Followed Hashtags ignore User's Filter Language Setting

[zerojay]

Steps to reproduce the problem

1. Set languages to filter from Settings -> Preferences -> Other. To make this bug more easy to reproduce, set it to allow only Russian.
2. Follow any hashtag that has a lot of activity on it.
3. Watch the home timeline for posts from that hashtag and notice it is not just Russian posts with that hashtag showing up.

Expected behaviour

Posts from hashtags you follow should be properly filtered through the Language Filters the user set

Actual behaviour

All posts using the followed hashtags come through, which makes following a hashtag bring up less relevant posts to the user, especially if a hashtag has different meanings in different languages.

Detailed description

When a user is following a hashtag, they are interested in seeing posts that are relevant to that hashtag and relevant to that user. Currently, it appears that no language filtering is happening on posts from followed hashtags, which can lead to the user receiving posts that they cannot read or understand, or even receiving spam posts from users in other languages because the hashtag has a different meaning in that language.

Specifications

Mastodon 4.0.2

[vkbo]

It is not a bug since the filter only applies to "public timelines" as is clearly stated.

However, I agree that it would be useful to be able to filter folllowed tags on language. I had to unfollow a tag today because my home timeline was drowned by posts in languages I cannot read. I came here to look for suggestions.

[polyrainbow]

It is nowadays possible to filter followed accounts' posts by language so being able to filter followed hashtags' posts by language would be consistent with that feature.

[mbentley]

I will say that as a new to Mastodon user who is more heavily relying on hashtags to pull in content relevant to me as I am still building a list of followers, the more important being able to filter out posts from my non-preferred language(s) is as I am pulling in quite a number of toots I am not able to read and would prefer to not see.

[DagsJT]

Another vote for an option to filter followed hashtag posts by language. The #gaming hashtag has a number of languages posting to it and a lot aren’t relevant to me.

[nmstoker]

I'd like to see this addressed (whether or not one considers it a bug or not)

Right now I'm left with the heavy handed solution for posters from domains that are clearly language based (eg masto.es has the vast majority posting in Spanish) is to block the domain, but as per the popup warning that has other consequences and isn't really in the spirit of things.

I suspect it's not easy but for me the ideal would actually be a way to reduce the proportion of foreign language toots, because I'm not adverse to them entirely and can gladly use the Translate button sometimes but when your feed gets sections with a third+ of the entries needing a translation and you "just want to browse without friction after a long day", it gets annoying!

[brendanjones]

Is this duplicate of #13891? Seems like it's probably because of the same issue.

[mbentley]

I would say no - I don't see filtering working at all for hashtags. For example, look at #linux and while I have my preferences set to English, I get tons of non-english posts.

[Truhe2342]

Filtering went away with Mastodon 4. It did work with Mastodon 3. As a result hashtag columns become unusable when people from other time zones wake up and flood the hashtag with their language. There's a language filter for a reason. Please use it for hashtag columns. Again.

[mbentley]

For example, I am following the hashtag #selfhosting on the instance I am a member of which is running 4.1.4 as of today and there is a post that it recognizes as a different language (see the translate link, I imagine there might be another way to see the language) but it shows up in my Home feed.

I have filter languages in Settings > Preferences > Other set to English and only English so it appears that the language filters do not apply here.

[brendanjones]

Okay confirmed on my side, posts from followed hashtags in languages not selected in my settings are appearing in both the home feed, and the hashtag feed. This is not limited to hashtags you follow, however, it applies to any hashtag feed you view.

The language filter is actually only supposed to apply to public timelines (as I pointed out on #20241). So language filters aren't supposed to apply to the home feed. Which doesn't meet user expectations, but is not a technical bug.

However hashtag feeds are considered public timelines, right? In which case language filters should apply. In which case that bit of the problem is a technical bug.

[Cassolotl]

I have this problem too. I follow the hashtag #GoodOmens, and I have my account set to show only English and French stuff, and I don't follow this person, and it's showing that the language detected is NO (Norwegian?):

I don't understand it, and I don't follow that person, and my instance doesn't have translation enabled.

Maybe it can show posts in non-selected languages for tracked hashtags only if translation is enabled?

[Neliger]

Hashtag following is a great feature of Mastodon.

Having it filtering language would make it much more usable, I'm often ending unfollowing hashtags for languages reasons.

[parfentjev]

Mastodon lacks a 'smart' feed that adapts to users' behavior, making hashtags a crucial tool for content discovery. However, posts in languages I don't understand clutter my feed, making it harder to find new content and enjoy Mastodon in general.

Automatic translation may not be the ideal solution for several reasons:

1. Automatic translations are often inaccurate and may not be available on some instances.
2. The more posts that require translation, the higher the cost for instance administrators (even free APIs have usage limits).
3. Some posts are simply links to articles in other languages.

I believe it's only natural that users who specify their language preferences in their settings should be served content in those selected languages.

Hopefully this issue will be addressed soon.

[brendanjones]

That PR ^^ doesn't solve this issue, but it hopefully helps people realise that the language filter missing posts in Home is a lack of functionality rather than a bug.

It does not address the bug of the language filter missing posts in hashtag feeds.