When you use Mastodon, your public profile and posts are visible to anyone by default. Search engines can index your profile, and users on other instances can find your posts in the federated timeline. If you want to limit who can see your posts and profile details, you can lock your account to followers only. … Read more
When you visit a Mastodon profile, you often see a list of hashtags below the bio. These are called featured hashtags. They let visitors quickly see what topics you post about most often. Mastodon allows you to pin up to five hashtags so they appear prominently on your public profile. Many users do not know … Read more
Mastodon allows you to pin up to five of your own posts to the top of your public profile. This feature is useful for highlighting important announcements, pinned threads, or key introductions that visitors see first. Unlike other social platforms where only one pinned post is allowed, Mastodon gives you more flexibility to showcase multiple … Read more
If you run an automated poster on Mastodon, the platform expects you to mark your account as a bot. Without this marker, your automated posts may get rate-limited more aggressively or flagged by other users and instances. The bot flag is a simple boolean setting that tells the Mastodon API and other servers that this … Read more
If you run a Mastodon server or manage a brand account, you want visitors to know your profile is authentic. Mastodon offers a built-in verification system that uses a link on your profile and a matching link on your own website. This method does not require a third-party service or a blue checkmark payment. When … Read more
When you create a Mastodon account, you choose between a locked or unlocked profile. This setting controls who can follow you without your approval. A locked account requires new followers to send a follow request that you must manually approve. An unlocked account lets anyone follow you immediately. This article explains the difference between locked … Read more
Mastodon lets you add a custom emoji to your display name. This is different from standard Unicode emoji. Custom emoji are uploaded by instance administrators and can be used by anyone on that server. They appear as small images next to your name in posts, profiles, and timelines. This article explains how to find, add, … Read more
When you enable two-factor authentication on your Mastodon account, the system generates a set of backup codes. These single-use codes let you sign in if you lose access to your authenticator app or hardware token. Without them, you can be permanently locked out of your account if your 2FA device fails. This article explains how … Read more
You want to add a hardware security key to your Mastodon account for stronger two-factor authentication. Standard app-based codes can be intercepted by phishing sites or stolen from your phone. This article explains how to register a FIDO2 or U2F security key directly in your Mastodon account settings. By the end, you will have a … Read more
You have a Mastodon account and you want to sign in on Chrome, Firefox, and Edge without re-entering credentials each time. Mastodon uses standard OAuth-based session tokens that are stored locally in each browser. This article explains how Mastodon sessions work, how to keep a session active across multiple browsers, and what to do when … Read more