BramusNov 21, 2022

One thing that’s a bit of a hassle with Mastodon is that you can’t immediately follow people on other instances.

You have to copy the username and search for it on the server that has your account.

To make this easier, I’ve created a little bookmarklet. Press it, and you’ll be taken to the same account as viewed from the masto host you are on.

GitHub Gist: https://gist.github.com/bramus/d8bce55dab1881cde18aa2169c66ac33

(Change the value of `MY_MASTO_HOST` in the code to your mastodon host –not URL– and you’re good to go)

Mastodon User Page Bookmarklet

Mastodon User Page Bookmarklet. GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

Gist
Show threadBramusNov 21, 2022

I did notice that sometimes it doesn’t work, and the search API on your own host gives back a 404.

The UI doesn’t handle this well and just keeps on showing the spinner.

In that case, you’ll still have to do the manual steps.

Don’t know what’s causing this. Maybe an overloaded server at the other end?

Show threadDrew PowersNov 21, 2022
@bramus hm I don’t seem to have any difficulty finding or following people on other instances? I wonder if there’s some difference in server implementations (version or something idk how any of this works)
Show threadSascha Freudenheim
@drwpow @bramus Me either. The “find”/search function on both the apps and in the browser finds people easily from every instance. Have not had any troubles…
Nov 23, 2022 at 6:55pmWeb
Show threadBramusNov 23, 2022

@SaschaFreud @drwpow that's not the problem that this bookmarklet/extension is solving.

What is does solve is viewing a profile on another instance and then hitting follow. It won't work as you must do that on the instance that hosts your account.

This tool solves this by rewriting the profile URL so that it is served from your account's instance, so you can immediately hit follow without needing to manually copy-paste-search usernames.

Show threadSascha FreudenheimNov 23, 2022
@bramus @drwpow Ok… again, I haven’t had any issues as-is, including seeing profiles—but not trying to take away from your work.