There are only four ways posts can appear in your main Home timeline on Mastodon:
- You follow the account that made the post
- You follow an account that shared the post
- You follow a hashtag that is included in the post
- You follow a group that shared the post
There are no other ways for posts to appear in your timeline except these four reasons.
There is no algorithm on Mastodon.
I am seeing posts in my timeline that don’t seem to belong to any of those categories? Where did these posts come from?
The most common reasons why people see unexplained posts in their timelines:
- The post includes a hashtag you are following, but the hashtags might be difficult to notice. If hashtags are written at the end of a post with a blank line above them, they are automatically shown separately in a smaller font that is just below the post itself.
- The post includes a hashtag you are following, but you forgot you were following it. See the hashtag following guide for how to see your currently followed tags.
- The post is from an account you forgot you were following. Click on the post account’s name to go to its profile page, where you can see if you are following them. (If you’re already following them the follow button will say “unfollow”, if you’re not following them it will say “follow”.)
- A small number of third party apps don’t display hashtags at all if they are at the end of a post. Try viewing the same post via your server’s website to make sure all its hashtags are visible.
How did I end up following an account without remembering it?
On some apps it is possible to accidentally follow an account while scrolling. For example they may display profile search results with “Follow” buttons next to each result, and you may accidentally press this button while scrolling past a result.