I know it’s possible to subscribe to a Mastodon user on a Lemmy instance, but it seems to me like this is of limited utility since the more standard use case on Mastodon is following tags rather than users. So, is it possible to somehow follow a Mastodon tag using Lemmy and get posts with that tag integrated into your Lemmy feed?
Edit: Never post before fully woken up. It is not possible to subscribe to another user directly on Lemmy, whether they’re on Lemmy or Mastodon. That’s how things work on Mastodon, not on Lemmy. It is possible to find Mastodon users by using the instance search feature, though, as I’ve described in a reply to @Malgas@beehaw.org below, but you so far can’t really use this to achieve anything very useful, as far as I can tell.
Edit 2: It seems like something like this theoretically could be set up, but it’s way more complicated than what I initially asked for. You would need:
- A dedicated Lemmy instance for Mastodon tag-based crossposting (probably)
- Some kind of form on a site where users who want to follow a Mastodon tag that is not already set up as a Lemmy community could submit the tag they want added, which would automatically set up:
- A Lemmy community for that tag on the aforementioned instance, and
- A Mastodon hastag bot that automatically crossposts all Mastodon posts with that tag to that community
Whether something like this already exists, I have no idea, but I get the feeling it could actually be useful.
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There are hashtag bots that may accomplish what you’re after (assuming Boosts make their way to Lemmy).
For example, if you wanted to follow the #cars hashtag, you’d follow @tag-cars@relay.fedi.buzz
Swap out cars for whatever hashtag you want to follow.
Holy shit i did not know this even existed, thank you so much!
If you’re using a proper Mastodon client, hashtag following is a built-in feature, also, without needing these accounts.
For most clients, you tap on a hashtag in a post, and then there’s usually a follow button somewhere on the screen (upper-right, usually)
Oh I know about hashtag following and everything, but the fact it’s hard to get stuff relayed in on a single user instance (specifically gotosocial right now) was what was stopping me from using it more since it feels like I’m on my own little island. But it works! It works super well!
If it’s truly your own instance and you’re the admin, it’s actually a bit cleaner to use fedi.buzz relays. Posts get fed into your Federation feed, and you can follow hashtags like you would on a bigger instance.
Unfortunately, gotosocial is in alpha right now and does not currently support relays or following hashtags. It’s rapidly improving but knowing these work is a great step.
Thanks for that input, that’s very cool that those relays exist. I have to apologize anyway though because I apparently was pretty confused when I made the original post, because on Lemmy you can’t directly follow other Lemmy users at all, whether they’re on Mastodon or Lemmy.
Something like what I envisioned might still be workable, but it would take a bit more effort and savvy. It would probably require a Mastodon hashtag bot as well as a dedicated Lemmy community for each tag for the bot to post into. See my edited OP.
I know it’s possible to subscribe to a Mastodon user on a Lemmy instance
Wait, it is? How do you do that?
I was under the impression that it was possible to follow a lemmy from mastodon but not the other way around.
When you search on a mastodon instance, some of the hits will be users. You can narrow down the search to show only those by explicitly specifying so. A segment of those users often look weird because they have no name at all and always share the standard lemmy default icon as profile picture. Like this:
Those are (usually) non-Lemmy Fediverse users, most of which are on Mastodon. You can click on them to see the profile and from that you should be able to follow them.
Edit: While it’s true that you can find Mastodon users on Lemmy using the method described here, you can’t actually subscribe directly to another user to get their posts in your feed, whether they’re on Lemmy or Mastodon. This notion of users directly following users is very much more in line with Mastodon’s design philosophy than Lemmy’s, so you’re probably right that you can follow a Lemmy instance from Mastodon but not the other way around. Please excuse my brain fart.
The only way I can see to make anything similar work would be to have hashtag bots like those described by @RxBrad@lemmings.world automatically post into relevant (or separate specialized) Lemmy communities, which admittedly seems like it might be interesting. Whether something like that already exists, though, I have no idea.
When I tagged them yesterday, I also browsed over to the user page for @tag-cars@relay.fedi.buzz. By doing that, the account federated with the instance I use.
The account still shows as having no posts. So, my guess is that Boosts from Mastodon don’t actually carry forward into Lemmy.
In all reality, it’s just way cleaner & easier to do Lemmy stuff on a Lemmy client/website, and Mastodon stuff in a Mastodon client/website.
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