Mastodawn

The Fulcrum ⚒️ ⛓️‍💥 🏴‍☠️10h ago

Introducing tags.pub

tags.pub is a new service under development by the Social Web Foundation. It is a global hashtag server -- it lets you follow a hashtag across the Fediverse. There's lots of information on the tags.pub home page, and I (Evan) did a talk about tags.pub at FOSDEM 2026. This blog post answers some basics about tags.pub. To follow a hashtag globally, search for a user with that name at tags.pub, like @example for the #example hashtag. Follow that account, and it will share all the […]

https://socialwebfoundation.org/2026/03/17/introducing-tags-pub/

The Void ザ・ヴォイド 12h ago

@evanprodromou Very cool, thanks. Giving it a try…

kattekrab 8h ago

@evanprodromou @example ooooh. I like the sound of this.

Sam at BLAG 8h ago

@evanprodromou Looks like I'm the first to follow @signpainting and @signwriting, among a few others to get the ball rolling.

I'm intrigued to see how this works and what lands in my feed as a result...

Evan Prodromou 2h ago

@blag Great!

@evanprodromou How is this different from https://relay.fedi.buzz ?

#FediBuzz Relay

The buzzing ActivityPub relay service

Evan Prodromou 2h ago

@the_moep Fedibuzz is great! It normally works as a relay, though. So, you have to be an admin to set it up. But I’ve recently found out you can also follow the accounts, like with tags.pub. So it’s similar in that way. I think it’s a big Fediverse and it’s good to have different services.

پویان Pouyan 7h ago

@evanprodromou is this similar to #FediBuzz by @astro ?

https://c3d2.social/@astro/109564159868966861

Astro (@[email protected])

Here is my xmas present to all the #Mastoadmin of small instances: the new #FediBuzz #relay! https://relay.fedi.buzz/

C3D2.social

𝕁𝕠𝕙𝕒𝕟 6h ago

So this isn't global tracking, but rather opt-in for a couple of servers and a dozen individual users?

Rusty Shackleford 4h ago

@johan @evanprodromou

Re: https://mastodon.social/@rusty__shackleford/116188992459133547

When you are on the fedi, your messages are broadcast. ***Anyone*** can see them. That's why I can see your posts, mastodon.social saved your post, and served it to me, and vice versa, that's why you see this text.

If you don't want the possibility of 'tracking', we may not have been able to have this conversation but you could join a private server, or be more safe about your personal identity, or get offline.

𝕁𝕠𝕙𝕒𝕟 3h ago

@rusty__shackleford @evanprodromou

Exactly. For example, in the Cyrillic segment there’s a bot that reposts every message in Russian it can get access to. And it operates on an opt-out basis.

Here, however, as I understand it from the description, either you yourself (for your own account) or the server admin (for the whole server) has to connect the bot manually. And posts from those who don’t do that simply won’t be seen by the bot.

Evan Prodromou 2h ago

@johan We’d like to get it to global, but we’re doing it a step at a time.

Octothorpe Protocol 6h ago

@evanprodromou @example @_followback hi! we are very interested in talking to you about this

Evan Prodromou 2h ago

@octothorpes Great!

Quinn Comendant 3h ago

@evanprodromou @example It’s probably worth adding an explanation why tags.pub is necessary; aka: why Mastodon’s existing “follow hashtag” feature is inadequate.

Evan Prodromou 2h ago

@com There’s a whole section on it in the video!

Quinn Comendant 2h ago

@evanprodromou I checked your blog post and the tags.pub website, but I can’t find a video. 🤷‍♂️

Andre Nantel 3h ago

@evanprodromou When I click on the @_followback link in your blog entry I get a bunch of code.

Evan Prodromou 2h ago

@nantel @evanprodromou Don't click on it. I haven't built the pages yet. Search for it in Mastodon. I'll fix the link.

Polycraftsman 1h ago

@evanprodromou @example @_followback

This seems like a similar concept to fedigroups but without manual verification to create a group yes?