Post by @FediTips@social.growyourown.services

@FediTips@social.growyourown.services 2 mo. ago

If you see an account on here that looks blank to you, it might not actually be blank!

It probably just looks blank to you because no one from your server follows the account yet. If you follow the account, its posts will start gradually showing up on your server too.

If you want to see the account before following:
1. Go to its profile page
2. Click on ⋯
3. Choose "Open in browser" (this option may be called "View on..." or "Show original page" in different apps/interfaces)

#FediTips

#feditips

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〽️ɪɢᴜᴇʟ

@bitbraindev@mastodon.gamedev.place 2 mo. ago

@FediTips Today I Learned

butterscotch

@butterscotch@aus.social 2 mo. ago

@FediTips can you show at least 1 post when someone visits that profile and provide a “show more posts” button like you do with replies? No one is going to follow those steps if there’s nothing to see on their profile.

SpaceLifeForm

@SpaceLifeForm@infosec.exchange 2 mo. ago

@FediTips

Someone has to give them their first follower.

Follow back until they prove they are not worth following.

Sunny

@Sunny@universeodon.com 2 mo. ago

@FediTips

Does this lack of functionality accomplish anything positive for users?

Fedi.Tips

@FediTips@social.growyourown.services 2 mo. ago

@Sunny

It's to avoid loading unnecessary data onto the server, which keeps the running costs low enough for anyone to start their own (it's about 10 euros a month for the smallest server).

Low cost allows a federated network spread out on lots of servers, and here is why that is really important for users: https://fedi.tips/why-is-the-fediverse-on-so-many-separate-servers/

Why is the Fediverse on so many separate servers? | Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse

An unofficial guide to using Mastodon and the Fediverse

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Lee from Colorado

@colo_lee@mstdn.social 2 mo. ago

@FediTips I think this puts the burden in the wrong place. Esp'ly since no visible posts is strongly correlated to no profile picture & no interaction. If people want to be lurkers & watch public posts, whatever. But, if they want to interact on social media, they should figure out how to seem like a real person.

You do explain how they can avoid this situation in the next post. And that puts the burden where it should be: on the person who wants to appear as more than an empty head. Good.

Fedi.Tips

@FediTips@social.growyourown.services 2 mo. ago

@colo_lee

The code fix which is due for review would make a remote account's past posts automatically appear on your server either when you follow it or when you view their profile (depending on how they end up implementing it).

So, that would hopefully avoid all these problems if it can be implemented.

Lee from Colorado

@colo_lee@mstdn.social 2 mo. ago

@FediTips seems like it would only matter if the posts were fetched on profile view. Since, at least for me, the normal use case is to check their posts *before* I follow back. If the posts are only fetched after following, then it'll still look blank.

Whatever. I don't think there are a significant number of accounts that I want to follow that falsely appear empty & would suddenly have posts if they were fetched. Whenever I've clicked to see their home server, the account has still been empty.

Fedi.Tips

@FediTips@social.growyourown.services 2 mo. ago

p.s. The reason this happens is that servers only fetch posts that people on their server want to see. This keeps server running costs low enough for anyone to set up their own server.

There is a fix for blank profiles which has been written and is waiting for review by the developers at https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/34597

In the meantime, a workaround to prevent your own profile ever looking blank to anyone is to use pinned posts, which are always shown to every server. More info: https://fedi.tips/how-do-i-pin-my-posts-on-my-mastodon-profile

How do I pin posts on my Mastodon profile? | Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse

An unofficial guide to using Mastodon and the Fediverse

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GitHub

Add: Backfill on first follow (v2) by sneakers-the-rat · Pull Request #34597 · mastodon/mastodon

Fix: #34 Replaces: #32634 Builds on: #34595 This is just me resubmitting backfill on follow after fetch all replies, the story is told in the original pr: #32634 This PR will look bigger than it is...

FLOSSbOxIN

@fbinin@mastodon.fbin.in 2 mo. ago

@FediTips
While on this topic, I have found that unless I follow someone, I cannot tag them. Moreover, few #gotosocial & any other software, basically ones or other than #mastodon cannot be tagged properly, or not at all.
I may not be following the correct steps myself.

Fedi.Tips

@FediTips@social.growyourown.services 2 mo. ago

@fbinin

It sounds like your server is broken if you are unable to tag anyone except people you're following? 😦

Also tagging people from servers running other kinds of software should work fine, I do it every day on @FediFollows. Is it possible there is a configuration problem on your server?

FLOSSbOxIN

@fbinin@mastodon.fbin.in 2 mo. ago

@FediTips @FediFollows
Maybe. Not sure how I can check what is broken though.
I am also wondering, if it would not be best to move to some other software.