When you run a small Mastodon instance the explore tab or default home page may be constantly showing the message "Nothing is trending right now".
This Is Normal On Small Instances
This is due to the "trending post" algorithm. At present for a post to be considered trending the bare minimum threshold means it must have recently been favourited or reblogged at least 5 times.
Remote Posts
A remote post trends if enough local users have interacted with it to "score" over this threshold. The boosts from remote users count if they are followed by a user on your server.
For a 3 user server it would require each user to both favourite and reblog the same remote post for it to score 6 and display. As the number of active users increase, and the number of accounts they follow increase, your chances improve of at least meeting the threshold criteria and starting to show some posts.
Local Posts
For local posts made by your users meeting the threshold can be done with favourites and boosts from remote servers. However, you would need to have reasonably popular users and as time passes since posting the "score" a post gets starts to decay. It again means that with less than 10 active and reasonably popular users you are unlikely to see the page show much.
The Solutions
Disable "Use Trends as the Landing Page"
Administration > Server Settings > Discovery
Uncheck "Use trends as the landing page" until your instance can regularly fill this page up. That way visitors to your instance will see a much nicer about page instead of a blank feed.
Invite More Friends
Inviting more friends and fostering an active community will make this page vibrant and active. Servers with hundreds of active accounts boosting and favouriting fill this page up with recommendations.
Follow More Accounts
By following more accounts you also follow the boosts of more accounts. These boosts will be tracked by your server and increase the chances of exceeding the threshold.
Boost And Favourite More Posts
Each boost and favourite that you make contributes 2 points towards breaking through the threshold.
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