Steve Purcellsanityinc@hachyderm.io
Aug 17, 2026, 11:27 AMMastodon tip that I saw someone post recently: you can use the search term "in:library" to specifically search among your own posts, likes and bookmarks.
Replies
Joshkrnlg@mastodon.socialAug 17, 2026, 1:15 PM@sanityinc
Omg. Genuinely useful.
anne.💫ann3nova@corteximplant.comAug 17, 2026, 1:28 PM@krnlg @sanityinc from:me and has:url are good ones too
sarcoptus scabiumthegarbagebird@theblower.auAug 17, 2026, 1:16 PM@sanityinc if you want only your own posts, you can do "from:me"
Eric BonoEricBono@beige.partyAug 17, 2026, 1:37 PM@sanityinc Thanks. Was truly just wondering about this
OddOpinions5failedLyndonLaRouchite@mas.toAug 17, 2026, 1:46 PM"serious question"
20 years ago, we would have expected that mastodon produce a decent, well written user guide, available as a pdf
in 2026, no one seems to care that mastodon doesn't do this; we, the users are left to scramble around and use the not very good search engine here to find random posts
????
and this goes 10x for bluesky, which actually has a lot of VC money; the VCs are to friggin cheap to spend US $65k a year to hire an English or History grad to write a user manual
wtf ????????
Aug 17, 2026, 2:45 PM
Gin KangarooGinevraCat@toot.communityAug 17, 2026, 3:01 PM@sanityinc THANK-YOU!!!
ARGVMI~1.PIFargv_minus_one@mastodon.sdf.orgAug 17, 2026, 3:04 PMTo search specifically among your own posts, you can also download your archive, open outbox.json, and Ctrl+F.
This will avoid burdening your server, which is probably funded by like $3.50 in annual donations, so taking a load off it is always a good idea.
You might want to run outbox.json through `jq .` first, to format it into something readable.
- Steve Purcellsanityinc@hachyderm.ioAug 17, 2026, 3:14 PM
@argv_minus_one That specific case ("from:me") is going to be extremely lightweight for the server. Even a naive substring search across several thousand rows found with an index is trivial. But yes, occasionally exporting for offline searching is an option too.
- ARGVMI~1.PIFargv_minus_one@mastodon.sdf.orgAug 17, 2026, 3:20 PM
No, it's not. Clicking on my own icon to see a few of my own recent posts creates a noticeable delay before I actually see them. The server clearly has to work to prepare that page.
Searching through the entire set of my own posts is undoubtedly even harder.
- Steve Purcellsanityinc@hachyderm.ioAug 17, 2026, 3:34 PM
@argv_minus_one Well yes, if your server struggles to even show your own posts, searching will also be hard for it. But so would exporting an archive!
Tom Haywardhattom@mastodon.socialAug 17, 2026, 3:06 PM@sanityinc I've been using this, it's great when combined with a bookmark-often approach to reading :)
Ditolditol@freiburg.socialAug 17, 2026, 3:39 PM@sanityinc
Great. Why isn't this implemented in a useful way? How are we non-techie users supposed to use the search engine in mastodon? There is not even an easily accessible option to see my postings without reposts. Seriously, I am so frustrated with mastodon and its client apps. Just make some goddamn tabs and checkboxes. It's not like graphic user interface was invented just yesterday.- Steve Purcellsanityinc@hachyderm.ioAug 17, 2026, 3:50 PM
@ditol Agree some affordances would be nice, but don't let it spoil your day 😂
Fwiw, I've never seen a comparable social network provide a specific UI element for searching your own posts/likes/bookmarks like this. The closest would be "advanced search" options, and the Mastodon web interface indeed has a shortcut for "in:" searches, so that's a start.
- Steve Purcellsanityinc@hachyderm.ioAug 17, 2026, 4:12 PM
@ditol P.S. for your original question ("an easily accessible option to see my postings without reposts") the profile page of the web interface has that too:
Ulrike HeißUlrikeHeiss@eldritch.cafeAug 17, 2026, 3:49 PM@sanityinc Bookmarked.
fan boy 🪭notyourfanboy@kolektiva.socialAug 17, 2026, 6:37 PM@sanityinc
I can't get any searches to work
