Katya Sander
Okay, question to my fellow mastodon-travellers, who are more savvy than me: Why do I constantly get posts from people I don't follow and hashtags I don't follow? And I DON''T get to see posts from a lot of people I actually follow?... (I get some posts from people I follow, but not at all everything). And then I get a ton of stuff that i cannot "unfollow" bcs I don't follow it in the first place... Beginning to be frustrating... Thanks for any help!
#newonmastodon #questionsaboutmastodon
Mar 7, 2025 at 8:17amWeb
Show threadPeter Makholm (Dansk)Mar 7, 2025

@katyasander I have never experienced that.

The two reasons I can imagine is:
- Boosts, where someone you follow reposts the content.
- Mention-spam, where you are mentioned in the posts.

Show threadMark GjølMar 7, 2025
@pmakholm @katyasander So I use the web-client Phanpy ( https://phanpy.social ) where boosts are obvious because they are separated. It might be an option to try this and see if it is indeed boosts that are invading your feed.
Phanpy

Minimalistic opinionated Mastodon web client

Show threadKatya SanderMar 7, 2025
@pmakholm Thanks for responding. No, I'm not mentioned. And it doesn't look like boost. (I mean there is no "re-use" sign with the account it was boosted from). Is there a way to boost without this sign appearing?
Show threadPeter Makholm (Dansk)Mar 7, 2025
@katyasander Not to my knowledge.
Show threadKatya SanderMar 7, 2025
@pmakholm @Gjoel @anport Hm, I have a theory: I might be following hashtags without being aware of it, because when I just made my account I searched for a ton of hashtags, eager to find someone/something to follow. If that is the case, I am looking for a place where all the hashtags I follow, are listed. Is there such a function?
Show threadKatya SanderMar 7, 2025

@pmakholm @Gjoel @anport

(When looking through all the unwanted posts, I now notice they have in common that they all have a ton of hashtags. I have no idea which ones may be the culprits...)
How do you overview and edit hashtags you are following?

Show threadSune Stolborg VuorelaMar 7, 2025

@katyasander @pmakholm @Gjoel @anport

Push the three dots next to your name on the front page, and this menu appears

Show threadKatya SanderMar 7, 2025
@svuorela @pmakholm @Gjoel @anport
Alright, found the culprit! Thanks a lot!
(I was following the hashtag "#artonmastodon" - a bad idea, it seems...) Moreover, it seems that some of the unwanted stuff comes via bridgey from Pixelfed and Bluesky, so I'll try to do some research about that. It was just confusing to me first because it came from everywhere, but I think there are different reasons. THANK YOU for the help! Much appreciated!
Show threadSune Stolborg VuorelaMar 7, 2025
@katyasander @pmakholm @Gjoel @anport pixelfed and mastodon is fully integrated so that's kind of expected, though. (and other similar services)
Show threadjacob ö+Mar 7, 2025
@katyasander what Mastodon client do you use? These posts and hashtags you are talking about - are they not ‘boosts’ from people you actual follow? No?
🤷‍♀️
Show threadKatya SanderMar 7, 2025
@anport Thanks for responding, and sorry for being quite ignorant: I don't know what client I use... I am on Mastodon via my browser (Chrome, ironically, until my teenager has time to migrate all my bookmarks for me to something else). I am going through to see what I can find out - I can't see if I get all the strange posts through boost. It doesn't look like it. Unless it is possible to boost "secretly" so that I can't see that it is a boost?
Show threadjacob ö+Mar 7, 2025
@katyasander hmm. Sounds odd. Are you on your ‘Home’-timeline?
Maybe you by mistake switched to your ‘Local’ or ‘Federated’-timeline?
Show threadSune Stolborg VuorelaMar 7, 2025
@katyasander @anport Can you provide a screenshot of what you see ? (The entire browser window content) - if it has too much personal information to put it in a public post, feel free to put it as a direct message (or by email [email protected] )