Some follows missing here? (was Red "error" no matter what I try)

[LorenAmelang]

I get a red "error" no matter what I try to post here. And the search results show under the Title field. ???

[LorenAmelang]

@LorenAmelang OK, that finally worked. Will try some real content:

The iPhone Mastodon app still shows me lots more posts than Mammoth - or the @Vivaldi Social web app! Even over the same time period. Maybe some
clues:

Mastodon shows Erin Reed posts and search hits. Mammoth/Viv show I follow her, but no search and no posts. Looks like people with names in front of maybe truncated @ids (in Mammoth) work, but those without bright type names don't. Erin has a thin '|' in front of the @id, what does that mean?

Maybe Mastodon can see people others can't ???

[LorenAmelang]

@LorenAmelang

[LorenAmelang]

In Mammoth:

@LorenAmelang

[LorenAmelang]

@LorenAmelang
In Vivaldi follows:

In Vivaldi search:

So that's all the content that failed before. Not sure why it couldn't have been a single post...

[Pathduck]

@LorenAmelang Hi - I'm kind of new to Mastodon myself, so take whatever I say with a grain of salt. But I think because of Mastodon's distributed nature, search indexes are not always updated "instantly" - especially at times with a lot of new users and instances coming into the network.

Remember Mastodon is a whole bunch of servers all around the world, and the network grows constantly. It's not like Twitter where there is only a single database of users you can instantly search.

So if you can't find a user on your local instance, go to their profile (assuming they've published it somewhere), and click the Follow button, then copy the full URL to their profile.

You'll get a URL like this: https://mstdn.social/@ErinInTheMorn
You can also this form: @[email protected]

This can then be pasted into the search field on your local instance and it should find the user by contacting the other instance directly, and you can follow them. In fact, the act of doing this search will in most cases make sure the user is now findable on your instance.

Or - you could visit other large instances, like:
https://mstdn.social/
https://mastodon.social/
And search there if they have the user already indexed.

Note also that follow "requests" can take some time to complete if the server(s) are under a lot of load like they have been lately.

Another very important thing to remember about Mastodon - there are currently little to no ways of user verification (like blue checks on Twitter), and probably never will be. You just have to trust you have the correct profile. In Mastodon, you follow people because you like what they say, not because they are someone famous. Up until a month ago, Mastodon was the sole dominion of tech geeks and queer folk of all sorts, not a place for celebs to spout their politics.

It helps if people have some other official 3rd-party domain or site to verify who they are, that links to their official Mastodon profile (look in your profile settings under "Verification").

Literally anyone can insert an emoji like this in their display name: ☑️
And some more instances even allow custom icons beside user names, this is easy to abuse by less creditable instances - just search for some social media profiles... these are the kinds of servers creditable instances like Vivaldi should block.

PS don't ask about that "Mammoth" thing - I have literally zero interest in "apps" and if they work or not

[LorenAmelang]

@Pathduck Totally agree the Fediverse is a work in progress, and currently overwhelmed. But Erin is not a new follow for me, lots of much more recent people on less competent instances seem to be followed successfully here.

All my apps and the Vivaldi web show I follow Erin. But some don't seem to show her activity.

Going to her web instance,
https://mstdn.social/@ErinInTheMorn/followers
I find this:

"2.1K Followers" but "No one follows this user yet." Looks like even the core Mastodon instances have bugs...

When I do the same home instance visit for other people I follow, I'm shown in their followers list.

Will have to try that for other people who aren't showing up in my feed.

I did try pasting the copied Follow link from her Mastodon web into Vivaldi, and it now finds her in regular searches instead of just the search of my Follows. So maybe that is more powerful than just clicking follow in your own instance.

[Pathduck]

@LorenAmelang said in Some follows missing here? (was Red "error" no matter what I try):

"2.1K Followers" but "No one follows this user yet." Looks like even the core Mastodon instances have bugs...

That's just this setting:

I agree the text could be more clarifying

[LorenAmelang]

@Pathduck Yes, a work in progress! Different message today:

But the "Browse more" link shows the old "No one follows" message.

As for hide graph:

https://nerdschalk.com/how-to-make-your-mastodon-account-private/

Prevent your non-followers from accessing the list of people you follow and the ones who follow you.

Can't find any confirmation of that "non-followers" condition. And how would a website know if a random access was sent by a follower of the account? Maybe Vivaldi knows my Fedi identity, but most browsers don't.

Oh - maybe there is a difference if you are in the same instance as the person you search?

There is discussion of what the messages should say:

https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/20070

Another possible clue:

https://macaw.social/@jfk/109427825751771507

Aron Fischer
@[email protected]
@jfk
usually it means that your instance doesn't know about them yet - perhaps you are the first person from macaw.social to follow that particular account 
You can see a full list of followers by opening up the profile in a web browser on their home instance.

PS There are several related discussion in mastadon github issues about whether clients should routinely pull data from remote instances, or of they should exclusive talk to their own instance as their window to the fediverse.

Aha! general search for @cobordism@berlin.social in Vivaldi Social found him and showed the "followers not displayed" message. "Browse more" opened his web instance and showed his followers.

So there is still something unexplained about Erin...

Followed @cobordism@berlin.social from Viv search, got a happy emoji. But searching again shows "waiting for approval", so too early for conclusions.

A suggestion... Could Vivaldi Social have a different browser tab icon from all the other 'm' Mastodon instances? Would make this kind of exploration and composition a bit simpler...

[cobordism]

@LorenAmelang
Another issue is that adding "@cobordism@berlin.social" in this forum ends up tagging and notifying the forum user "@cobordism" instead.
Luckily in this case it's the same person.
Hello .

Perhaps this forum software should be taught to distinguish local usernames from mastodon usernames with two @ symbols.

[LorenAmelang]

Local search in Vivaldi now finds cobordism and shows me as a follower. "Browse more" opens his web instance and shows me plus his other followers. So I guess that works as expected...

Is there some reliable way, here or in the Fediverse, to post potentially identifying references to people, or links to their instance, without tagging or notifying them? Or maybe that would be considered a worse threat to privacy than them getting bothered with notifications that you mentioned them?