Mastodon question: If somebody mentions me, should it appear in my home timeline?

I thought it did.

@helge only if you follow them. If you don't it just shows up in notifications.

Thank you for confirming.

I've documented some of the cases here. Maybe, it will encourage people to write proper addressing documentation ...

@helge @jcrabapple timelines dont exist, generally speaking

mastodon doesnt show mentions from non-follows in their “home timeline”, but pleroma/akkoma do. misskey does too, i think. i suspect it varies among other projects.