Dr. jonny phd
Hey any journalists on here plz turn your public post indexing on, because most of you haven't and thats why people looking for public information cant find you. Go to settings > public profile > privacy and reach, select "include public posts in search results" Not all the fedi wants to be a public space, and thats fine, but some parts should be right now. 57 comments
Natasha Nox 🇺🇦🇵🇸
Marcel Waldvogel
@Natanox @jonny Built-in #Mastodon #search is intra-site ("local"), #TootFinder is inter-site ("global", kind of like #Google for the #Fediverse , not just for your instance). I.e., you don't need to remeber the user/instance where you read the post from… 
Matt
@marcel @Natanox @jonny Assuming you read it while browsing Mastodon, you don't need to remember it using the built-in search either. As long as your post reaches the other instance (which it will on any moderately sized one), it can be found through anyone searching it. It's true that you won't reach the small instances most likely however, but I suspect people on small instances know how to find things they want.
Matt
@marcel @Natanox @jonny @buercher this is old documentation from before 4.2.0. With the latest Mastodon releases, instances can work a proper full text search if they install a search engine such as ElasticSearch. They should probably update that. Edit: Please see https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/releases/tag/v4.2.0 
Sven
@marcel @mattswift @Natanox @jonny @buercher No idea what the "docs-p" subdomain is, but the up-to-date docs do not say that: https://docs.joinmastodon.org/admin/elasticsearch/
Marcel Waldvogel
@mattswift @HeNeArXn @Natanox @jonny @buercher docs-p was ranked higher in my search results than docs 🤷. Going with the current docs and the "public statuses from account that opted into appearing in search results" bullet point: Is this for all accounts, or just local accounts? If the former: How is the "search opt-in" flag communicated to other instances? As part of the profile information?
Matthias Bürcher
@marcel @mattswift @HeNeArXn @Natanox @jonny Do you have the flag in your instance? I cannot check for me because my instance is still 4.1, but I expect the property to be exposed on the API via the profile. 
Annika Backstrom
@marcel @mattswift It applies to any account (local or remote), and yes, it's part of the profile. Also, profiles that have opted-in to search are polled more frequently for updates, in case the user has opted back out of search (indicating the remote server should remove that account from its search index) 
Simon Müller :sparkles_trans:
@marcel the current full-text search adds anyone to your index. If your instance knows of a person, and that person is opted in, it'll index. No matter whether they're local or not.
Matthias Bürcher
@marcel @mattswift @Natanox @jonny Tootfinder indexes all original public posts from whoever opted in. No replies however. As for the search syntax, I do not know what Mastodon uses. Tootfinder is limited to 90 days. I don't know how long Mastodon goes back and how the instances will cope with the volume. 
Avi Rappoport (avirr)
@mattswift @Natanox @buercher @marcel @jonny Mastodon search syntax has + (require, AND), - (exclude, NOT) and “” (exact match with quotes) This is kinda hard to find, it’s at https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2019/10/mastodon-3.0-in-depth/
Marcel Waldvogel
@HugeGameArtGD @jonny I would guess anything supporting the basic #Fediverse #ActivityPub protocol, independent of whom it federates with. Is that correct, @buercher ?  
Fedi.Tips 🎄
Also remember to click "save changes" at the bottom of the screen after you've made your selection.
Fedi.Tips 🎄
Log in through your server's website to do this. I think your server isn't running the latest version of Mastodon though, so it may not have this feature yet.
Fedi.Tips 🎄
I understand the frustration, but think this is a case of a "least worst" solution? Being on a centralised social network is simpler because you have no options. If the person running the network does something bad (as we can see now with Musk on Twitter) then you just have to accept it. The range of options on here means it does get more complicated sometimes, but it also keeps you safe from Musk-type scenarios because you can switch servers or apps if something bad happens.
Fedi.Tips 🎄
Your server is only one version behind the current one so I'd imagine it will update soon. Maybe your server admin @admin can help? (The full text search feature is brand new, so it's only available on the latest version.) For apps it's up to each developer. On Moshidon perhaps @moshidon might have news on adding this setting to the app?
Fedi.Tips 🎄
I have a website at https://fedi.tips which is full of guides for beginners. For this particular issue, there's a guide at https://fedi.tips/how-do-i-opt-into-or-out-of-full-text-search-on-mastodon/ 
Matt
@2du @jonny This is my stance too, it should be opt-out, or opt-either, where it asks what you want when you sign up and you must pick an option to use Mastodon. I suspect most people probably expect their posts to be automatically viewable (it is everywhere else!), and those that definitely don't want them to be know where to look.
Voltaire
@mattswift @jonny very good points. While I appreciate the concern for privacy.. this is social media. Posting to the internet isn’t private
Matt
@2du @jonny True, but social media platforms can work as insular/private communities too, so the choice is very important, which Mastodon thankfully provides. It just needs better sane defaults that are based around how people use and expect social media to work, while the others can fine tune how they want things.
Paul Kuyper
@mattswift @2du @jonny my understanding is that Mastodon does not provide an actual private setting. Instead, things can be set to be much more difficult to find (like setting a message to “mentioned people only”but that is to prevent noise for others. It does not creat me a true private message.
DELETED
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Jean François Kennedy
@jonny I wonder if this would make sense to be enabled by default? Or at least have a better discoverability.
Barry Goldman
@jonny @futurebird i can't keep track of all the settings, social media sites, lists hastags how to port ppl i follow... i'm tired. i should just find a city instead of social media 
David
Bad setting design is rampant. I'd say it's one of the costs of open source development, but profit seeking development has bad setting design because of negligence and greed.
David
Someone on here told me that if any of it is searchable then all of it is even if some people don't want their posts searchable. Imo, mastodon isn't the place for secret communication, but here we are.  
CubeOfCheese
@jonny I think that indexing should probably have a setting at the instance level, that way instances can have it default on. For example a journalism instance could have it on by default for new sign ups. People could still toggle it off and on individually, but if you make it a default on for some instances, I think we'd see a lot more usage
Herr Irrtum!
@jonny@neuromatch.social 
Baloo Uriza
@jonny That said, please also get used to public exposure features as being an opt-in experience outside of the commercial web. This works to your advantage, letting people opt-in reduces the clutter of results when searching, *improving* search. 
Brandon Starr
@jonny Thanks for the info! I'm not a journalist but didn't realize that was not on by default. Going to my podcast accounts and updating those, too!
etym dub
re. new people to follow, there is this: https://followgraph.vercel.app/ (apologies if you already know that, I add it as much for others reading this thread as yourself :) ) |
Gregory's Server
Also, consider allowing #TootFinder to make your public posts globally searchable. I think it is a good thing to do, if you want to make information available to the public.
https://tootfinder.ch/
It's painless:
1️⃣ Include one of the keywords "searchable", " tootfinder", or "tfr" in your profile to express consent
2️⃣ Tell TootFinder to start indexing here: https://tootfinder.ch/join.php
(Just remove the keyword if you want to opt out again.)
@jonny
Also, consider allowing #TootFinder to make your public posts globally searchable. I think it is a good thing to do, if you want to make information available to the public.
https://tootfinder.ch/
It's painless:
1️⃣ Include one of the keywords "searchable", " tootfinder", or "tfr" in your profile to express consent
2️⃣ Tell TootFinder to start indexing here: https://tootfinder.ch/join.php