If you have been thinking "the fediverse is too ---" There are too many people posting about --- and not enough ----." Remember that pruning and planting your feed is your responsibility. Adjust who you follow. Add more hash tags about important topics such as #ants

There isn't any program spying on what you stare at longer trying to hack your brain keep you scrolling for as long as possible.

There have been a lot of new people. You could be missing fun posts and looking at boring ones.

@futurebird

I do have to say that I had not expected one of the benefits of joining the fediverse might be learning more about ants than I had ever thought likely!

@bytebro @futurebird Personally I've just been quietly learning #clamFacts . And now you tell me there's all kinds of things I don't know about #ants either? I didn't expect either one when I made an account here.
@futurebird
Following hashtags is the #1 technique for making tootsite better.
@futurebird
I add hashtags all the time but it's very depressing when I search for one and the only one using any of them is me, no matter how generic I try to make them 😭 mastodon has its benefits over mainstream social media, but searchability/finding other people with similar interests to interact with is a massive flaw. I get the original intent of "protection of small, marginalized communities from having to deal with exposure to people who might wish them ill intent," but I'd love it if mastodon had opt-in capabilities for those of us who DO want to connect with new people.
@Moss
@Cleo of Topless Topics

It further complicates things that post visibility differs by instance.  One thing I've sometimes done to find people to follow is to go over to mastodon.social and (without logging on), search for hashtags there.  They are a huge instance and so there are more posts visible through them.
@toplesstopics I feel similarly. It is both a pro and a con that everything is so broken up. Like, it's my understanding there is a lot more fandom style content on Misskey, but it's hard to find things there unless you already know an account to follow (and therefore federate it) or make an alt account so you can see their server stuff (which kinda defeats the purpose of you can follow anyone anywhere with one account...).

@toplesstopics @futurebird @Moss

There may be more following that hashtag than you can see immediately from your instance, especially if you’re on a smaller one.

Using hashtags only works for public posts and, boosting public posts is a way to get a hashtag propagating to more instances. @FediTips can better explain this than I.

Also, If you haven’t checked it out already, @FediFollows has curated lists of accounts by topics. You may find some there to follow.

@Moss @toplesstopics @futurebird

Try https://fedi.buzz/in/en (that’s for English go to the main site to see other language possibilities) to see hashtags that are being used on a variety of servers beyond your home server.

FediBuzz

Trends in the Fediverse

@toplesstopics
Mastodon has opt-in search which only a few percent of the users have bothered to activate. https://mastodon.nu/@violanders/112944786430279034
@futurebird @Moss
Anders Norén (@violanders@mastodon.nu)

@markwyner@mas.to I suspect that there are a few percent users who don't want to be found (some of which even delete their posts automatically), a few percent users who are interested in searching (these have already opted in) and a huge silent majority who aren't interested in searching (these will never bother to opt in b/c they don't see the point).

Mastodon.nu
@violanders
It needs to be way more advertised that it exists then. I think it's a lot less "haven't bothered to opt in" and more "have never heard of it."
@futurebird @Moss
@futurebird Sometimes I just scroll through all 3 feeds (Home, Explore, Live Feeds) and see what pops up. Sometimes I'll scroll through someone else's posts because they're interesting -- and often that's on another server and takes extra clunky steps to see more of their posts. And then more clunky steps to like or reply. Several things on Mastodon are clunky to do. But seeing as it's run by tens of thousands of volunteers on as many servers, it's impressive it works as well as it does.
@AskPippa @futurebird Ugh. Yes. Trying to interact with posts visited through links is hard. I’ve also had a better experience using a different client app that makes it easier to pull in more content from the remote server or view links to posts (within posts) natively in the app. Links on the web still go to the browser, though. 😅
@helianthropy @futurebird I know a bunch of people who opened Mastodon accounts and then gave up because they couldn't manage this sort of thing.
@futurebird Ooooo hashtags! Thanks for the reminder!
@futurebird please explain how this came up on my feed after this morning i wrote “the fediverse is so yt” 😅
@futurebird this is a good reminder!
@futurebird I've been aggressively following people since the day I started using Fedi and I still find new people every day to follow or boost toots from.

I want to add that just because you might've already done a bunch of work to curate your feed that you are not done; it's a daily process to follow cool people that just joined / got federated and block shitty people / instances.

Actively curating my feed / instance circle has been one of the most rewarding parts of participating in Fedi even if it is sometimes laborious when there are lots of new hate accounts to block or something.

The Block and Follow buttons are your best friend here, don't be afraid to use them!
@futurebird So true. Care and feeding of your feed is important.
@futurebird thank you for reminding me 'you are what you read' the same way 'you are what you eat'. I realise I haven't made the most of #hashtag follow to find content (top #feditips!) & in turn this made me think about what I write. For example, I first wanted to follow #climatebreadkown and then it depressed me so after 10 seconds that I amended it to follow #climateaction. And realised that maybe this is what I should share with the world instead: isn't ALL ACTION a liberating must in 2025?
@futurebird The Fediverse is too cute! 
@futurebird @catsalad The Fediverse is never too cute nor too uncute, it is exactly as cute as it means to be /j (reference)

@futurebird ... but that's so much worse! Now it's people trying to hack my brain! By making me think about #ants ! Oh no why'd I use that hashtag I wasn't even thinking about ants just now!

#ThisPostIsNotActuallyAboutAnts #OhNoNowWeNeedMetaHashtags #ButNotHashtagsOwnedByMeta #ThatIsTheOppositeOfWhatWeWant

@futurebird but the fedaverse needs to be the future of the internet. It's the best way to destroy monopolies. I honestly would love a feature for the algorithm to keep me hooked with the posts I interact with. This is will also the regular person join. This is why bluesky gained so much success
@futurebird is there a way to follow hashtags from an app like #Metatext? Asking for a friend. #FediTips
@AllysonShaw @futurebird Metatext is the only app where I cannot find a way to follow hashtags. Other apps such as Ivory and Mona have that option.
@noondlyt @futurebird interesting. Do you use either #Mona or #Ivory ? Would you recommend them? I think I tried Ivory but hit a paywall before I was ready to pay anything.
@AllysonShaw @futurebird
Search the hashtag you want to follow. Open the hashtag from the list and then you will get a follow button, notifications button and direct mail button.
@garthderby @futurebird it doesn’t work that way in the #Metatext app-I’ve tried. That’s why I was asking about the app in particular.
@AllysonShaw @futurebird
It’s the iPad and iPhone apps that I have, so if yours is a different one I guess just keep trying various things. If there is any way to bring up a source page for the hashtag, you should find a follow button near the top right. Happy hunting!
@AllysonShaw @futurebird you need to upgrade to Feditext (see our pinned post). it was one of the first features i added to the old Metatext codebase.
@futurebird You make a good point. I should do better at curating my feed. I'm just finding it very difficult right now to find people posting on topics that interest me. At the moment, it seems like most posts are about Trump and the mess he's making of America. While this concerns me, I also need to escape from it once in a while!
@RealDavidJohnson @futurebird filtering keywords helps with that, at least

@futurebird I have no need for scrolling through any non-fedi socials. I get everything I need between Mastodon and Lemmy (and now trying pixelfed as well)

It helps that I work in IT and am interested in tech but at this point I'd argue if you aren't getting enough out of the fediverse its because you aren't trying hard enough.

Of course some people want the advertisers and algorithms to take all the work out of on-boarding to a platform so they can endlessly doom scroll with no effort and the fediverse isn't that.

@futurebird Try out Friendica too; I'm giving it a go and it's killer.
@futurebird feed gardening is so important

@futurebird I've found it's also important to remember, that the fediverse comes *without* all the casino mechanics in centralized corporate social media, there's a natural tendancy to just.. put it down.. after a while.

Very healthy, don't fight it. "Engagement" *should* be more natural than it has been.

US$0.02++

@futurebird @mousey Hard agree. Well said.
@futurebird I would like an optional algorithm though

@theearthisapringle

The problem is who do you trust with the power of making the algorithm... ? The power to direct attention is great power indeed. etc etc

@futurebird it would be open sourced like the rest of mastodon and it could learn from what people like watching
It would be a lot of power if it was secret, like the ig reels algo or the TikTok one, but as long as it’s public I think it’s fine
@futurebird also there could be more than one algo for people to chose from
I think Bluesky has something like that

@futurebird

Add more hash tags about important topics such as #ants

as someone whose fursona is one of those I beg to agree that that's an important topic