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.

[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.

[ahimsa_pdx@disabled.social]

@FediTips
Thanks, just thought of a question. FYI, I'm using Mastodon web interface, not an app.

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.

[feditips@social.growyourown.services]

@ahimsa_pdx

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".