Notices by Fedi.Tips 🎄 (feditips@mstdn.social), page 48

@mori

I'm still not 100% sure what affects it (that was what the survey was for) but it's definitely worth experimenting as it seems to behave differently in different apps.

@mori

p.s. You might want to try Ice Cubes for iPhone, or Toot! or Ivory.

Toot! does open links seamlessly for me, but the official app doesn't.

@marqle @mori

Just to be clear, I'm not an app maker or any kind of official account 😀

I'm just a random person trying to help people use this place.

@marqle @mori

It's not as simple as that any more.

A lot of apps now open the links directly instead of in a browser.

I did a survey about this a while ago and most people said Mastodon links open for them within the app.

Weirdly though, even people on the same app and platform sometimes get different results.

@mori

Does it do this for all Mastodon posts, or do some of them open within the app?

For example, do links to posts on mastodon.social open in the app or as a web page?

@mori

Are you using the app on Android or iPhone/iPad?

@kd8bxp @dekkzz76

Well, it was only introuced a few weeks ago with the updated 4.2.0 version of Mastodon, and some servers may only have updated to the latest version even more recently. (Your server has to be on 4.2.0 to active this option.)

So, I'd give it some time for people to find out about it.

@dekkzz76

Give people a chance, they've only just introduced the feature! :)

(Also, I'm guessing if there were ever any changes, the developers would just leave it up to server owners to decide about opt-in vs opt-out.)

@microblogc @BenGunn

That's a great question!

Just had a play around with it to test it. It appears you can? 👍

In case you missed it, you can make your entire posts searchable without using hashtags *IF* you opt into the new full text search system. Here's how to do that:

➡️ https://fedi.tips/how-do-i-opt-into-or-out-of-full-text-search-on-mastodon/

However, it's still worth using hashtags because:

-Many people follow hashtags, using relevant tags in a post reaches them

-Many people aren't opting into full text search, so you can still find their posts with hashtag searches

-Hashtags are useful for indicating the topics you actively want to discuss

@ropoko

I've done a website all about it here:

https://growyourown.services

For a step-by-step guide to making your own Mastodon server, see this article from the same site:

https://growyourown.services/making-your-own-mastodon-server-in-10-steps/

@dbc3 @breadandcircuses

Yes, there are some websites which list trending hashtags, for example:

https://fedi.buzz

(The same site also runs a relays service, but that's a separate feature.)

@jonossaseuraava @breadandcircuses

Yes, that too! 👏

@breadandcircuses

No, not redundant at all.

- A lot of people follow hashtags, you will only reach those people by using hashtags

- A lot of people don't want to opt into having their entire posts searched, which is why searches were hashtags-only in the first place, and they'll keep using hashtags

- Hashtags indicate intention to discuss specific topics, whereas non-tags could be accidental (for example post with #politics wants to discuss politics, someone who mentions it might not).

@squelf

Definitely nothing to do with mastohost, lots of mastohost servers have this working ok.

Have you tried posting the tags without the [ and ] around them?

@x_cli

Yeah, that's a good point!

But hashtags have the drawback that their posts aren't actively pushed to everyone who follows them, as they aren't distributed by an account.

I guess safest is to include both relevant tags and groups in a post?

@chrishering33

I think that is part of the iOS interface rather than something that the Mastodon app does?

As far as I know Mastodon strips away all metadata when posting media.

@CatsSimsBooks

Um... this isn't really a scaling issue?

The risk to decentralised federation caused by a dominant server is always there whatever protocol you're using. The danger comes from a network that is so dependent on one server, that the server can start to dictate terms to the rest of the network.

The only way round this is to keep the network spread out and avoid any dependency on a single server.

@Walop

Unfortunately this is true for any online service, even the biggest and most stable sites will sometimes go nuts and do weird things (https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattnovak/2023/08/19/twitter-deletes-all-user-photos-and-links-from-2011-2014/ and https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/18/myspace-loses-all-content-uploaded-before-2016).

Ultimately the only absolute guarantees are if you run the service yourself (which I try to help people with on https://growyourown.services) or use a distributed social network like @manyver_se where the data is stored on your phone or your computer.

@trashpanda_x @pluralistic @skaverat

You can subscribe to arbitrary RSS feeds on Friendica, which is a Fediverse platform. Just paste the RSS feed into the search box and follow it just like an account.

Unfortunately Mastodon doesn't have this feature (at the moment).

More Friendica info at https://fedi.tips/friendica-a-flexible-fediverse-server-type-with-long-posts/