Everything in your main "Home" timeline on Mastodon is there for one of these reasons:

[feditips@social.growyourown.services]

Everything in your main "Home" timeline on Mastodon is there for one of these reasons:

-An account you follow posted it
-An account you follow boosted it
-The post contains a hashtag you follow
-An account you follow replied to an account you also follow
-An account you follow replied to itself

Nothing else gets in your main feed, it's just these things.

If hashtags are at the end of a post they are displayed in a smaller font below the post, which some people miss.

#FediTips #Mastodon

[ja_e_i_o_u@norden.social]

@FediTips
I still don't understand it sometimes... Why do I see e.g. this bullshit post in my timeline, which is apparently not shared nor quoted? I don't follow any of those hashtags!
https://vive.im/@fogolf/115901650972881401

Every now and then, posts like this pop up and I don't get why. In the app I'm using, it's normally clear by whom something was shared.

[feditips@social.growyourown.services]

@Ja_E_I_O_U

That post has a LOT of tags on it, maybe too many as they don't all seem to be relevant.

Are you sure you're not following any of those tags? You can check by clicking each tag on the post and seeing if you have a follow or unfollow button for it.

[ja_e_i_o_u@norden.social]

@FediTips
Thanks for your quick answer!
Yes, I even checked again. I don't follow any of those tags.
Maybe there's a trick to push content to timelines?

[feditips@social.growyourown.services]

@Ja_E_I_O_U

There is no way to push content, that's why I am wondering if it's one of the tags? Can you see lots of tags by the way?

Is there anything above the post in your timeline indicating that someone boosted it?

Also it's worth clicking on the account of the post just to check if you've accidentally followed it (this can happen on some apps when people scroll quickly).