To see the context of a reply, just click on it. This will show you the reply itself in an enlarged format plus the thread it is part of. After you’ve clicked on a reply, scroll up or down to see the other replies in the thread.
You can see all the branches of the thread by clicking on the first post at the very top of the thread.
I clicked on the reply but I still couldn’t see what it was replying to! It just showed me the reply on its own.
Try refreshing the page, this may trigger Mastodon into loading the full thread. If refreshing the page doesn’t work and you still can’t see the original post the reply was made to, there are several possible reasons why:
- It may be that the reply was to a non-public post. This is especially common if someone mentions you in their reply but you weren’t mentioned in the original post. If you’re mentioned in a reply, it means you can see the reply whether it’s public or non-public.
- It may be that the original post was deleted.
- It may be that the original post was on an account or a server that you or your server have blocked.
Does Mastodon automatically show all the replies in the thread?
Yes, if your server is running Mastodon 4.5.0 or higher. Mastodon automatically fetches all the replies in a thread whenever you are viewing a thread.
(In the past Mastodon didn’t automatically fetch all replies, but nowadays it does.)