That looks like it might be an image for which there's no cached version stored on your server, that's why it works when you view it on its original server.

Servers may restrict how long they store images from other servers, in order to reduce their storage costs. Most old posts are never viewed again, so most of the time people don't notice if the image isn't stored.

Normally if you view an old post it fetches the image again, but sometimes it shows "preview not available".

Does anyone know why some posts (not content warning posts) have a blurred image with the message "Preview not available, click to open"?

If I click the image then a new tab opens with clear image but there's no way to see alt text. My workaround is select "open original message" from the menu.

I wonder what cases this? It does not matter whether it's someone I follow or not.

If you're looking at your normal "Home" timeline you see the latest posts at the top, so the related messages (also called a "thread") appear to be in reverse order. The unrelated posts are from other accounts you follow which have posted at around the same time.

If you click on any one of these related messages, you will see the entire thread in the correct order instead, plus all of its replies below the thread. The unrelated posts will disappear while viewing a thread.

If one person follows an account, all of that account's posts from that moment onward will appear on that person's server.

So, if a server has a bot following good accounts, those good accounts' posts will start being visible to everyone on that server.

The reason it works like this is to keep server running costs low enough so that any person or group can afford to start their own.

More info at https://fedi.tips/which-posts-and-accounts-can-i-see-from-my-server/https://fedi.tips/which-posts-and-accounts-can-i-see-from-my-server

"Translate" is there if the admin has paid for a translation service, but this costs them money every month and there is a limit on queries per month so this option may sometimes disappear.

Ask your server admin if you want to find out the exact situation on your serrver.

A workaround would be copy-pasting the text into a different translation app or site.

Not a stupid question at all!

You can change who sees posts or replies by adjusting their "visibility setting".

The visibility setting is visible above your post or reply and looks like "️ Public" or something similar. Click on this, then change it to "Private mention" or "Only people I mention", then save the setting.

You can also set a particular visibility to be your default, if you prefer not to use public by default.

More info about all of this at https://fedi.tips/who-can-see-my-posts-in-mastodon-how-do-i-send-dms-in-mastodon/

The format of the website interface?

They did a post about their reasons at https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2026/10/5.0-a-closer-look/

I can still see trending posts on the mastodon.social server

I don't know how you would access it but here's a link:

https://mastodon.social/explore

cc: @FediTips

As far as I know there's no complete guide anywhere, probably because there are so many platforms and they are constantly changing so it would be quite labour-intensive for a volunteer to create and maintain.

Favourites on Mastodon generally translate to the equivalent of likes on other platforms (e.g. on PeerTube a Mastodon favourite becomes a thumbs up).

Pixelfed lets you view Mastodon posts by following Mastodon accounts, but by default it only shows posts with images or videos.

That's been my primary question about the federated platforms.

Thanks for the info

Are you viewing it through the website?

At least when I've tried it with a mastodon.social account it shows trends?

How are you trying to add it? Is it an option in a mobile app?

If you're using the "add text from image", that just copies text in the image, it doesn't provide a description.

(Manual descriptions tend to be better anyway as the person posting understands the point of an image and doesn't bother with irrelevant details.)

When I am trying to add auto alt text to a photograph I want to post.

It still says "Trending" on most servers, Mastodon's developers seem to be experimenting with renaming it "Explore" on mastodon.social (which is what it was called years ago!).

I don't know which one they will use on the release version, but I agree, trending is a clearer name.