If you have any questions about using Mastodon or the wider Fediverse, please post them in the replies and I'll try to find you some answers.
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@FediTips
Can anyone tell me why when I try to apply auto alt text to a photo all I get is a long list of strangeness?
And, how do I correct this?
Thanks in advance
Where or how are you getting auto alt text?
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If you have any questions about using Mastodon or the wider Fediverse, please post them in the replies and I'll try to find you some answers.
It would be especially nice to hear from new people and people who aren't confident about technical matters. There is absolutely no such thing as a silly question!
@FediTips can we have the "trending" option back? plzkthx
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@FediTips can we have the "trending" option back? plzkthx
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.
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Where or how are you getting auto alt text?
When I am trying to add auto alt text to a photograph I want to post.
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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.
@FediTips hmm... when I go to "explore" it just seems to be a repeat of my 'home' feed...
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When I am trying to add auto alt text to a photograph I want to post.
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.)
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@FediTips hmm... when I go to "explore" it just seems to be a repeat of my 'home' feed...
Are you viewing it through the website?
At least when I've tried it with a mastodon.social account it shows trends?
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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.)
Ahh, that solves it then. I thought the "add text from image" meant it would create alt txt from the image. Now I know, so thank you
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Ahh okay, yeah it does seem to have a lot of features
Some server types do go down the "lots of features" route, Friendica is another one.
However, what usually happens is that each feature isn't as good as it is on a specialised platform. For example PeerTube is dedicated to video so it has much better features for hosting long videos, livestreaming, doing playlists, sharing bandwidth etc.
So, it's always a trade-off when developing features.
Thanks for the info
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If you have any questions about using Mastodon or the wider Fediverse, please post them in the replies and I'll try to find you some answers.
It would be especially nice to hear from new people and people who aren't confident about technical matters. There is absolutely no such thing as a silly question!
@FediTips Is there a consolidated guide anywhere about how the different Fediverse platforms interact with each other? Like I know I can browse PieFed or Lemmy communities from a Mastodon server by looking at the boosts, but how can I browse Mastodon from PieFed or Lemmy? How can I view Mastodon posts from Pixelfed? What does a favorite from Mastodon translate to on another platform?
That's been my primary question about the federated platforms.
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@FediTips Is there a consolidated guide anywhere about how the different Fediverse platforms interact with each other? Like I know I can browse PieFed or Lemmy communities from a Mastodon server by looking at the boosts, but how can I browse Mastodon from PieFed or Lemmy? How can I view Mastodon posts from Pixelfed? What does a favorite from Mastodon translate to on another platform?
That's been my primary question about the federated platforms.
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.
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Are you viewing it through the website?
At least when I've tried it with a mastodon.social account it shows trends?
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
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If you have any questions about using Mastodon or the wider Fediverse, please post them in the replies and I'll try to find you some answers.
It would be especially nice to hear from new people and people who aren't confident about technical matters. There is absolutely no such thing as a silly question!
@FediTips Why is it that when a user posts multiple related messages (e.g., a poem posted stanza by stanza [for why I don’t know]), I see them in reverse order. And sometime interlarded w unrelated posts)?
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I'm not sure, its profile isn't visible, but from the name it sounds like it's there to help federate the posts of certain accounts onto its server.
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If you have any questions about using Mastodon or the wider Fediverse, please post them in the replies and I'll try to find you some answers.
It would be especially nice to hear from new people and people who aren't confident about technical matters. There is absolutely no such thing as a silly question!
-
If you have any questions about using Mastodon or the wider Fediverse, please post them in the replies and I'll try to find you some answers.
It would be especially nice to hear from new people and people who aren't confident about technical matters. There is absolutely no such thing as a silly question!
@FediTips How come c.im no longer has translate option? Is there a work-around?
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If you have any questions about using Mastodon or the wider Fediverse, please post them in the replies and I'll try to find you some answers.
It would be especially nice to hear from new people and people who aren't confident about technical matters. There is absolutely no such thing as a silly question!
@FediTips I’ll volunteer the first stupid question! I’d like to respond to this post, but only to FediTips and not have the rest of the Fediverse read it. Many times I’ve wanted to respond directly and individually to a post but don’t see how to do that. I’m used to other platforms where it’s clearer. How do I do that?
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If you have any questions about using Mastodon or the wider Fediverse, please post them in the replies and I'll try to find you some answers.
It would be especially nice to hear from new people and people who aren't confident about technical matters. There is absolutely no such thing as a silly question!
@FediTips i have one - why did mastodon change the format?
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@FediTips i have one - why did mastodon change the format?
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/
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@FediTips I’ll volunteer the first stupid question! I’d like to respond to this post, but only to FediTips and not have the rest of the Fediverse read it. Many times I’ve wanted to respond directly and individually to a post but don’t see how to do that. I’m used to other platforms where it’s clearer. How do I do that?
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/
