Tag Archives: Basic Tips

How to post a poll on Mastodon

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It’s really easy:

  1. Log in through your server’s website or web app or any other app
  2. Start a new post
  3. Click the poll icon, this usually looks like a bar chart 📊 (on some apps there may be no poll icon visible, but you can click the attachment icon and then select poll as an attachment)
  4. Write your question in the main part of the post
  5. Add up to four responses, and describe each option (you can use emoji too). Some servers running customised code may allow more than four responses.
  6. Set the duration, between 5 mins and 7 days
  7. Click Publish to post the poll!

Allowing multiple responses on polls

You can optionally allow people to chose more than one response in polls. The exact way you activate this option depends on which version of Mastodon your server is running or which app you’re using.

  1. Log in through your server’s website or the web app or a third party app
  2. Create the poll via the web interface as described above, but don’t post it yet
  3. On most server websites click on a circle next to one of the options, the circles will all change into rounded squares, and the poll will now allow multiple responses. Alternatively, some websites might have an option that says “Style: Pick One”, click this and choose “multiple choice” if you want to allow multiple responses. Third party apps will have various different ways of allowing multiple responses.

If you want to go back to single response on most websites, click on a square to change it back to circles before you post.

The “Style” option is due to replace the circle/square thing in the next version of Mastodon, but the next version hasn’t been officially released yet. Some servers are running the next version early while it is still in its testing phase, and that’s why they already have the “Style” option instead of the circles and squares.

⚠️ Warning about editing polls

You can edit polls the same way you edit posts, just go to ⋯ on the post and select Edit. However, when you edit the poll’s options or change its response type, it will automatically reset the poll’s results back to zero without any warning! (Editing the main text above the poll doesn’t reset it though.)

This behaviour is presumably to prevent abuse of the poll system, but the lack of warning can really catch people out (it certainly caught me out! 😅 ). For those comfortable using Github, there’s an open issue about this here ⧉.

I can’t find the poll button on my app!

Some third party apps have the poll button hidden away under the attachment button. Click attach, and then instead of choosing an image or video or audio file, choose a poll.

Some people have more than four options on their polls! How is this possible?

Mastodon is just one kind of server on the wider Fediverse. This means that many of the accounts you see on your timeline are on servers that have tweaked their Mastodon software to allow additional featured (such as more poll options), or are on totally different kinds of server altogether. You can escape the limits of standard Mastodon servers by moving to a different kind of Fediverse server.

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How do I follow someone on Mastodon? How do I unfollow them?

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You can follow someone on Mastodon by clicking on the Follow button on their profile page. You can go to someone’s profile page by clicking on their name.

You can unfollow them by clicking the same button again. The button may have a different label after you’ve followed them (Unfollow, Following etc), but it will be in the same place on the screen.

I know someone has an account on Mastodon etc and I’ve tried searching for their account, but it doesn’t show up in the search results. How do I follow them?

If you’re trying to get someone’s profile page to appear and nothing else works, you can use their account address to make their profile appear. Copy and paste their account address into the search box, and this will force your server to show you their profile page.

If you don’t know their account address but you have some other means to communicate with them, try asking them directly. They can find their account address on their profile page, it’s just below their display name. There’s more info on the account addresses page.

If you’re just wanting to discover new accounts that you haven’t heard of before, try using the suggestions in this guide to discovering interesting accounts.

Is there a limit on how many accounts I can follow on Mastodon?

Yes and no.

If you have fewer than 7500 followers, you can only follow up to 7500 accounts.

If you have more than 7500 followers, you can follow accounts equal to that amount. For example, if you had 10,000 followers you could follow 10,000 accounts.

The technical reasons for these limits are discussed in this issue on Github ⧉.

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How do I delete a post on Mastodon?

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To delete one of your posts:

  1. Go to the post you want to delete
  2. Click the ⋯ icon
  3. Select “Delete”

This should delete the post straight away on your own server. Most other servers where the post is visible will delete it too, though in some cases there may be a delay in the deletion happening (as the other server may have a queue of tasks to work through).

In a small number of cases a deletion may not happen on the other server, for example if the other server is not working properly. If you’re concerned about how widely a post may be seen, you can restrict its visibility when you post it.

Can I edit posts instead of deleting them?

Yes! See the guide to post editing.

When should I edit? When should I delete?

If you’re correcting a mistake in the post, it’s probably better to edit it. Deletions are generally just if you want to remove a post forever.

Editing means the post stays at the same link as before, and if your post was shared by other people it will still be visible in their feeds. It also means all the replies to the post will remain intact and visible below the post.

If you delete a post, any links to the post will break and all the shares of that post will disappear. All replies to the deleted post will be orphaned and very difficult to find.

What does “Delete and re-draft” mean?

There are actually two delete options on Mastodon, Delete or Delete and re-draft. The first just deletes the message, but the second deletes the message and sends a copy of it to the post writing box so you can make changes and repost it.

Since the introduction of post editing on Mastodon this second option has been largely obsolete. However, there are a couple of cases where you might want to use it:

  • Delete & re-draft is the easiest way to change the visibility of a post, as this cannot be done through editing.
  • Delete & re-draft is very useful if you accidentally include sensitive information within an otherwise okay post. Editing will not hide this information totally, because all previous versions of an edited post are visible by clicking the Edited link below the post. (This audit trail of previous versions is a deliberate safety feature to prevent “bait & switch” abuse of editing.)

Bear in mind that both delete options delete the post, and any shares will be lost, links will break and replies will be orphaned. If you just want to make changes to the content, editing is usually a much better option.

Can I set old posts to self-delete automatically?

Yes! Click here to see instructions on how to delete posts after a certain time period.

Are there any reasons to delete and re-post the same content?

There are niche cases where deletion and reposting can be useful. For example, if the replies thread below a post has gone totally off the rails and you want to “reset” the discussion, deleting and reposting it lets you start from scratch.

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