#MASTODON POST PRIVACY - who can see your post?
PUBLIC 🌏
Anyone can see and boost your post everywhere.
UNLISTED 🔓
✅ Tagged people
✅ Followers
✅ On your profile
❌ Local and federated timelines
✅ Boostable
✅ Visible to admins
FOLLOWERS ONLY 🔐
✅ Tagged people
✅ Followers
❌ On your profile
❌ Local and federated timelines
❌ Boostable
✅ Visible to admins
DIRECT MESSAGE ✉️
✅ Tagged people
❌ Followers
❌ On your profile
❌ Local and federated timelines
❌ Boostable
✅ Visible to admins
~ HOW TO FIND COOL POSTS AND BOOST THEM ONTO YOUR SMALLER #MASTODON INSTANCE ~
1) Go to https://mastodon.social/tags/YOURTAGHERE (substitute in your tag at the end there).
2) Scroll 'til you find a good one, and right-click the timestamp, and click "Copy link address".
3) Head back to your own instance, paste that URL you just copied into the search box, and press enter.
4) BOOST!
SOME #RESOURCES
A two-way #Mastodon-Twitter crossposter:
https://crossposter.masto.donte.com.br
@crossposter
Trending topics:
https://mastodon-tags-explorer.hcxp.co/
@tagsexplorer
A collection of things I made for people new to #Mastodon, based on questions I commonly see in the public timelines during influxes of new folks. :)
Privacy settings: https://dev.glitch.social/@cassolotl/99942218361780184
Local vs. federated timelines: https://dev.glitch.social/@cassolotl/99942225799392803
A two-way 🐘🐦 @crossposter:
https://crossposter.masto.donte.com.br
How to find and interact with toots that haven't reached your instance yet: https://dev.glitch.social/@cassolotl/99942232570954068
Trending topics:
https://mastodon-tags-explorer.hcxp.co
@tagsexplorer
@cassolotl
by the way, you might be interested to hear about https://github.com/marnanel/un_chapeau . (@un_chapeau for updates.)
@marnanel I do not understand what it is!
@cassolotl it's a new codebase for a mastodon server, so that there's more than one available.
@marnanel I think my understanding of how things work here isn't good enough to really get it. Like, the closest thing I know to a programming language is a little HTML... :D Like, how is it different from vanilla Mastodon?
@cassolotl At present, all Mastodon instances run a single codebase. So a bug in that codebase leaves the whole system vulnerable.
This is a completely new codebase which should do the same thing.
Like GIMP and Photoshop do something like the same thing, but they're completely different code.
@marnanel OH for some reason I only just saw this! Thank you, that makes sense. Awesome, it sounds like a good idea!
@tagsexplorer @crossposter @cassolotl thank you for this 🙏🏽
@vaguemilk @tagsexplorer @crossposter You're welcome! :)
@cassolotl @tagsexplorer @crossposter
I didn't know about searching for timestamp urls. Thanks!
@RussSharek @crossposter @tagsexplorer I'm glad it helped! :)
@cassolotl @crossposter @tagsexplorer
Useful, but I haven't been able to find where the privacy settings *are* to change them. Also, I have this feature that says "Lists", but doesn't say what it does and isn't mentioned in any tutorials I can find. What are those things?
@Mafdet They're here, under the new toot box! :)
@Mafdet As for lists, that is not something I use so I have no idea. My impression from the Github issue list is that it's a bit convoluted, though. I'll tweet a request for info for you. :)
@cassolotl thanks for this! I created my account a few weeks ago but am still learning the ropes.
@chrisjniles You're welcome! :) I hope it helps with the settling in!
@cassolotl
This is a very helpful visual. Thanks!
@cassolotl you forgot boosted by someone that someone on your instance is following
@morguldir There was only so much space, I wanted to keep it readable and simple. :D
@cassolotl Thank you! I have some friends who are fleeing from Facebook to Mastodon and they're still on a learning curve (so am I, come to that.) This will be really handy.
@Researchbuzz Ahh I'm glad to know that! :)
@cassolotl I just tried that last decision block.
Searched for a tag I knew I didn't have here, no results.
Searched with a URL that had the tag, ok the result came up.
Searched for that same tag again and there was the entry for the URL.
It makes sense, but never knew searching for the URL "pulled in" that toot on the local server.
@smallsees Oh yeah, that's totally how it works! :) Good testing!
@cassolotl @enkiv2 do we need to specify that this is conventionally how the stock Mastodon software works for organizational purposes but that instance owners can customize the software to do whatever they want and that people should consider their posts all totally public from a privacy perspective?
@ratamacue @enkiv2 No, this is an introductory diagram for newbies, we really don't need to get into that!
@cassolotl @ratamacue
Also, it's a diagram of timeline visibility & federation rules. (A really good one! Thanks! Trying to explain this in words is pretty awkward sometimes.)
A diagram of "when can a motivated attacker see your mastodon posts" is a big red circle with the word "always" in the middle of it, & a totally unrelated discussion.
@enkiv2 @ratamacue (Oh thanks for saying so! 😊)
@cassolotl last night i was actually wondering how the federated timeline works and this explains it really well. thanks!
@um Oh awesome, I'm glad it helped! :)
@cassolotl you should start the #mastodon university 😀
@steckerhalter Oh gosh that sounds like too much work! :P (Okay it might look like these took work but actually I made them all gradually over the year that I've been here so it wasn't so bad...)
@cassolotl Can you explain what shows up depending on reply status? It seems that replies show up, unless they begin with @, unless that mention is not who you're actually replying to... or something?
@cassolotl how do i convince #tusky or #mastalab to post unlisted by default #help.
I made a flow chart of which #Mastodon posts end up in which timelines!
So, you can see how each instance will have a different local timeline, and even a slightly different federated timeline - and you can see why the federated timeline moves so much faster than the local one, too.
#FAQ