Profiles and posts on Mastodon and the Fediverse have public versions you can share with people who aren't on the Fediverse.
To see the public version of a profile, click on the profile picture. This will open the public version of the profile in a new tab.
To see the public version of a post, click on the datestamp below the post. This will open the public version of the post in a new tab.
These "public pages" are handy for sharing with friends, because they don't require logging in to see them.
Public pages are also very useful for something else:
If you paste the URL address of a public page into the search box on Mastodon, and then search for it, the post or profile will appear within your server. This is handy if you cannot find a post or person by searching, but you know they exist on another server.
Searching for a URL like this forces your server to "notice" the profile or post.
It also works with URLs from PeerTube, PixelFed etc.
Peter Vágner likes this.