastodon server has noticed.

However, there is no way to split Mastodon search results by server type, so there’s no way to split the PeerTube results from the Mastodon etc results. You will see PeerTube accounts and videos mixed in with Mastodon etc accounts and posts and they’re not labelled differently in any way. PeerTube videos look like Mastodon posts when viewed within Mastodon.

Making your own PeerTube search engine (if you are techy)

All of the software used in Sepia Search is free and and open source. If you are a very techy person who likes to host their own online services, you can make your own alternative to Sepia Search using your own list of servers.

The source code for the search engine is here ⧉ and the source code for the server list is here ⧉.

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By default, Mastodon server websites automatically display themselves in the language of the browser viewing the site. For example, if someone has set their browser language to French they would automatically see most Mastodon server websites in French, even if they haven’t logged in and even if the server’s own default language isn’t French.

This automated behaviour is fine if a server is open to speakers of all languages, but it may cause problems on servers that are intended for a specific language. People may accidentally sign up on a server where no one speaks their language.

In order to solve this problem, admins can optionally set their server website to always display in a particular language for everyone.

I am a non-techy person running my server on managed hosting. How do I set my server to display in a particular language?

Contact your managed hosting provider and explain you want to make your server website appear in a specific language for everyone who isn’t logged in.

If they need more info, the official documentation for this option is here ⧉.

If they ask you which language code you want to set, you can see a complete list of Mastodon language codes here.

I am a techy person running my own server manually. How do I set my server to display in a particular language?

You need to set your DEFAULT_LOCALE to your preferred language code, and also set FORCE_DEFAULT_LOCALE=true

The documentation for this is here ⧉.

Will this affect the language displayed for server members who have logged in?

No. It will only affect your server website’s language for people who haven’t logged in. If they are logged in, it will use whatever interface language they want to set it to.

When did this website language behaviour begin? I’m sure it never did this before?

The current website default language behaviour began on Mastodon v4.4.0. Before this, the website visitor’s browser language was ignored.

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When you publish a video on PeerTube, the upload screen includes a dropdown menu which lists many different types of visibilities.

If you would like to give specific people early or exclusive access to a video, choose the visibilities “unlisted” or “password protected”. You can then share the unlisted link or the link and password with whoever you want to give access to.

This is especially useful for giving your patrons early access, or for getting feedback on a video before you fully publish it. It can also be used for any other purpose where you want to restrict the audience of a video.

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No one likes to think about it, but there are lots of different reasons why a server on a network might close down. If you are a Fediverse server admin and want to close down your server, it is important that you do the closure gracefully.

Gracefully on the Fediverse means giving plenty of warning to the server’s members, so that they have enough time to find another server and to move their accounts elsewhere. It also means trying to make sure all your members are aware of the closure long before it happens. See the example plan at the bottom of this guide for more details.

How much warning should I give my server’s members about closing down?

The standard closure warning time on the Fediverse is three months.

Three months is enough time for your members to find another server, become familiar with the transfer process, do the transfer and potentially re-run the transfer if necessary. It also gives admins enough time to try to warn every active member, as some may be more difficult to reach than others.

When should I start planning for closing down my server?

Make a plan for closing down gracefully before you first open your server to the public. Having a graceful closure plan from the very beginning means people can have confidence in joining your server, because they know you won’t suddenly switch it off without warning.

Committing to three months warning is also required for listing on some server directories such as fedi.garden ⧉ and joinmastodon.org ⧉. Planning for graceful closure can actually help your server grow by making it eligible to be listed.

What if I run out of money? How do I keep my server going three months?

As part of setting up the server you should put money aside for three months of running costs, so that no matter what happens there will be three months to close down. The amount put aside may need to be increased if the running costs go up.

How do I close my server down gracefully? What order should I do things in?

It’s up to you how you close your server, but here is a typical plan:

1. Make sure you are absolutely certain about closing your server. Once you announce it people will start leaving, so it’s best to be sure before you announce it. Decide on a specific date when the closure will actually happen.
2. Decide on a public closure date that is at least a couple of days earlier than the actual closure date. This public closure date will be what you tell your members. The difference in dates is to allow wiggle room for members in different time zones, who may see different dates on their interface. It also covers you in case of last minute technical hitches in the closure.
3. When you’ve decided to close, first of all switch off sign-ups. No one wants to sign up on a server that is closing. You can do this in Preferences > Administration > Server Settings > Registrations > Who Can Sign Up, choose Nobody Can Sign Up, then click Save Changes.
4. Deactivate existing invitation links in Preferences > Moderation > Invites > Deactivate All. After that, switch off the members’ invitation option completely in Preferences > Administration > Roles > Default Permissions, then UN-tick the box marked Invite Users, then click Save Changes.
5. Post about the closure on your admin account, give the public closure date, and tell your members they need to move their account to another server. The date is really important in motivating people to transfer their accounts in time. You might want to provide a link to the Fedi.Tips account transfer guide so that people know how to move their accounts elsewhere, links to the fedi.garden ⧉ and joinmastodon.org ⧉ server directories so they can pick somewhere reliable to move to, and a link to the Fedi.Tips archive download guide so they can download their post archives. Also remind them that account transfers can sometimes take days to complete, and it’s safest if they do the transfer as soon as possible.
6. Post a similar announcement on your Mastodon server’s announcement system. You can optionally also send these server announcement to members directly by email. You may want to use this email feature to make sure members realise the server is closing down.
7. Edit your server’s text descriptions so that it makes clear the server is closing down and when it is closing down. This is yet another way that members may see the closure announcement, as they see the server description when logging into the server website. Servers have two text descriptions so you should edit both, the shorter one at Preferences > Administration > Server Settings > Branding > Server Description and the longer one at Preferences > Administration > Server Settings > About > Extended Description.
8. Repeat the announcements two months before closure, one month before closure, three weeks before closure, two weeks before closure, then every day in the final week before the public closure date. If you see members continuing to post in the final few weeks, you might want to reply to them directly to remind them about the closure date and that they need to transfer their account as soon as possible.
9. Do the actual closure at least a couple of days after the announced closure date. This is to make sure members in different time zones don’t get caught out, as the date on their interface may be different to yours.

How do I do the closure gracefully at a technical level?

At a technical level, there are two ways of closing a Mastodon server:

• Just deleting the server from its hosting
• Running Mastodon’s “self-destruct” command, giving it time to work, and then deleting the server from its hosting

There are pros and cons to both methods, which are explained in an excellent guide by the managed hosting provider masto.host ⧉. Which one you use depends on your plans for the server, its posts and its domain name or subdomains.

If you’re running your Mastodon server manually you can find out more about the self-destruct command in the official documentation ⧉.

If you’re running your Mastodon server through managed hosting, you cannot run self-destruct directly but your managed hosting provider should be able to. Ask your managed hosting provider for more info about the option of running self-destruct before closure.

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If you are a Mastodon admin and you need to communicate directly with your server’s members, there are several ways you can get in touch. Different methods are appropriate for different situations, so you might want to keep all of them in mind as options.

How to message all your server’s members directly

There’s a built-in admin tool which lets you add an announcement to the top of all your members’ timelines, and also optionally email the same announcement to all of them too.

It’s worth being careful about the email option, as generally people prefer not to receive unsolicited emails except in extreme situations (such as servers shutting down etc). If you email members over non-urgent things, they may see it as spam.

1. Log into your admin account on the server website
2. Select ⋯ More
3. Select Administration
4. Select Announcements
5. Click New Announcement
6. Fill in the announcement text
7. If you want to, optionally add start or end dates/times, or a posting date/time. If you don’t fill these in, the announcement will be posted immediately and remain there until you deactivate it.
8. When you’re happy, click Create Announcement. The announcement will be posted according to the settings in the previous step. When it’s published, it will appear as a megaphone icon at the top of members’ Home timelines that they can click open.
9. If you want to, you can optionally also send this announcement by email to all your users. In the Announcements section click on Notify Users, check the email looks correct and then click Send X Emails (where X is the number of users). Only use this option in extreme cases though.

Providing non-urgent server news for those who want it

If you want to provide regular updates about your server that aren’t urgent, you could have a dedicated public “server news” account which members can follow and/or check. Many people use the server’s main admin account for this. Whatever account you use, you can set it to be automatically recommend to new members.

Server news accounts typically post updates about things like scheduled maintenance, software updates, how to use server features etc. They can also be used to gather feedback from members about how the server is run.

Sending official warnings to members who are doing bad stuff

If there’s a member of your server who has done something bad but you don’t yet want to restrict their account, you can send them an official private warning about it.

1. Log into your server website with your admin account
2. Click on ⋯ More
3. Click on Moderation
4. Click on Accounts (NOTE: this means “Accounts” in the “Moderation” section, it is not to be confused with your own personal “Account” option)
5. Click on the username of the member you want to send a warning to
6. Click on Warn
7. Tick or un-tick the box for also sending the warning by email
8. For the text of the warning itself, you can either use an existing pre-written warning preset, or write a new one-off custom warning. Custom warnings can be written in the Custom Warning box, warning presets can be selected from the Use A Warning Preset dropdown menu. (If there aren’t any preset warnings, click on the Add Warning Presets link above the custom warning box to create one.)
9. When you’ve finished writing or selecting a warning, click Perform Action to send the warning

If the member fails to take notice of the warning, you can escalate the moderation to restrict or suspend the account instead. These further options are shown on the same page used for sending warnings.

Contacting a specific member about something that isn’t related to moderation

If you need to discuss something with a specific member on your server but it’s not a moderation issue, you can DM them just like you would any other account.

If a member is not responding to DMs, if the matter is urgent you can find the member’s email address on their moderation accounts page. Note that this is only to be used in urgent cases related to the member’s account on your server. You should not email members in non-urgent cases.

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Wanderer is a free open source Strava-style platform which lets you store records of your walks and trails online and share them with others. You can record trails directly using GPS data, or you can import existing data from Strava and Komoot.

There is more information on the official website at Wanderer.to ⧉ and there is a list of public servers you can join ⧉ on the same site. If you just want to give it a quick try there is a demo server ⧉ which automatically deletes data after people have tried it.

If you’re a techy person, you can self-host your own Wanderer server using the installation instructions here ⧉.

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Manyfold is a free open source Fediverse server type for 3D printing enthusiasts, which lets you upload and share 3D models for prints. It’s intended as a Fediverse alternative to Printables, Makerworld and Thingiverse. Manyfold accounts can be followed from accounts on other Manyfold servers and from Mastodon etc accounts too.

There’s an official demo server at try.manyfold.app ⧉ if you just want to test it, and there’s a full public server you can join at 3dprint.social ⧉ if you want to start a proper account.

If you’re a techy person and want to install your own server, there are instructions for self-hosting on the official website ⧉.

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If you run an organisation of any kind (non-profits, businesses, clubs etc), this guide is aimed at helping you get the most out of being on Mastodon and the Fediverse. The Fedi works a bit differently to social networks you may be used to, and has some unique advantages as well as unique challenges.

Why would my organisation want to join Mastodon? Why would I join the Fediverse?

Over the last few years, it’s no secret that centralised social networks have been degrading. Users’ privacy is being invaded, their timelines are being manipulated by opaque algorithms, and advertisements are becoming ever more pervasive.

Organisations also suffer on centralised social networks, with hidden charges just for reaching your own followers, nasty surprises from opaque algorithms, and the impossibility of getting help if there’s a technical problem. Centralised social networks sometimes delete organisations’ accounts without any explanation or right of appeal.

Mastodon and the Fediverse address all these problems both for users and organisations:

• There are no advertisements
• There is no algorithm
• The network is spread across thousands of totally independent servers that talk to each other, so users can interact but the network cannot be bought out or go bankrupt
• Each server is run by humans who are easy to reach, you will be able to discuss any problems directly with the owner
• If you don’t like how your server is run, you can move your account to a different server without losing your followers
• You can even set up your own server if you want total control over how your social media presence is run, it costs a few euros a month and doesn’t require technical skills

By setting up a presence on the Fediverse, you are not only helping your organisation but also helping your followers by giving them a nicer way to follow you.

What is the Fediverse anyway? How does it relate to Mastodon?

Mastodon is a type of social network that is part of a wider network called the Fediverse. If you want a really brief and easy-to-understand intro, watch this video ⧉. If you would like a bit more depth, have a look at Mastodon’s official intro video ⧉.

The Fediverse is a collection of social networks that use a common standard to talk to each other. If you’re on the Twitter-style network Mastodon you can seamlessly follow and interact with accounts from the YouTube-style network PeerTube, the Instagram-style network Pixelfed, the Goodreads-style network BookWyrm etc. Your timeline may contain posts from many different social networks, and the collective term for all of these compatible networks is “The Fediverse”.

You may find the “What is the Fediverse?” short animation ⧉ useful for understanding why the Fediverse exists, and if you want more detail there’s a Fediverse guide here.

How does my organisation get started on the Fediverse?

If you just want a general social media presence, the best-supported option is probably Mastodon, a Twitter-style social network. You can sign up on an existing server or create your own server.

If you’re specifically wanting to publish videos, you might want to set up an account on PeerTube, the Fediverse’s video platform.

How do I verify my organisation’s identity?

There are several options for accounts to get verified, see the guide to account verification for more details.

How does my organisation get more followers and interactions on the Fediverse?

If you’re already on the Fediverse, you might want to go through this checklist of ways to get more visibility for your account and posts.

Proactive organisations might want to also follow more accounts themselves.

How does my organisation let people know which account to follow?

Fediverse account addresses have two parts, the username and the server name:

@ (user) @ (server)

If you want to promote your organisation’s account, it’s important to mention both parts in any promotional material. People will be able to follow your account by putting this address into the search box on their server. More info about this on the account address guide.

Do you have more info about how an organisation can run its own server?

Yes, there’s a guide here with tips for servers run by organisations.

Where can I get more help with using Mastodon and the Fediverse?

Have a look at the front page of Fedi.Tips to see a complete list of guides to using the Fediverse.

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If you’re the admin of a Mastodon server, there are lots of options for managing the trending posts, hashtags, links and account recommendations in your site’s trends section.

Choose your server’s overall trend settings

First of all, you have to decide whether you want to show trends on your site and whether you want to moderate them in advance:

1. Log into your server’s website or web app with your admin account
2. Click on Preferences (if you’re on mobile click click then ☰)
3. Click Administration
4. Click Server Settings
5. Click the Discovery tab at the top
6. In the Trends section, tick the boxes for what you want and un-tick boxes for what you don’t want
7. Click Save Changes at the bottom of the screen

NOTE: It’s very very highly recommended that you do NOT tick the box marked Allow trends without prior review. Allowing unreviewed trends onto your site can cause really awful material to appear there, as trolls may try to use multiple accounts to make offensive material trend. It’s much safer to manually review trends, as the offensive stuff is never visible that way.

Manually reviewing your server’s trends

Here’s how to review the trends on your server (assuming you are using manual reviews):

1. Log in through your server’s website or web app with your admin account
2. Click on Preferences (if you’re on mobile click click then ☰)
3. Click Recommendations & Trends
4. Click on the trending section you want to moderate: posts, hashtags, links or follow recommendations
5. Tick the items you want to approve or reject, then select the appropriate actions at the top as needed

Note that the post moderation lets you moderate both posts and authors, and the link moderation lets you moderate both the link itself and the website (publisher) it comes from. If you see inappropriate stuff from the same person again and again, you can save time by rejecting the author rather than just specific posts.

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If you’re an ordinary user and you block an entire server on Mastodon, that removes all your follows and followers on that server and prevents you seeing anyone or any posts from that server.

(Admins have different kinds of server blocks that are more powerful.)

I didn’t mean to do it, is there any way I can get back my follows and followers from that server?

Yes, you can undo this, but it will require a bit of work.

Here’s what to do:

1. Unblock the server. On your server’s website or web app, go to your profile page, then click the ⋯ button and select Blocked domains, then click the unlock icon next to the server you want to unblock.
2. While still on your server’s website or web app, go to Preferences > Follows and followers > Severed relationships (if you’re on the mobile web, click Preferences and then ☰ in the top right corner to see the Follows and followers option).
3. You will now see a page that lists all the server blocks that have ever caused you to lose follows and/or followers. Next to each block are download links which are downloadable files that list all the follows and followers you have lost because of that particular server block. Find the server block you did accidentally, and click the follower and follows download links for that server (there may only be one link if you only lost either follows or followers rather than both). Save these files onto your computer or phone or tablet.
4. Go to Preferences > Import and export > Import (mobile users click Preferences > ☰ > Import and export > Import)
5. To restore your follows (people you follow) from the blocked server, set the Import type as “Following list”, click Browse and select the file for the follows you downloaded in step 3 above. Then select Merge (do NOT select Overwrite!) and then click Upload. NOTE: Seriously, do NOT select Overwrite, that would make things much worse as it would replace your current follows with just the ones you lost.
6. To restore your followers (people who follow you), you will need to manually contact each of the followers on the followers file you downloaded and ask them to refollow you.

This looks painfully complicated! Isn’t there an easier way?

It is complicated, which is why there is a warning message before you actually block the server about how many followers and follows you will lose. (If you don’t have any follows or followers on the server you’re blocking, this message isn’t shown.)

However, perhaps there should be a more straightforward undo feature and perhaps the option itself should be more hidden than it currently is. If you’re comfortable using Github, you may want to read or contribute to an open issue about this on the Mastodon Github ⧉.

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Mastodon has a “Following and followers” management section you can use to remove followers without having to block them:

1. Sign in on your server’s website or web app
2. Click on Preferences
3. Click on Follows and followers (if you’re on a phone click ☰ and then Follows and followers)
4. In the Relationship section click on Followers
5. Select the followers you want to remove
6. Click on Remove selected followers

Does this block selected accounts?

No, it does not block them, it just removes them from your followers. If you block a follower, that removes their follow anyway and you don’t need to use follower management.

Why is it called “soft blocking” if it doesn’t block them?

The original way of doing this was by blocking someone to get them off your followers, then immediately unblocking them. The follower management system was introduced later.

How do I do an actual proper full block?

You can find a guide to blocking accounts on Mastodon here.

What about the other option that mentions domains?

If you click Remove followers from the selected domains, it will also remove all followers who are on the same servers as the followers you have selected. Be careful if you use this option, it may remove more followers than you expect.

What does Account Activity: Dormant mean?

It means the accounts listed haven’t posted in a while.

What does Account Status: Primary and Moved mean?

Primary accounts are normal accounts. Moved accounts are just redirecting to a different account elsewhere, and aren’t in use themselves.

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When someone posts a website or article link on Mastodon, there is sometimes an additional section below the link’s preview which says “More from…” and has a link to an account profile (see the screenshot above for an example). This is a link to the account of the person who runs the website or wrote the article you have linked to. Click on their name to see their profile, and follow it if you want to.

This link to an account profile is also known as “Author attribution” because it is often used by people who write articles or blog posts.

Is this generated automatically?

No. The site owner or article author has to manually add a special piece of HTML code to their site or article to state their Fediverse account address (see the instructions below).

How do we know it’s genuinely their profile?

The link will only appear if the site owner or article author has both confirmed the account address on their website, and also confirmed their connection to that website in their Mastodon settings. They need to confirm at both ends or it won’t appear.

When does this “More from…” author attribution link appear?

It will appear whenever anyone posts a link to the site or article by that author on Mastodon, but it may not be visible in all apps yet as it is a relatively new feature.

I am a website owner or article author. How do I get a “More from…” link to appear underneath links to my site or articles?

Here’s a step-by-step guide:

1. Log into your server’s website or web app
2. Click Preferences
3. Click Public Profile (if you’re on the mobile website click ☰ at the top and then Public Profile)
4. Click the Verification tab at the top
5. Scroll down to the Author attribution section (DO NOT use the Website Verification section, that is for a totally different feature)
6. Copy and paste the HTML code into your article or your website’s header
7. Add the domain name of your website (or the website that carries your articles) into Websites allowed to credit you. If you’re posting on several sites you can add several domains but make sure there is only one per line.
8. Click Save changes

If you’re an article author and are unsure how to add custom HTML, ask your website owner about it.

Can I use it with non-Mastodon Fediverse accounts?

It’s an open standard so other Fediverse platforms are free to implement it. However, it is a relatively new feature and so far it seems to just be working with Mastodon accounts.

Does this work when anyone posts the link on Mastodon? Or does it have to be the author posting it?

It works when anyone posts the link. The idea is to get more people to notice the author’s account and connect with them on Mastodon.

If there isn’t a “More from…” link, does that mean the author doesn’t have a Mastodon account?

Not necessarily. This is still a fairly new feature, and a lot of journalists and website owners that are on the Fediverse don’t yet know about this. It may take some time for every author and site owner to add the needed code to their site that allows this feature to function.

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If you’ve just joined a Pixelfed server and try to send or reply to a DM, it may display an error message saying you need to wait a bit.

Don’t worry, this error message will stop appearing 72 hours after you’ve joined the server. It’s there to stop spammers, it’s nothing personal against you.

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You can optionally import data from Instagram accounts to Pixelfed:

1. Log onto your Pixelfed server’s website
2. Click Account Settings
3. Click Import
4. Re-enter your Pixelfed password for security
5. Click the Import button and select the ZIP file you got from Instagram

It says I have not been permitted to use this feature?

If you see this message, it’s nothing personal! It just means the Instagram import feature has been switched off on your server.

If a server is overwhelmed with new members, they often switch off Instagram imports to prevent the server crashing. Importing accounts takes up a lot of resources so it tends to get switched off if the server is having lots of new signups.

You might consider signing up on a different Pixelfed server if the one you are on is constantly overwhelmed.

How do I export a ZIP file of my data from Instagram?

There are various guides to exporting your data from Instagram, you can see Instagram’s own official data export guide here ⧉.

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If possible, you should avoid re-using subdomains or domains when installing new Fediverse servers. If you set up a new server from scratch using exactly the same subdomain or domain as a defunct server, this may cause technical problems when you attempt to communicate with the rest of the Fediverse.

Can I set up a new subdomain on a previously used domain?

Yes! If the subdomain is brand new, that will avoid technical problems. With a brand new subdomain, the rest of the Fediverse will immediately see it correctly as a totally new server.

Could you give an example of what to do?

If you have an old server at social.example.com and it closes down, it would be a bad idea to set up a new server with that same address. Instead, you could use a different subdomain such as social1.example.com or fedi.example.com, or whatever you want to replace the word “social”. The important thing is that it isn’t identical to the old server’s address.

Why would re-use of a subdomain or domain cause technical problems?

All Fediverse servers store data about posts and accounts they have federated with. If they already have data about posts and accounts from a defunct server, this may confuse attempts by your new server to connect using the same address. This is especially true if a username on the old and new server is identical, because they will have different keys verifying their identity.

What if I re-install a server and use the database from an old server?

If you’re re-using the database of the old server as well as re-using that old server’s subdomain or domain, then this should avoid problems because it will be technically the same as the old server, using the same keys to verify accounts.

The problems occur if you’re installing on the same subdomain or domain using a brand new database with a brand new set of keys.

What are keys?

On Fediverse servers, keys are special codes used behind the scenes to confirm that a particular account created a particular post or followed a particular other account. Users never see them, but the software that runs servers depends on them to make sure they’re talking to the right account on the right server.

If I’ve already reused a subdomain or domain, will the technical problems ever go away?

The problems may eventually go away when other servers refresh the keys they use to verify identities. However, this can take a long time, and it’s much better to just avoid these problems altogether by using a new subdomain or domain.

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Mastodon server admins can set their own icons for use on browsers and phones, as well as custom thumbnail artwork shown when the server is linked to or listed on sites or apps:

1. Log into your server’s website or web app with the admin account
2. Click on Administration
3. Click on Server Settings
4. Click the Browse buttons on the icons and thumbnail artwork and upload the images you want to use. You don’t have to upload them all, just upload what you want to customise.
5. Click the Save Changes button at the bottom

What does “Server Thumbnail”, “Favicon” and “App Icon” actually mean in practice?

• Server Thumbnail: The artwork which appears in link previews and in Mastodon server listings on websites and apps. It helps get across what kind of server you run.
• Favicon: This is the icon that appears when people bookmark your server’s website on their web browser.
• App Icon: This is the icon that appears on phones or tablets if people install your server’s website as a web app.

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Yes. It’s a good idea to have some server rules on your server’s public “About” page even if you’re the only person on your server.

The reason is other server admins may often be in situations where they have to decide whether they will federate with your server, especially if they’re running allowlist-based protection on their server. Being able to read your server’s rules tells them immediately what kind of standards they can expect from your posts, and what kind of safety risks they might face federating with you.

What kind of rules should I have?

As rules on single-person servers are entirely for the benefit of people on other servers, it’s a good idea to keep them short, quick to read and easy to understand. However, they need to be specific enough to give some idea of what you consider acceptable.

For example, here are the rules on my own single-person server ⧉. You might want different rules, but whatever they are they should be equally short and easy to understand.

Also bear in mind that these are rules for your server, so it may include some rules that aren’t general statements about the wider world. You might be personally okay with the concept of advertising existing somewhere else but not on your server, so you might have a rule saying “no advertising”.

Is it enough that I say “Be nice to everyone”?

No. Different people can have totally different concepts of being nice, so it’s important to have at least some specific rules to give some indication of what you consider acceptable.

Does it have to be as detailed as rules on public servers?

No, it’s better to keep it simple. Rules on a single-person server are just to indicate to other admins what kind of content you might post. Making such rules too complicated makes it harder for other admins to quickly assess your server.

Why can’t other admins just look at my account profile?

It’s not always easy to tell from an account exactly what rules it is following. Nasty hateful accounts can also post pretty inoffensive stuff too. Rules take away the guesswork involved, and make much clearer what admins can expect from federating.

Also, many single-person servers have multiple themed accounts run by the same person, so from the outside it looks like there are several people on the server. It’s also a pain to have to browse through multiple accounts instead of a single list of rules.

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Mastodon lets you download an archive of all the posts and media attachments you’ve ever published on your account. Here’s how to do it:

1. Log in through your server’s website or web app
2. Click on Preferences
3. Click on Import and export (if you’re using the mobile website click ☰ and then Import and export)
4. Click on the Request your archive button. This will begin the archive creation process which may take a while, you will receive an email from your server when it is ready. You DO NOT need to stay logged in while this happens, it will happen automatically.
5. When you’ve received an email from your server telling you the archive is ready, go back to the Import and Export page. (If you remained on the page since requesting the archive, refresh the page to show the download link.)
6. Click on the Download your archive link and select where you want to save the file.

Does it include images etc that I’ve posted?

Yes, it includes your posts’ media attachments such as images, video, audio.

Does it include other people’s posts that I’ve boosted?

No. It’s just an archive of your own posts.

How often can I ask for an archive?

By default you can request an archive every seven days.

If I ask for another archive, does that have all the posts or just the ones since the last download?

Every archive has all the posts you’ve ever created.

This doesn’t include deleted posts though, these are actually deleted from the server, so if you’ve deleted posts since your last archive download they will not show up on newer archives.

How long is the archive available to download?

By default the archive is available to download for seven days, but different servers may have different download periods. Generally it’s a good idea to download it the same day that it is ready.

If the archive disappears before you downloaded it, you can request that the server creates the archive again.

How often should I download an archive?

It’s totally up to you, some people never download them while others do it regularly.

Is this the same thing as transferring your account?

No. Account archives are totally separate from the account transfer system. They use different files and do different things. The only connection between the two is that they’re both done through the Import and export page.

How do I view the archive?

This is a very good question! The Mastodon developers have provided no official way to view post archives. There are unofficial third party archive viewers, but these usually require a lot of technical knowledge to install and use. Here are some links to third party archive viewers:

• Mastodon Archive Viewer (Zero’s fork) ⧉
• Mastodon Archive Viewer (modified by Slashyn) ⧉
• Mastodon Archive Viewer (Python script) ⧉

Can I upload my post archive to my new account on another server?

No. The archive system is totally separate from the account transfer system, and the archive is NOT used in transferring accounts. The archive is mainly intended for your own personal records, so that you have a private offline copy of your posts and attachments.

There are no Mastodon servers which allow uploads of archives. If you attempt to upload it during an account transfer, it will just give you an error message.

I thought some servers allowed you to upload your archive so you could transfer your posts?

There have been some non-Mastodon Fediverse servers which have allowed uploads of Mastodon archives in order to “transfer” posts, but these clone the post archive as a set of totally new posts which look identical to the old posts but have none of the replies or shares of the old posts. This takes a lot of resources on servers, as it requires creating perhaps thousands of new posts all at once for everyone who uploads their archives, which can really slow the server down. This is possibly why Mastodon doesn’t allow it.

So, if I transfer my account to another Mastodon server, what happens to my old posts?

Your old posts remain on your old account, but the old account’s posts will redirect people to your new account. For example, if someone finds an old post of yours and clicks on the account name to see who wrote it, they will be directed to your new account.

Can I upload my post archive to my own server if it has technical problems and loses my posts?

Another really good question. As far as Fedi.Tips is aware this has never been done. Whether it’s possible or not is unclear.

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Mbin is a Fediverse platform for threaded discussions in the style of Reddit and similar link aggregators. It’s still in early days, so the official Mbin documentation is aimed at techy people ⧉, but hopefully they will create a website for ordinary users soon. Techy people might also want to look at the Mbin source code ⧉. If you just want to see an example of what Mbin looks like, there’s a major server at Fedia.io ⧉ (but please bear in mind I can’t guarantee how reliable this is as the platform is still being worked on).

Wasn’t this called Kbin before?

Mbin is based on an earlier project called Kbin which had a different lead developer. The original Kbin project stopped development, but Mbin carried on and built upon the work of Kbin.

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The word “mentions” on Mastodon and other social networks means typing @ and then a username, so that the username appears in your post. It’s also known as @-ing (pronounced “at-ing”) a person.

When you type @ and then begin typing the username, Mastodon will automatically suggest accounts that you can select if you want. You don’t have to accept these suggestions though, you can keep typing, and the suggestions will change as you type. The ultimate aim of a mention is to get an account’s complete Fediverse address to appear in the post. If the Fediverse account address you want isn’t in the suggestions, just ignore the suggestions and type the account address in full.

Why would I want to mention an account?

Mentioning an account can be useful for several reasons on Mastodon and the Fediverse:

• Mentions cause a notification to appear in the account’s notifications section, so the account’s owner will know they have been mentioned.
• It means other people reading the post will be able to click on the account’s mention which will take them to the account’s profile page. They will then know exactly who you are talking about, and perhaps follow them or interact with them in some way.
• The “Mentions”/”Specific People” post visibility setting means only people mentioned in the post can see it. Have a look at the post visibility guide for more details.

Can I just mention Mastodon accounts? Or can I mention other Fediverse accounts as well?

You can mention any type of Fediverse account. All Fediverse accounts use the same address format of @ (user name) @ (server name).

Most Fediverse account types do notify the account owner if you mention them, but a few (PeerTube for example) do not have a notification system for mentions.

I tried to mention an account but it didn’t work. What went wrong?

If you can’t get a mention to appear properly in your post, hopefully one of these suggestions might help:

• Are you using the correct Fediverse address for the account you want to mention? You can find the account’s address on their profile page.
• Did you include the @ symbol at the start of the address? All Fediverse addresses begin with an @
• Sometimes servers have trouble with mentions for accounts they have never “noticed” before. To solve this, copy and paste the account’s Fediverse address into the search box on your server. After you’ve done this once, mentioning the account should start working and the account should start appearing in the suggestions when you’re typing a mention too.
• If the account is on a server that your server has defederated, you will not be able to mention them.

Where can I see when I am mentioned by other people?

Mentions will appear within your normal notifications in Mastodon. If you want to see just your mentions without the other notifications, go to the Notifications section and click the Mentions tab at the top of the screen.

If you do click the Mentions tab, remember to switch notifications back to the All or Everything tab afterwards if you want to keep seeing other types of notifications. If you don’t do this, you will still get beeps for other types of notifications but you won’t see what they actually are.

I mentioned an account but it appears in the post as a short name instead of a full address. What’s happening?

Fediverse addresses all have two parts: the username and the server they are on (similar to how email addresses are written). For mentions to work, you need to include the full Fediverse address with both parts.

However, for the sake of readability, when the post is published Mastodon usually hides the second part of the address. The second part is still there underneath the surface, and if you click on the mention it will take you to the account’s profile page.

Some mentions have their addresses written in full, while most are shortened. Why is this?

Every account on the Fediverse has a unique Fediverse address, but accounts on different servers may have the same username or first part of the address. This is similar to how in real life people might have the same first name but different surnames.

If two accounts with the same username are mentioned in the same post, then when the post is published the account addresses will be written in full. This is similar to how a real life conversation might mention people’s surnames if they have the same first name, to help distinguish between the two.

I tried to mention an account but it keeps abbreviating it to @example instead of @example@server. Why doesn’t it let me write the full address when I’m editing the post?

If you’re mentioning an account on the same server as you are, then it will by default just show the first part. The second part will be automatically added for anyone viewing the post from another server.

This is similar to how traditional landline telephones allow you to dial a phone number without the area code if you are in the same area.

Can I edit a post to add a mention later?

Yes and no.

You can edit a post and add a mention, but the mention will not generate a notification and it will not make a mentions-only post visible to any mentions that are added by editing.

If you want to get someone’s attention or make a post visible to them, it is better to write a new post from scratch and mention them in it.

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There are a number of options if you want to use Mastodon on a computer.

Mastodon’s website

The website version of Mastodon is excellent, and it tends to get all the latest features first. You can be logged in on multiple accounts on multiple servers at once, and there’s also an optional Tweetdeck-style mode.

Third Party Apps

Here are some currently-supported third party desktop Mastodon apps, along with which types of computer they support:

• Whalebird ⧉ (Linux / Mac / Windows)
• Fedistar ⧉ (Linux / Mac / Windows)
• Ivory ⧉ (Mac)
• Ice Cubes ⧉ (Mac)
• Mona ⧉ (Mac)
• Tokodon ⧉ (Linux)
• Tuba ⧉ (Linux)
• Tweesecake ⧉ (designed to be accessible to blind people, available on Mac / Windows)
• TWBlue ⧉ (designed to be accessible to blind people, available on Windows)
• Toot ⧉ (CLI & TUI app for Linux / Mac)

Retro Apps

Many old computers from the 1980s and 1990s have Mastodon retro apps available.

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Just click on any post or reply to be taken to the original discussion thread it belongs to. This will show you the original post and its replies.

Is there any way to see the most complete version of the thread?

Because of the way servers federate together, your server may not always show all the replies in a conversation thread. You can see the most complete version of a thread by using original pages:

1. Click on the first post of the thread, at the very top
2. Click on ⋯ for the first post of the thread
3. Select the option Open original page, which will open the thread on the website of the poster’s server

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No. There is no algorithm on Mastodon or other Fediverse server types. You can like and follow and share stuff freely without having to worry about it affecting what appears in your timeline.

Your Home timeline simply shows all the posts and all the shares from all the accounts, groups and hashtags you follow, in chronological order. The timeline doesn’t hide stuff or suggest stuff or move stuff about.

My timeline is way too full now! How can I trim it down without an algorithm?

You can split your Home timeline into themed mini-timelines using Mastodon’s Lists feature, which lets you add accounts to separate timelines and then optionally hide those accounts from your Home timeline.

There are some accounts that I MUST see the posts from. How do I make sure I don’t miss what they post?

Click the bell icon on an account’s profile, and you will get an extra notification every time they post (and of course their posts will be in your Home timeline as usual).

There are some accounts and topics I MUST NOT see. How do I stop them appearing in my timeline?

You can block and mute accounts so that you don’t see them in your timeline. You can hide posts that use particular words or phrases by using the filter system.

I follow an account that boosts way too much! How do I stop seeing their boosts without hiding their own posts?

If there are accounts you follow that boost too much, you can hide an account’s boosts without hiding their own posts.

But there’s a column of suggested accounts to follow labelled “For You”! Isn’t this an algorithm?

No, it’s just a list of accounts that are most followed and boosted by people on your server. The same accounts are suggested to everyone on your server, but it automatically hides accounts you are already following (which is where the “for you” name comes from).

Actually, at a technical level, “algorithm” can mean any set of computing instructions. So of course Mastodon uses an algorithm, so do all computers and websites!

That’s not what most people mean by the word “algorithm”. To most people, especially non-technical people, algorithm means a weird hidden thing that messes up their timeline based on what they have previously interacted with.

If algorithm meant any kind of computing instruction, then it would be a useless word when trying to discuss the problems of manipulative black box code.

The “quiet public” post visibility setting on Mastodon’s website talks about “Fewer algorithmic features”. Doesn’t that mean Mastodon uses algorithms?

No, it’s just a badly written description that is trying to fit a long series of sentences into three words. The only actual effect of using quiet public visibility (aka unlisted visibility) is that it doesn’t show up in searches or trends or Federated or Local timelines.

Aren’t the trending posts sections a form of algorithm?

The trending posts sections of Mastodon just show new posts that have received a lot of boosts. There’s no weirdness or black box code or promotion going on, their mechanism is extremely simple and visible in Mastodon’s source code.

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Please don’t use flashing images or animations in posts or profiles! This includes attachments and emoji, anything which produces a rapid series of flashes. Flashing images can be dangerous to people with certain neurological conditions ⧉, and it makes your post or profile inaccessible to them.

If you absolutely have to post something containing flashes, hide it behind a content warning which says that it contains flashes.

Is there any way I can prevent animated GIFs from playing automatically?

If you’re using the Mastodon web interface, you can optionally prevent animated GIFs from automatically playing:

1. Log in through your server’s website or the web app
2. Click on Preferences
3. Scroll down the page and UN-tick the box Auto-play animated GIFs
4. Click the Save Changes button

Some apps may also have options for this, check their settings menus.

But if people can switch off autoplaying of GIFs, why does it matter if I use flashing images?

It matters because a lot of people may not be able to prevent autoplay:

• Some people may be viewing your public posts or profile through your server’s website, they may not even be members of the Fediverse. A lot of content on Mastodon and the Fediverse is shared elsewhere through web links.
• Some people use non-Mastodon platforms which lack options about autoplay.
• Some people are on Mastodon apps which lack options about autoplay.

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If you’re the admin of a Mastodon server, you might have noticed a server setting called “content cache retention period”. Do NOT put any numbers in this, just leave it blank!

What happens if I put numbers in there?

It will start permanently breaking threads on your server that are older than that number of days, without any possibility of restoring them. This setting is not really a cache, because there’s no way of getting the content back later.

Whaaat? Why does this setting even exist?

Apparently it was only intended for announcement servers which wanted to avoid data retention for legal reasons. It isn’t intended by the developers for use on ordinary servers.

So why is such a dangerous and niche setting included on normal servers if it’s not intended for normal servers?

Really good question, it probably shouldn’t be there as most admins will never need it and won’t realise the damage it causes. There is a pull request on Github to move it into a separate “danger zone” section ⧉, which includes technical discussion of the situation.

What about the other settings on the same page, can I use them?

Yes, the other settings are okay to use. It’s just the “content cache retention period” one that needs to stay blank.

Can I set the “Media cache retention period”? Can I set the “User archive retention period”?

Yes, it’s fine to set time limits on the media cache and user archives, because they can be reloaded if needed. It’s only the “content cache” that you need to avoid, because the content it deletes cannot be reloaded.

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Each server is totally independent, and does updates on its own schedule. You may want to check which version of Mastodon a server is running, as this can let you know whether a new feature is available on that server. To check a server’s version:

1. Go to that server’s website (you don’t need to log in)
2. If you’re on the desktop website, the server’s Mastodon version will be written at the bottom left corner of the screen. If you’re on the mobile website, click the ⋯ icon and scroll to the bottom of the page.
3. The version number will look something like “v2.2.4” or similar. It may have some extra letters if it’s a customised or experimental version of Mastodon, but the numbers should indicate which version it is based on.

How do I find out the latest version number for Mastodon?

The Mastodon developers’ Github page has the latest version number written at the top of its releases page ⧉.

(If you’re technical that page also lets you browse through the details of the latest version, but you don’t need to do this.)

The server has “glitch” or “hometown” written on its version number. What does this mean?

Mastodon is free open source software, which means anyone with the necessary programming knowledge can create their own customised version, known as a “fork”. Two of the most popular and well-established forks are Glitch Mastodon ⧉ and Hometown Mastodon ⧉. If you see these names in the version number, it means your server is running one of these forks.

There’s nothing wrong with a server running on a fork of Mastodon, in fact it often brings more features. Forks and originals aren’t rivals or competitors, they can contribute to each other in both directions. Many features of standard Mastodon originally appeared on the Glitch fork. Whichever fork your server is running, it’s still compatible with standard Mastodon and you’ll be able to follow and interact with people from standard Mastodon servers.

Standard Mastodon is often called “Vanilla Mastodon” to distinguish it from Glitch Mastodon, Hometown Mastodon and other forks.

The server’s version number has lots of letters and numbers and the word “alpha” or “beta”. What does this mean?

There are always two latest versions of Mastodon: the stable release version and the experimental version.

The vast majority of servers run the stable release version, as it has been extensively tested and is known to work well. However, some servers prefer to have the very latest cutting edge experimental features, and they will run the experimental version which is usually labelled differently. In software development, the words “alpha”, “beta” and “nightly” usually indicate an experimental version that isn’t yet ready for release. Experimental version numbers may look even more complicated such as “alpha.0+pr-28693-384ec56”.

If your server is running a test version of Mastodon, you will probably see new features ahead of servers running the release version. However, features on the experimental version may disappear without warning, or not work properly, or break other features, and that’s why most servers use the release version instead.

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Mastodon sometimes may send you emails when certain things happen on your account. You can switch off these emails by doing the following:

1. Log in through your server’s website or through the web app
2. Click on Preferences
3. Click Notifications on the left of the screen (or on the mobile site click ☰ and then Notifications in the menu)
4. UN-tick all the boxes in the section marked Events for e-mail notifications
5. Click the Save Changes button at the top of the screen

This won’t affect notifications you get within Mastodon itself, it just switches off the emails.

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There are many retro computing apps / clients available which let you use Mastodon through classic hardware from the 1980s and 1990s:

APPLE II	Mastodon for Apple II ⧉
APPLE MACINTOSH (Pre-OS X)	Macstodon ⧉
COMMODORE 64	MOStodon ⧉
COMMODORE AMIGA	amidon ⧉
MS-DOS	DOStodon ⧉
MVS	BREXXTODON ⧉
PALM OS	Heffalump ⧉
WINDOWS 95	Mastodon for Workgroups ⧉

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Most people think about websites and apps as being two separate things. However, some websites are specially written to function pretty much like apps, and you can even install these sites as apps with their own icon. You don’t need to go through any app stores, you can install them directly from your web browser.

These kinds of special installable websites are called “web apps”. Web apps are so sophisticated nowadays, many of the apps you install from app stores are actually web apps.

The websites of Mastodon servers and other Fediverse server types such as Pixelfed, PeerTube, BookWyrm etc can be installed as web apps on your phone or tablet. Scroll down this page to see a list of the Fediverse server types that support web app installation.

Should I use app store apps or web apps?

In most cases it’s just a matter of taste!

For example, Mastodon has lots of official and third party app store apps, but many people prefer the Mastodon web app as it tends to get features before the app store apps. The web app has also been in development for longer than any other Mastodon app, so its features tend to be well-developed and mature.

However, some Fediverse server types (such as BookWyrm for example) don’t have app store apps at all yet, so the web apps are their only app.

How to install web apps on Android phones and tablets:

1. Open your Android phone or tablet’s web browser and go to your server’s website
2. Open the browser’s options menu (usually ︙ in top right corner of screen)
3. Click on Install app
4. It will ask for confirmation of the installation, click Install
5. An icon will appear on your home screen, click on this and log into your account

How to install web apps on iPhone and iPad:

1. Open the Safari web browser and go to your server’s website
2. Click the Share icon at the bottom of the screen (it looks like a box with an arrow pointing upwards)
3. Scroll down through the options and click on Add to Home Screen
4. Give the name you want for the icon and confirm the installation by clicking on Add
5. An icon will appear on your home screen, click on this and log into your account

Do I get notifications for web apps? How do I control the notifications?

Yes, web apps nowadays support notifications.

Once you’ve installed the web app and you’ve logged in, your phone or tablet may ask if it’s okay to show notifications for the web app, if you want notifications you should say yes to this. You can also set notifications for the web app in your phone or tablet’s notifications settings section.

Which Fediverse server types can be installed as web apps?

You can install web apps for most Fediverse server types including:

BookWyrm
Friendica
Funkwhale
Mastodon
Mobilizon
OwnCast
PeerTube
Pixelfed
WriteFreely

Isn’t this just a bookmark? What’s the point of this?

Web apps are slightly different to bookmarks.

Installation won’t work for all websites, it will only work for those specifically desgined to be web apps. If you try to install non-app websites on your home screen, either the installation option will just not be there, or they will produce an icon but that icon will just open the site in a web browser exactly like a bookmark.

Web apps work a bit differently when they are added to your home screen, they hide the browser’s interface and let you just use the web app’s own interface. At a technical level they are still working through the browser, but in practice using a web app is pretty much like using an app. As noted above, many of the apps in app stores are actually web apps.

By adding web apps to your home screen, it means you can install Fediverse platforms that aren’t on app stores yet (such as Pixelfed or BookWyrm). Even on platforms that do have separate apps, such as Mastodon, many people prefer the web interface so they use the web app.

My iPhone/iPad calls these bookmarks?

Parts of the iPhone/iPad interface do refer to web apps as bookmarks, but web apps behave differently to bookmarks. Normal websites open in the browser just like bookmarks with the browser controls visible, but installed web apps hide the browser controls and the entire screen is devoted to the web app.

What are Progressive Web Apps / PWAs? What are Web Clients?

You might hear web apps referred to as Progressive Web Apps or PWAs or Web Clients. These are all pretty much just different names for the same thing.

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Running any kind of social media server is a big topic, especially if it’s a jointly-owned server run by a group, collective, business etc.

The legal side of things depends on where your organisation is based and what your organisation’s existing structure is. Your local laws will provide various options for joint ownership structures, for example co-operatives are popular in many countries. Usually a Mastodon server can be jointly owned and managed just like anything else that belongs to your organisation.

How does joint management of a Mastodon server work in practice?

Many people can jointly run a single Mastodon server by using the “roles” system, where accounts are assigned special privileges by the owners of the server. These privileges allow staff to do things that ordinary members can’t do, for example delete posts or block users. Different roles have different amounts and types of privilege.

There are a number of pre-made roles (Owner, Admin, Moderator) but completely new roles can also be created with highly customised sets of abilities. The “Owner” account is the highest-ranked role and has the final word on everything, so this is normally given to people most trusted by your organisation. You can assign several accounts as owners if you want.

If your organisation needs a hierarchy, there is an optional priority system for roles so that if two staff members disagree on certain actions, the higher priority role gets the final decision.

The profiles of staff carry a special badge with their role name, so everyone on your server can see that they are staff.

How to give a server member a special role

1. Log in through an account that has the power to assign roles. Owners can assign any role, other staff members may also be able to (depending on what privileges they have been given).
2. Go to Preferences > Moderation > Accounts
3. Click on the member you want to assign a role to
4. Scroll down to the Roles section of the page and click on Change role
5. Select the correct role and click Save changes

How to adjust existing roles or create new roles

1. Log in through an account with power to create roles (usually Owners)
2. Go to Preferences > Administration > Roles
3. To edit an existing role click the Edit button next to it, to create a new role click the Add role button at the top of the screen

Note that there are a lot of differnet abilities that can be assigned to roles (see below). You may want to err on the side of caution and only assign abilities that you’re totally sure you want them to have.

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If you’re browsing a thread on Mastodon through your server’s website or on the web app, you may have noticed an icon in the top right corner that looks like an eye

Clicking this icon reveals or hides all posts in the thread that are hidden by Content Warnings (CW). If the posts with CWs are hidden, click on the eye to open them all at once, or click again to close them all.

This feature is really useful on threads with a lot of posts hidden by CWs, as it means you don’t have to open each CW one by one.

I can’t see the eye, where is it?

The eye icon is only visible when you’re viewing a thread. You can view a thread by clicking on a post, which will show you the thread the post comes from.

I clicked the eye and it doesn’t seem to do anything?

Try clicking it again. If you have one post revealed and you click the eye, it just hides that post and leaves the rest hidden, so it appears to do nothing. When you click again, it opens all the posts at once.

There’s an eye in the official app but it doesn’t reveal the whole thread?

The official Mastodon app also has an eye symbol but it’s displayed in posts rather than at the top of threads, and it just reveals the contents of that specific post.

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Mastodon threads are built with the traditional method used on many other social networks.

Here’s how to do this manually in any app:

1. Post the first part of your thread, and mention that it is the start of the thread
2. Reply to the post with the second part of the thread
3. Reply to this reply with the third part etc
4. Just keep replying to your last previous reply to add the next part, and go through all your posts in order
5. When you get to the final reply, mention that it’s the end of the thread

Should I number the thread?

A lot of people also number their threads at the bottom of each part to indicate it is in a thread, and which part it is (such as 1/9 on first post in a nine post thread, 2/9 on second part, 3/9 on part 3 etc). Some also optionally add a cotton reel emoji next to the first post’s numbering as a visual pun to indicate a thread.

If you’re not sure how many parts a thread will have, you can just number them as 1/X, 2/X, 3/X and then END on the final post. As Mastodon has an edit function, you can add the numbering to a thread afterwards too.

What visibility setting should I use for threads?

If you are posting a public thread, it’s considered polite to use a public visibility setting for the first post but an unlisted visibility setting for the replies in the thread. This means that only the start of the thread shows up on public timelines, and makes them easier to browse. However, if you’re unsure about how to do this don’t worry.

Is there an easier way to create threads? Can I create them in advance in one go instead of manually bit-by-bit?

Some apps and scheduled posting services may include thread-creation systems which let you write the thread in full and then post the thread in one go, but at a technical level they are just doing the above process of replies-to-replies automatically.

If you’re on a computer, you can use a notepad application to type the whole thread in one go, then split it into bits by copying and pasting sections of your text over to Mastodon.

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For safety reasons, the default settings on Pixelfed automatically block DMs from people you don’t follow.

If you want to receive DMs from people you don’t follow, you will need to change the settings:

1. Log into your account on your Pixelfed server
2. Go to Account Settings
3. Go to Privacy
4. Tick the box marked Receive Direct Messages from anyone
5. Click the Submit button at the bottom of the screen

If you change your mind, repeat this process but untick the box and click Submit.

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Here’s a complete list of all the language codes used by Mastodon. These can be useful when doing searches by language.

For example if you search mastodon including the phrase language:fr you will only see results in French. You can combine this with keywords or hashtags, or just have the operator on its own if you want to see all recent posts in that language.

(NOTE: If you want your timelines permanently filtering languages, use the dedicated language filters instead.)

Language	Code
Afaan Oromoo (Oromo)	om
Afaraf (Afar)	aa
Afrikaans (Afrikaans)	af
Akan (Akan)	ak
Aragonés (Aragonese)	an
Asturianu (Asturian)	ast
Asụsụ Igbo (Igbo)	ig
Avesta (Avestan)	ae
Aymar aru (Aymara)	ay
Azərbaycan dili (Azerbaijani)	az
Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)	id
Bahasa Melayu (Malay)	ms
Bamanankan (Bambara)	bm
Basa Jawa (Javanese)	jv
Basa Sunda (Sundanese)	su
Bislama (Bislama)	bi
Bosanski jezik (Bosnian)	bs
Brezhoneg (Breton)	br
Català (Catalan)	ca
čeština (Czech)	cs
Chamoru (Chamorro)	ch
ChiCheŵa (Chichewa)	ny
ChiShona (Shona)	sn
Corsu (Corsican)	co
Crnogorski (Montenegrin)	cnr
Cymraeg (Welsh)	cy
Dansk (Danish)	da
Davvisámegiella (Northern Sami)	se
Deutsch (German)	de
Dhivehi (Divehi)	dv
Diné bizaad (Navajo)	nv
Eesti (Estonian)	et
Ekakairũ Naoero (Nauru)	na
English	en
Esperanto (Esperanto)	eo
Español (Spanish)	es
Euskara (Basque)	eu
Eʋegbe (Ewe)	ee
Faka Tonga (Tonga)	to
Fiteny malagasy (Malagasy)	mg
Français (French)	fr
Frysk (Western Frisian)	fy
Fulfulde (Fula)	ff
Føroyskt (Faroese)	fo
Gaeilge (Irish)	ga
Gaelg (Manx)	gv
Gàidhlig (Scottish Gaelic)	gd
Galego (Galician)	gl
Gĩkũyũ (Kikuyu)	ki
Hiri Motu (Hiri Motu)	ho
Hrvatski (Croatian)	hr
Ido (Ido)	io
Ikinyarwanda (Kinyarwanda)	rw
Ikirundi (Kirundi)	rn
Interlingua (Interlingua)	ia
Interlingue (Interlingue)	ie
Iñupiaq (Inupiaq)	ik
IsiNdebele (Northern Ndebele)	nd
IsiNdebele (Southern Ndebele)	nr
IsiXhosa (Xhosa)	xh
IsiZulu (Zulu)	zu
Íslenska (Icelandic)	is
Italiano (Italian)	it
Julevsámegiella (Lule Sami)	smj
Kajin M̧ajeļ (Marshallese)	mh
Kalaallisut (Kalaallisut)	kl
Kanuri (Kanuri)	kr
Kernewek (Cornish)	kw
Kikongo (Kongo)	kg
Kiswahili (Swahili)	sw
Kreyòl ayisyen (Haitian)	ht
Kuanyama (Kwanyama)	kj
Kurmancî (Kurmanji (Kurdish))	ku
La .lojban. (Lojban)	jbo
Láadan (Láadan)	ldn
Latine (Latin)	la
Latviešu valoda (Latvian)	lv
Lëtzebuergesch (Luxembourgish)	lb
Lietuvių kalba (Lithuanian)	lt
Limburgs (Limburgish)	li
Lingála (Lingala)	ln
Lingua franca nova (Lingua Franca Nova)	lfn
Luganda (Ganda)	lg
Magyar (Hungarian)	hu
Malti (Maltese)	mt
Nederlands (Dutch)	nl
Norsk (Norwegian)	no
Norsk bokmål (Norwegian Bokmål)	nb
Norsk Nynorsk (Norwegian Nynorsk)	nn
ꆈꌠ꒿ Nuosuhxop (Nuosu)	ii
Occitan (Occitan)	oc
Otjiherero (Herero)	hz
Owambo (Ndonga)	ng
Polski (Polish)	pl
Português (Portuguese)	pt
Reo Tahiti (Tahitian)	ty
Română (Romanian)	ro
Rumantsch grischun (Romansh)	rm
Runa Simi (Quechua)	qu
Sardu (Sardinian)	sc
Saɯ cueŋƅ (Zhuang)	za
Scots (Scots)	sco
Sesotho (Southern Sotho)	st
Setswana (Tswana)	tn
Shqip (Albanian)	sq
SiSwati (Swati)	ss
Slovenčina (Slovak)	sk
Slovenščina (Slovenian)	sl
ślůnsko godka (Silesian)	szl
Soomaaliga (Somali)	so
Suomi (Finnish)	fi
Svenska (Swedish)	sv
Taqbaylit (Kabyle)	kab
Te reo Māori (Māori)	mi
Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)	vi
Toki pona (Toki Pona)	tok
Tshiluba (Luba-Katanga)	lu
Tshivenḓa (Venda)	ve
Türkçe (Turkish)	tr
Türkmen (Turkmen)	tk
Twi (Twi)	tw
Vakaviti (Fijian)	fj
Volapük (Volapük)	vo
Walon (Walloon)	wa
Wikang Tagalog (Tagalog)	tl
Wollof (Wolof)	wo
Xitsonga (Tsonga)	ts
Yângâ tî sängö (Sango)	sg
Yorùbá (Yoruba)	yo
Åarjelsaemien Gïele (Southern Sami)	sma
Ελληνικά (Greek)	el
аҧсуа бызшәа (Abkhaz)	ab
авар мацӀ (Avaric)	av
башҡорт теле (Bashkir)	ba
беларуская мова (Belarusian)	be
български език (Bulgarian)	bg
нохчийн мотт (Chechen)	ce
чӑваш чӗлхи (Chuvash)	cv
Хальмг келн (Kalmyk)	xal
қазақ тілі (Kazakh)	kk
коми кыв (Komi)	kv
Кыргызча (Kyrgyz)	ky
македонски јазик (Macedonian)	mk
Монгол хэл (Mongolian)	mn
ирон æвзаг (Ossetian)	os
Русский (Russian)	ru
српски језик (Serbian)	sr
ѩзыкъ словѣньскъ (Old Church Slavonic)	cu
тоҷикӣ (Tajik)	tg
татар теле (Tatar)	tt
Українська (Ukrainian)	uk
Ўзбек (Uzbek)	uz
አማርኛ (Amharic)	am
Հայերեն (Armenian)	hy
অসমীয়া (Assamese)	as
বাংলা (Bengali)	bn
भोजपुरी (Bihari)	bh
ဗမာစာ (Burmese)	my
廣東話 (Cantonese)	zh-YUE
ᏣᎳᎩ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ (Cherokee)	chr
中文 (Chinese)	zh
简体中文 (Chinese (China))	zh-CN
繁體中文（香港）(Chinese (Hong Kong))	zh-HK
繁體中文（臺灣）(Chinese (Taiwan))	zh-TW
ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐍᐏᐣ (Cree)	cr
རྫོང་ཁ (Dzongkha)	dz
ქართული (Georgian)	ka
ગુજરાતી (Gujarati)	gu
हिन्दी (Hindi)	hi
ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵜ (Standard Moroccan Tamazight)	zgh
ᐃᓄᒃᑎᑐᑦ (Inuktitut)	iu
日本語 (Japanese)	ja
ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)	kn
ខេមរភាសា (Khmer)	km
कश्मीरी (Kashmiri)	ks
한국어 (Korean)	ko
ລາວ (Lao)	lo
മലയാളം (Malayalam)	ml
मराठी (Marathi)	mr
नेपाली (Nepali)	ne
ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᒧᐎᓐ (Ojibwe)	oj
ଓଡ଼ିଆ (Oriya)	or
ਪੰਜਾਬੀ (Panjabi)	pa
पाऴि (Pāli)	pi
संस्कृतम् (Sanskrit)	sa
सिन्धी (Sindhi)	sd
සිංහල (Sinhala)	si
தமிழ் (Tamil)	ta
తెలుగు (Telugu)	te
ไทย (Thai)	th
བོད་ཡིག (Tibetan)	bo
ትግርኛ (Tigrinya)	ti
اللغة العربية (Arabic)	ar
باليبلن (Balaibalan)	zba
هَوُسَ (Hausa)	ha
עברית (Hebrew)	he
پښتو (Pashto)	ps
فارسی (Persian)	fa
سۆرانی (Sorani (Kurdish))	ckb
اردو (Urdu)	ur
ئۇيغۇرچە ‎ (Uyghur)	ug
ייִדיש (Yiddish)	yi

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Since version 4.2.0, Mastodon allows full text search where the entire contents of posts is included when people do searches.

For privacy and safety reasons, the full text search feature is entirely on an opt-in basis. By default your posts are NOT available to search by that method, and you have to actively opt into full text search to make your public posts searchable without hashtags.

To opt into full text search:

1. Log in through your server’s website
2. Click on your profile icon, this will take you to your profile page
3. Click on Edit Profile button
4. Click on the tab labelled Privacy & Reach
5. Tick the box marked Include public posts in search results
6. Click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the screen

If you change your mind, do the same steps again but untick the box and then save changes.

What if I don’t want to be searchable?

By default, your posts are NOT part of the full text search system. You have to actively opt in using the steps above if you want people to be able to search your entire posts.

When opted out of full text search, your posts are only searchable by hashtag.

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Third party Mastodon, PeerTube & Fediverse app, free open source software, available from Google Play (paid) ⧉ & F-Droid (free) ⧉

General impressions

At first glance appears to be pretty standard, but once you start going through the options and settings there is so much more under the surface. Many, many useful features and good support for non-Mastodon Fediverse servers. It’s not the best-looking app, but that doesn’t matter because it does lots of things other apps cannot do.

Nice stuff

• All the standard extras available the web interface such as post editing, pinned posts, hashtag follows, lists, filters, trending tags, trending posts etc.
• All the timelines (Home, Local, Federated, Explore) are there, as are all the visibilities (Public, Unlisted, Followers-Only, Mentions-Only and Local-Only (for servers that support local-only posts))
• Free open source software
• Allows users to be muted just on home timeline while still appearing on lists, which is great for creating multiple separate timelines from the same account. (Also, you can set lists to automatically include home muted users.)
• Scheduled posts and scheduled boosts, including boosts of own or others’ posts
• Post drafts, automatically asks you if you close a message without posting it
• Built-in translation, built-in dictionary and spell checker
• Good support for non-Mastodon Fediverse server types including Pixelfed, PeerTube, Friendica etc. Also includes support for extra features on Mastodon forks such as Glitch and Hometown.
• PeerTube interface is particularly good, allows all the options from the web interface including uploads, and Fedilab can easily be used as a dedicated PeerTube app
• Customisable timeline and interface options, colour themes, adjustable text and icon sizes.
• Conversation thread maps
• Lets you fetch data from remote servers which allows conversations and profiles to be updated with information that hasn’t federated to your server yet.
• Optional privacy features for links such as UTM stripping, and using alternative frontends for links to popular services (for example Nitter to view Twitter links, Invidious to view YouTube links etc).
• Lots more options such as automatic cache clearance.

Not sure one way or other

• Fedilab is a paid app on Google Play but free-of-charge on F-Droid. This is as the developer wishes to encourage people onto alternatives to Google Play.

Potential drawbacks

• Some of the formatting could be slicker and neater, for example metadata tables on profiles look a bit messy
• Some English translations slightly odd, such as “trending messages” when it means trending posts
• Occasional weird bugs, for example the Manage Timelines page brings up a “No timelines was found on this instance” error message

Hints & Tips

• Polls can be added to posts by clicking the attachment button (the paperclip) and selecting the poll icon
• You can jump to the top of a timeline by double-tapping the timeline’s icon

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If a post is boosted by a lot of people, you may see it repeatedly in your timeline. This can be annoying if you’re tired of seeing it.

There is already a feature in Mastodon to prevent this happening, called Group Boosts, and it is on by default, you don’t need to do anything to switch it on. Unfortunately, it is hardcoded to allow boosts to repeat after 40 other posts have been in your timeline. This limit worked okay in the early days of the Fediverse when things were quieter, but nowadays with millions of people online you are a lot more likely to see repeated boosts.

This 40 posts limit cannot currently be adjusted by users or admins, but hopefully the developers could allow this to happen. If you are comfortable using github, you can vote for this limit to be adjustable by giving a thumbs up to the first post in this thread ⧉.

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Post scheduling means you write posts now, and they are automatically posted later at times and dates of your choosing.

This is very useful for accounts that need posts to go out at particular times of day, for example to reach people reading their feeds in particular time zones, or to accompany scheduled live events such as streams or radio shows.

Scheduling through third party apps

If you are using certain third party apps such as Tusky and Fedilab you will find scheduling options built into their posting interfaces. Fedilab also runs a website interface at FediPlan ⧉ which lets you access the scheduling feature even without the app.

Professional post scheduling services

There are now commercial companies offering advanced post scheduling services that include compatibility with Mastodon and other social networks. The two most prominent at the moment are Publer ⧉ and Buffer ⧉.

Why doesn’t Mastodon have a built-in scheduler?

This is the weird part… Mastodon does actually have a fully functional built-in scheduler buried deep in its code! However, for some unexplained reason, the official web interface and official apps don’t yet give you any way to access it. This means you can only use Mastodon’s post scheduling system through third party apps and services via the Mastodon API.

If you’re comfortable using Github, you can vote for an official Mastodon scheduling interface to be added by giving a thumbs up at this issue ⧉.

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Yes, there’s an unofficial “remind me” bot you can use at @remindme@mstdn.social ⧉

It can remind you minutes, hours, days, weeks, months or years later. To use it, just mention the bot in a post or reply and include the period you want to be reminded after, for example:

@remindme@mstdn.social 1 week

Reminders can be sent privately if you prefer. To be reminded privately include the word DM, for example:

@remindme@mstdn.social dm 1 week

It should work with any Fediverse platform that supports microblogging, such as Mastodon, Friendica, GoToSocial etc.

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If you want to use Mastodon through a command line interface (CLI) or text-based user interface (TUI), there’s a free open source tool you can install called “toot” ⧉.

It can be installed on a variety of Linux distributions and Mac too.

(By the way, despite the similar name, it has no connection to the mobile apps Toot! or Tooot.)

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There’s a website called FediFinder which helps you find the Mastodon / Fediverse accounts of people you currently follow on Twitter. To use it, just go to fedifinder.glitch.me ⧉ and follow the instructions.

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Each server on the Fediverse is independent, and can choose to cut off connections to any other server if it wants to do so. This process of blocking other servers on the Fediverse is known as “defederation” or “fediblocking”.

Usually this is done for the sake of user safety, for example if another server is failing to moderate abusive behaviour, but it can be for any reason that the server admin considers important.

If you’re an admin on a Mastodon server, here is how to defederate other servers on the Fediverse:

1. Log into your admin account on your server’s website
2. Go to Preferences > Moderation > Federation
3. Click Add New Domain Block
4. Enter the domain name of the server you want to block (for example “threads.net”)
5. From the Severity dropdown menu select Suspend
6. Optionally add comments if you want to remind yourself why you blocked them, or if you have a public list that explains your server’s blocks
7. Click Create Block

Once you’ve done this, your server will refuse connections from the blocked server and any follows from those servers will be removed.

These blocks work for any Fediverse server type, so you can block non-Mastodon servers as well.

Do I have to do this for every single server I want to block?

By default, blocks are done one at a time. However, you can also import ready-made blocklists which let you block lots of servers at once.

Is there a less drastic alternative to blocking?

Yes, you can choose Limit from the Severity menu instead of Suspend. Limiting (also known as Silencing) does not cut off connections, and allows follows to carry on, but it hides all posts from that server unless people are following the account that makes them.

What if I change my mind? How do I unblock servers?

To remove a domain block:

1. Log into your admin account on your server’s website
2. Go to Preferences > Moderation > Federation
3. Click on the domain you want to unblock
4. Click Undo Domain Block

If I unblock a server, will people’s follows be restored?

When an admin defederates a server, that cuts off all the follows between that server and the admin’s server.

Unblocking a server allows people to follow each other again, but it does not automatically restore follows that existed before the defederation happened. This is an important reason to consider carefully before defederating a server.

If you want to distance yourself from a server but don’t want to cut off follows, use the Limit/Silence option instead of Suspend.

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Third party Mastodon app, free open source software, available from Apple App Store (free) ⧉

General impressions

Slick, fast, very well thought out. Full of options and settings if you want them, but the default settings work fine too and the options don’t feel overwhelming. Feels very modern and pushing beyond what the official app offers.

Nice stuff

• Very easy to use and intuitive by default, so it’s suitable for beginners but advanced users can dig through settings if they want a more tweaked experience.
• Free open source software
• Extra features not on official app such as post drafts, hiding repeated boosts, following other servers, unlisted visibility, more granular notification settings, filter editing etc
• Includes all the timelines (Home, Local, Federated, Explore) plus option to follow timelines on other servers.
• Includes trending posts, trending tags, hashtag following etc.
• Lovely haptics and subtle unobtrusive sound effects, letting you know something has happened without making a song and dance about it
• Fully customisable appearance including full range of colours for each element, transparency settings, pre-built themes, font sizes and line spacing, preview on example post etc
• Customisable swipe settings on interface
• Can automatically suggest hashtags based on your post, and add them either within or after the text. Same feature can also correct text.

Not sure one way or other

• LLM-powered feature where you can ask it to rewrite your post more concisely or more enthusiastically. Some will really appreciate this, while others will be concerned about its effect on discourse.
• Quoting posts is something many have demanded but others have been worried about. In this particular case, the quoting is actually just linking to the post and mentioning the author (the core Mastodon software does not currently include quoting as a feature, so this is possibly the nearest the app can get to it).

Potential drawbacks

• No image focus selection
• No separate volume control for effects, have to use system volume

Hints & Tips

• Ice Cubes is free open source software created by volunteers. Please consider supporting its development by using the optional in-app purchases which allow you to give a one-off tip or a regular subscription. The donation buttons are in the app itself at Settings > Support The App.
• You can add and edit filters by holding down your profile icon in the top left corner, then select your profile name to bring up settings specific to that profile. One of these will be Edit filters.
• You can see your own server’s info and its list of rules by going to Settings > Instance Information
• Development was paused due to lead dev’s parental leave, but there should be updates on the way again now

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Third party Mastodon app, free open source software, available from Google Play (free) ⧉ and F-Droid (free) ⧉

General impressions

Solid, reliable and mature with continual development and updates. Works the way you would expect it to, and matches up nicely with the website interface. This is what the official Android app should have been.

Nice stuff

• One of the longest-supported Mastodon apps, been around longer than the official app
• Feels very intuitive, arranged logically
• Free open source software
• Lots of features that are missing from the official app and/or website, such as scheduled posts, drafts, reversal of reading order, image cropping etc.
• Other features include post editing, image focus editing, bookmarks, lists, polls, hashtag following, filters, private profile notes, all post visibilities including Unlisted, all timelines
• Custom tabs, you can pick up to five from Home, Local, Federated, Notifications, DMs, Trending Hashtags, Lists, Hashtag Columns
• Hashtag tabs can include multiple hashtags in one tab, and you can have multiple separate hashtag tabs, which is really useful for creating your own custom themed timelines
• Switch between tabs very easily by swiping (swiping can be deactivated too)
• Support for multiple accounts at once, with separate settings pages for each account
• People sick of clout-chasing can switch off all the boost/favourite/follower numbers, which can be good for mental health
• Warning icon to remind you to add text descriptions

Potential drawbacks

• No option to view trending posts
• Custom tabs are fantastic, but the five tab limit can be frustrating
• Verification of links on profiles not very clear, the icon could be confused with fake verification icons made with custom emoji
• Profile descriptions formatted slightly messily, especially metadata elements
• Some people overlook the Add Poll button as it’s sort of hidden in the attachment menu

Hints & Tips

• Tusky is a volunteer-run project providing free software, you can donate to keep it going at the Tusky Open Collective page ⧉
• To see your own profile page, tap your profile icon twice (once to open the settings page, then again to show your profile page)
• To make a draft, start writing a post and close it without actually posting it . You can find a complete list of drafts from the settings page.
• To add a poll, click the attachment button and then select Add Poll

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Kbin is a Reddit-style link aggregator and discussion platform for the Fediverse. As it communicates using the ActivityPub protocol, Kbin servers can communicate with other Fediverse server types such as Mastodon etc.

It’s still in early beta testing, but already has servers up and running you can try out. Find out more from the official Kbin site ⧉ or try out its flagship server at kbin.social ⧉.

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Third party Mastodon app, closed source, available from Apple’s App Store (paid) ⧉

General impressions

Lots of personality, presented in a whimsical and fun style, not corporate at all.

Nice stuff

• Mature and stable, one of the longest-maintained apps, been around longer than the official apps
• Supports all timelines (home, federated, local), explore/trending tab, lists, hashtag following
• Supports post editing
• London Underground-style colourful discussion maps make threads much easier to navigate
• Laid out clearly with text explaining things instead of blank icons, support for variable font size too
• Allows multiple accounts at once and easy-to-use switcher in corner of screen
• Unique and fun easter eggs including “user scanning”, a pool simulator with a mysterious scoring system and more
• Timeline syncing between devices through iCloud
• The “in-app purchases” are actually just parodies which you don’t need to buy, they don’t add any features

Potential drawbacks

• Search box is awkwardly hidden in a menu
• The message bubbles can feel a bit overwhelming when there are lots of them, but they can be switched off

Hints & Tips

• You can find the search box by going to the Home or Notifications tab, then clicking ⋯ and then Search
• To find the Explore, Local and Federated feeds, click your server’s icon in the bottom right corner and then select the feed you want from the menu at the top of the screen

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