@feditips@kylev Roger that. Yup, old posts are there but the media is not. Based on your experience, I'm betting this is some setting on the SFBA server... presumably to manage resources wisely. I will ask our admins (and respect their answer :)
@feditips Ah, thank you! I look forward to having a backfilling option. As a photographer who uses Mastodon to find other photographers, the limited backview has been (mildly) disappointing. But the browser is an okay workaround.
It makes sense that backfilling could, sadly, be a resource hog on a server.
Re: "If one person on your server has followed the account, all the posts after that moment should be visible from your server. However, anything before that may not be."
This doesn't seem to be in effect here yet. If I look at, say, @kylev, for example, any media he has posted older than 24 days only shows as a blurred gradient in the app. But I and others on my server have followed Kyle for a long time. It seems boosting keeps media alive on my server, but simple following does not.
@feditips@feditips Q: Say I'm using the Mastodon app, looking at photos posted by other people on different instances. And maybe one looks great...so I decide to see what other photos that person has posted.
But in the app, I can only see remote photos back 2-4 weeks (unless someone on my own instance has boosted the photo). I get it. My instance can't keep a copy of every photo in the fediverse - there has to be a limit.
I've learned that if I want to see someone's portfolio, I need to use my browser and essentially do my viewing as a guest on the remote instance, with limited functionality to like or comment while not logged in.
My question is: why can't the Mastodon app make an external lookup itself and show me an old photo from inside the app, without me having to switch to a browser? Is that a difficult thing for an app to do - to fetch old photos for a quick look-see on my phone or tablet, on demand, without burdening my instance with storing that photo?
San Franciscan.Gay. Happy. Married. Snarky.Mouthy, very unprofessional photographer.Disclaimer: Mr. Horowitz regularly enjoys his martini hour between 5 and 9 pm. Posts originating during this period may contain flagrant errors and injudicious comments ranging from the amusing to the quite frankly libelous. Neither Mastodon, nor sadly Mr. Horowitz himself, will accept any liability for any consequences, real or imagined, from any of Mr. Horowitz's posts.