The Explore section of Vivaldi Social is a great place to discover interesting content and new accounts to follow. It shows new posts that have been boosted by others, hashtags that have been used a lot, and news or web page links that have been shared frequently. It also has a page suggesting accounts you might be interested in following.

To browse trending content, locate the “Explore” link on the menu on the left or right side of the page, depending on the theme you’ve chosen (the screenshot uses the Tangerine UI theme). From the menu at the top of the middle column, you can switch between Posts, Hashtags, People, and News.

On Vivaldi Social, you have control over which notifications you’ll be alerted about. The rest can be put into their own folder or ignored altogether.

To review notification settings:

1. On Vivaldi Social, go to Notifications > Show settings (top right corner of the middle panel).
2. In the “Manage notifications from” section, choose whether you want to accept, filter, or ignore notifications from the following groups:
   • People you don’t follow
   • People not following you
   • New accounts
   • Unsolicited private mentions
   • Moderated accounts

In Tip #485 we suggested following hashtags to fill your timeline with content on topics that interest you. To make your own posts equally discoverable, make sure to include relevant hashtags within the post’s text or add them on a separate line at the end of the post.

To add a hashtag, type the # symbol followed by the word (without a space between), for example, #Mosstodon. You can also use multiple words in a hashtag. In that case, write all the words together without spaces and make sure each word starts with a capital letter, for example, #ThickTrunkTuesday. Capitalizing makes multi-word hashtags easier to read.

In addition to the basic emoji set, Mastodon, instances can add custom emojis. We’ve added some Vivaldi-related emojis to Vivaldi Social, including Vivaldi logos, our loveable lava ball Tony, and Vivaldia. You can also find these emojis on the Vivaldi Forum.

To use Vivaldi emojis:

1. Click on the 🙂 “Insert emoji” button in the top right corner of the post editor on Vivaldi Social.
2. Scroll past your frequently used and other custom emojis to the Vivaldi section.
3. Click on the emoji you want to add to your post.

Even if you can undo some things, it’s better to prevent them in the first place. That’s why on Vivaldi Social, you can choose to be asked to confirm your decision before boosting or deleting posts, and before unfollowing an account.

To enable confirmation dialogs:

1. Go to Preferences > Appearance > Confirmation Dialogs.
2. Tick the boxes to enable showing the confirmation dialog before:
   • unfollowing someone,
   • boosting a post,
   • deleting a post.

Since on Mastodon, there aren’t any algorithms deciding what content to show you, you need to actively follow accounts and hashtags to fill up your Vivaldi Social Home feed with interesting posts.

To find which hashtags to follow:

• See which hashtags others have added to their posts.
• Search for hashtags.
• Browse trending hashtags on the Explore page.

To follow a hashtag:

1. Click on the hashtag to view recent posts using the hashtag.
2. Near the top right corner, click on “Follow hashtag”.

On Vivaldi Social, you can automatically hide posts that you find offensive, deal with sensitive matters, just oversaturate your timelines or you don’t wish to see for any other reason. You have the option to hide them behind a warning, still leaving you the option to click and view the post, or you can hide the posts outright.

To create a filter:

1. Go to Preferences > Filters.
2. Click on “Add new filter”.
3. Give the filter a name (if you choose to hide the posts with a warning, the filter’s name will be mentioned on the post).
4. If you want to apply the filter temporarily, select an expiration time.
5. Choose where the filter will be applied – Home and lists, Notifications, Public timelines, Conversations, Profiles.
6. Decide whether to hide the post behind a warning or remove it altogether.
7. Enter the keyword(s) you want to filter out. You can enter words, phrases, hashtags or emojis.
8. Click “Save new filter”.