If you created your account a long time ago, you may be seeing Mastodon's advanced web interface (multiple columns). That interface has not been the default for years now. You can control which one you see from Preferences.

@Gargron Isn't that the only way to 'follow' hashtags though? Or am I missing something?

@mykd @Gargron you can also follow a hashtag using it's RSS feed in an RSS reader, but that's obviously quite functionally different.

@rysiek @Gargron Hmm, so Feedly might be a good Fediverse client 🤔

@mykd @Gargron yup. I follow quite a few hashtags this way.

@rysiek @Gargron @mykd can you clarify how to do that please? I can only see Twitter, Reddit and Newsletters up the top.

@moonlightsiesta @Gargron @mykd find a hashtag you want to follow via RSS, say #solarpunk, click on it to reach the page for it on your instance. For me it's:
https://mastodon.technology/tags/solarpunk

Now add .rss at the end:
https://mastodon.technology/tags/solarpunk.rss

Boom, RSS feed for #solarpunk as seen from mastodon.technology!

@rysiek @Gargron @mykd omg I just did it. That’s so simple but such a brilliant idea, ty. I’ve been wondering what rss was for for years. I did it with particular people I follow under a specific topic. That way I can have my Covid Careful ppl together ❤️ . It’s a shame we can’t follow people on twitter that way - you could have their posts show up on a feed and not have to sort through the mess. @trendless lookie!

@moonlightsiesta @Gargron @mykd @trendless Mastodon also has built-in "Lists", but I never used them. They might be better for fedi accounts.

@trendless @rysiek @Gargron @mykd I just remember someone saying the lists function doesn’t work so great