Mastodon Threads

A step-by-step walkthrough of threads on Mastodon!

Photo by amirali mirhashemian on Unsplash

Updated 12/13/22

A thread usually refers to some sort of theme or continuity of thought within a conversation or artistic work. On the Internet, a “thread” is usually a “series of messages, generally grouped by subject, in which all messages except the first are replies to previous messages in the thread.”

If you’ve used Twitter or Facebook, you’ve encountered threads before. One person posts something, and other people respond to it. On Mastodon, threads are also used. However, there are a couple of important things that new Mastodon users should know.

Sometimes, you’ll have long threads produced by one person, with a starting post following by numerous comments from the original poster. These are usually ordered in some way (perhaps even numbered) and produce a long-form piece of writing.

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An example of the first post in a thread.

To create a thread, just create any ordinary post.

If you are making a long thread, one where you post multiple responses to your initial post, it’s good manners in the community to make your responses “unlisted.” This just helps to avoid cluttering everyone’s feed.

• Note: “unlisted” posts will still show up in the feeds of people you follow, they’re just exempt from the Federated timeline.
• Use “Mentioned users only” if you want just the people who you are responding to to be able to read the post.
• If you want to hide all responses from your Home timeline you can accomplish this by pressing the settings icon and then turning off “show replies”. (Image below)