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.

[philrudland@mastodonapp.uk]

@FediTips

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

[minervakoenig@mastodon.social]

@FediTips hmm... when I go to "explore" it just seems to be a repeat of my 'home' feed...

[feditips@social.growyourown.services]

@PhilRudland

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.)

[feditips@social.growyourown.services]

@minervakoenig

Are you viewing it through the website?

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

[philrudland@mastodonapp.uk]

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

[klu9@ohai.social]

@FediTips @cliffb_infosec

Thanks for the info

[bmebenji@mstdn.social]

@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.

[feditips@social.growyourown.services]

@BmeBenji

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.

[ahimsa_pdx@disabled.social]

@minervakoenig

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

[steve_lindsay@fediscience.org]

@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)?

[muhammadfreesoftware@fosstodon.org]

@FediTips @vnikolov I've always wondered, how do followbots help federate different servers? And why dont big instances have them?

[tiempo@todon.eu]

@FediTips @robeean aquí puedes pillar muchas respuestas. Esta es una excelente cuenta a seguir

[gdsherif@c.im]

@FediTips How come c.im no longer has translate option? Is there a work-around?

[libbygarvey@mastodon.social]

@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?

[aoi_x_kaizaki@mastodon.social]

@FediTips i have one - why did mastodon change the format?

[feditips@social.growyourown.services]

@Aoi_X_Kaizaki

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/

[feditips@social.growyourown.services]

@libbygarvey

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/

[feditips@social.growyourown.services]

@gdsherif

"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.

[feditips@social.growyourown.services]

@MuhammadFreeSoftware @vnikolov

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

[feditips@social.growyourown.services]

@Steve_Lindsay

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.