@Howard Howard, following 'hashtags as contacts' as I do by use of hashtag.place works very good!

I created a 'relay user' on my (#Friendica) instance and since a few month I use this user for adding/following hashtags via hashtag.place and (just a few) good bot accounts.

I find it advantageous that only my relay user is 'friends' with the hashtags, the subscribed tags, or better: the posts above them) are available throughout my entire instance.

And yet I don't 'mess up' the contact list on my regular account 'slowblogger'.

I don't know exactly whether it works the same way on mastodon systems, but actually it should work in a similar way.

It's worth trying this out. As well as putting enough (good & detailed) hashtags in your own posts or answers. :wink:

#hashtagsearch #hashtags #keywords #relays

Hey trans fedi folks   

We think our instance is having a federation or relay issue... or really not many people are using a hashtag.

We're pretty sure more trans people are recording their voice training progress under hashtags like:

#TransVoice #TransVoiceFriday #VoiceTraining etc.

... but whenever we do a search for the hashtag, mostly all we see are the posts on our instance. It seems to be an issue for all hashtags, which might be why directly searching for some doesn't give us many results 😞

We're currently signed up to these relays:

• https://relay.infosec.exchange/inbox
• https://relay.gay/inbox

Are there any specific ones you'd recommend, or should we just add ourselves to some of the biggest ones listed on this Relay List?

Failing that, are there any server side federation tweaks we admin could make ourselves or ask our host (FediMonster) to make? (We're on Glitch-SOC - v4.3.0-alpha.5+glitch.)

Any thoughts and suggestions welcome  

#fedi #fediverse #Mastodon #GlitchSOC #AskFedi #federation #relays #HashtagSearch #FediAdmin #trans #transgender #queer #LGBTQ+ #LGBTQIA+ #LGBTQIA2S+

Oh huh! I hadn't realised that it *IS* possible to have an additional hashtag search column without actually following it. (Following the tag would clutter your normal Home timeline.) Do not click Follow for the tag but instead open Settings for the column and Pin it, then Settings again to add other tags if you want. An example I recorded:

#hashtag #search #mastodon #timeline #tutorial #AdvancedView #MastodonSearch #HashtagSearch #HashtagFollow #ColumnView #PinColumns

I have wondered which posts I see when I search a hashtag (or if it's in a column, or I follow it...). This flowchart (https://axbom.com/mastodon-tips/#flowchart) by @axbom seems to say that the search scope is the local instance + federated timeline. Posts get to the federated timeline if someone on my instance follows the tooter or boosted or replied to the toot; or if the instance uses relays to grab public feeds of other instances then it's all those toots too.  

#FediTips #hashtags #HashtagSearch