Mastodon offers three main interaction buttons on each post: Boost, Favorite, and Bookmark. Many new users confuse these actions because they appear similar to Twitter or Instagram functions. Each button serves a distinct purpose for visibility, feedback, or personal organization. This article explains the functional differences between Boost, Favorite, and Bookmark and when to use … Read more
Mastodon shows a boost count on every post you publish. This number tells you how many times other users have boosted your post to their followers. Some users find this count distracting or prefer to focus on content quality rather than popularity metrics. This article explains how to disable the display of boost counts so … Read more
You want to share a post that only people on your Mastodon instance can see, not the entire fediverse. Standard Mastodon posts are public by default and federate to other servers, which can be too wide for local announcements or community discussions. This article explains what local-only posts are, how to enable them on instances … Read more
You want your Mastodon posts to appear on Bluesky without manually copying and pasting each update. Mastodon and Bluesky use different federation protocols, so no direct bridge exists between the two networks. This article explains how to set up an automated cross-posting workflow using a third-party service called Moa. You will learn the exact steps … Read more
Mastodon polls let you ask your followers a question with multiple answers. You can set a time limit for voting, from as short as five minutes to as long as seven days. Many users find that polls boost engagement because people want to see the results. This article explains how to create a poll on … Read more
Mastodon limits each post, or toot, to 500 characters by default. If you need to write a longer message, such as a tutorial, a story, or a detailed announcement, you must split the content across multiple connected toots. A thread is a series of toots that are linked together in the correct reading order. This … Read more
Mastodon lets you follow hashtags the same way you follow people. When you follow a hashtag, posts tagged with it appear in your home feed alongside accounts you follow. This feature helps you track topics without manually searching. This article explains how to follow a hashtag on Mastodon from the web interface and mobile apps. … Read more
You created a hashtag on Mastodon and expected it to appear in search results, but it shows no posts or does not appear at all. This happens because Mastodon’s search engine indexes content differently than traditional social platforms. Mastodon does not automatically index every post with a hashtag — the server must first process and … Read more
Mastodon does not have a single global trending algorithm like traditional social platforms. Each instance maintains its own trending hashtags based on local activity. This means a hashtag popular on mastodon.social may not appear on your smaller instance. Finding trending hashtags across multiple instances requires using specific tools and features. This article covers the built-in … Read more
You search a hashtag on Mastodon and see only a handful of posts. The same tag on another instance shows hundreds of results. This happens because Mastodon does not treat hashtags like a global search engine. Each instance only sees posts that its own users have interacted with or that originated from instances it follows. … Read more