this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2026
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Hi !
So, when creating a post with tags on a Piefed instance (feddit.fr), I noticed that the results shown in Mastodon by searching the tags are not always the same: some posts are not shown with an excerpt in Mastodon, when some others do have an excerpt (along with a Read More link).
I would like to know how can one ensure that the excerpt appears, because a blank message with only a link is not great to Mastodon viewers, especially when the posts are short fictions.

Exemples

You can see 2 different behaviours here, where posts appear differently in a Mastodon timeline. This is before clicking on them, and they used the same hashtag (#microfiction):

  • This one has no excerpt:
    VKaNThYQ6R6d4KT.png

(The post is here: https://feddit.fr/c/microfictions/p/261665/nouveau-date )

  • This one has an excerpt (with markdown formatting even!)
    B54TDUG7Y3uqsAK.png

(The post is here: https://piefed.social/c/playground/p/1619496/ligne-de-titre-premiere-ligne-du-message-sans-separation-par-une-ligne-vide )

Can someone point me to precise documentation or tell me if this just need improvement in a future release ? Thanks !


EDIT: I tried to edit one of the posts that weren't properly getting an excerpt, and after publishing my change (one line break at the end), I noticed that following my editing it does NOW have an excerpt when viewed in Mastodon. Strange thin is it doesn't have a link to the post, only a "Read More" link, but the link to the feddit.fr post is linked in the full message after you click Read More:
https://feddit.fr/c/microfictions/p/261665/nouveau-date

EDIT 2: Now the link below the excerpt has arrived, it was just a matter of time.

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[โ€“] 5PACEBAR@piefed.ca 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Mastodon does not immediately generate link previews and adds a bit of random time to it to avoid sites being brought to their knees should a toot become viral. It can vary from a few minutes to a few hours in my experience.

I can have a look at the code if you want details.

[โ€“] ortaviz@feddit.fr 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Thanks for replying. Do you mean all posts should have an excerpt and the ones who don't are stuck in some bad updating from Mastodon that never really occurs ? If you have spare time to look at it, it would be appreciated yes. I'm willing to file a bug report but obviously I would need to know on which part this failure happens.