As you use Mastodon you will find that there are lots of Toots coming through. All of these will not relate to your course.

The easiest way to “filter” Toots so you can concentrate on the ones you want is to do a search.

The search box is found about the new Toot box. You can only search for #hashtags and @usernames. You cannot search for plain text contained within Toots. If you enter plain text, search will only return any #hashtags or @usernames that natch the search text.

The search below shows a search for the course tag #lida101. Notice how search finds all the tags that begin #lida101. Click on the result you want to see all the Toots with that #hashtag in a new #hashtag search column on the right.

Screenshot-Mastodon-Search.png

When you have a #hashtag search open, it will automatically update with new toots.

You can pin the column to keep the search open by clicking the settings symbol at the top right of the #hashtag search column and clicking “pin”. If you open that menu again you can move the pinned hashtag column to the left or right, or you can unpin it.

It’s a good idea to search for and pin your course #hashtag for easy reference in the future.

Use the scroll bar to scroll up and down through the Toots in the column.

Screenshot-Mastodon-Search-Column.png