You have likely noticed that hashtags on Mastodon behave differently depending on whether you type them in all lowercase or use mixed case like #Mastodon. Many users expect the hashtag to be treated exactly as typed, but the software normalizes them in ways that affect discoverability and federation. The reason is that Mastodon converts all … Read more
Mastodon is a decentralized social network made up of thousands of independent servers called instances. Each instance hosts its own users and content, which can make finding posts from other instances feel difficult. A hashtag search in Mastodon does not limit results to just your home instance. Instead, it fetches public posts from every federated … Read more
You want a hashtag to spread across Mastodon so more people join your campaign or conversation. Mastodon does not use an algorithm, so a hashtag only gains visibility through direct engagement from users and moderators. This article explains how to boost a movement tag by using strategic posting, federation timing, and moderation tools. The core … Read more
You want to retrieve trending hashtags from a Mastodon instance programmatically, but the standard web interface only shows the top few tags without any filtering or automation. The Mastodon API provides a dedicated endpoint that returns the current trending hashtags, along with their usage history and metadata, enabling you to build custom dashboards, content monitoring … Read more
You search for a hashtag on Mastodon and see one set of posts. A colleague on a different Mastodon instance searches the same hashtag and sees a completely different set of results. This discrepancy is not a bug. It is a direct result of how Mastodon distributes and indexes content across its federated network. Each … Read more
Mastodon antennas let you filter your home timeline by keywords, users, or hashtags. You might want to track a specific hashtag without cluttering your main feed. This article explains how antennas work and how to add a hashtag to an existing antenna list. Antennas are part of Mastodon’s advanced filtering system. They are available on … Read more
You open the Explore page on your Mastodon instance expecting to see trending hashtags, but the section is blank or missing entirely. This happens because instance administrators can choose to disable the trending hashtags feature in the server settings. Mastodon gives each instance full control over whether trending content is calculated and displayed to users. … Read more
Mastodon’s web client allows you to follow hashtags, but the timeline for a hashtag disappears when you navigate away or refresh the page. Pinning a hashtag search tab keeps that timeline permanently accessible as a column in your main interface. This article explains how to locate the pin feature, set up a persistent hashtag column, … Read more
If you have featured hashtags on your Mastodon profile, some may no longer match your current interests or posting habits. Over time, you might have stopped using certain tags while they still appear prominently on your profile. This can confuse followers who expect content on those topics. This article explains how to identify stale featured … Read more
You want to create a Mastodon bot that listens to a specific hashtag in real time and automatically responds, boosts, or bookmarks matching posts. The Mastodon Streaming API allows your bot to receive a continuous feed of public posts that match a hashtag without repeatedly polling the server. This article explains how to set up … Read more