this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2023
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Fediverse

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Pixelfed got featured on the Wired and here's what @[email protected], the author of @[email protected], says:

[...]

All those long nights working on backend scalability and performance improvements are about to be put to the test

I wasn't anticipating this attention for a few more months, but I'm ready 😎

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[–] [email protected] 89 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Damn the fediverse is really having it's moment. I guess even non-techie people really are truly getting fed up with corporate social media.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago

impossible people, sponsored content, ads and your data on a buffet - it was long overdue, but i'm glad it's finally gaining momentum.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I mean we're still a long long way from reaching mainstream status.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think lemmy and it's growth is the biggest step forward in the direction of the fediverse becoming "mainstream" alongside twitters implosion As this platform specifically develops more and the front end UI improves in spite of its current flaws, I feel like lemmy and kbin are probably the most likely to be picked up by the general public as it is the easiest to navigate and populate with content. You can federate whole communities in with tons of content, instead of just individual users. There are quirks but I think it has the most potential, it's like the fediverse was made for this kind of platform in mind specifically.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

Mastodon currently comprises about 90% of Fediverse users so I'll have to disagree on that one.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not everything needs to be mainstream to be great. Sometimes being less known is what makes sites great since you are sure that the user base that is on there are there because of similar reason. Unlike mainstream apps where users trend to be there only because it is hip to be there but don't care for what the sites actually stands for. Hence the proliferation of garbage material in large mainstream sites.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago

My personal observation is that people have been fed up for quite a while, not so much by the Instagram app itself but by Meta's brand, their untrustworthiness and the general vapid and scammy nature of the hordes of Influencers and "hustlers". It's just regular folks aren't aware of decent alternatives or the alternatives aren't quite there yet.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Someone asked this before, but is there a Canadian instance for pixelfed? That's what's kept me from trying it out.

I see that pixelfed.ca is registered, but doesn't seem to go anywhere.

Otherwise is there another good instance to make an account on?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's a platform still in its infancy but improving rapidly, social.photo is a pretty good one if you want a smaller instance, it's hosted by the admin over at discuss.online. I'm not a member of discuss.online but I can vouch that @[email protected] is an awesome sysadmin and I have full faith in him maintaining that instance long term (if you're ever worried of signing up to a small instance and it disappearing.. I highly doubt his stuff will.). Currently migration isn't added into pixelfed yet (its being worked on though) but I am gonna sign up to that one anyway, it's always best to spread around the federation.

Might be worth reaching out to lemmy.ca admins though and seeing if they have one spun up or would be willing to as well.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Thanks @[email protected]! https://social.photo. I just opened registration so it’s still very young. I am running Lemmy on https://discuss.online, Mastodon on https://utter.online and Pixelfed on https://social.photo. I also run a matrix instance on the same discuss.online domain.

I’m based in Ohio, US; however, the servers are in New York on DigitalOcean. That’s really close to Canada :).

I’m trying to build an ecosystem under the https://participating.online brand. I don’t plan on going anywhere.

In fact, I had planned to build something many years ago and I’ll probably start on it now. It will provide a unique experience once it’s done in a several months. I’m working on some other stuff first… like myself.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Pixelfed is great but it never had a mass migration like Mastodon or Lemmy. So it lacks users.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, but things can change. Stories of Mastodon and Lemmy are inspiring. When Reddit backslash happened, Lemmy was already there as a good alternative for people to switch to. So was the case of Mastodon with the Twitter exodus. It's good that we've Pixelfed, it may be just a matter of time.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I'm on pixelfed, and truthfully, the lack of professional grade photos there are what actually made it great for me. I want to see ordinary photos from ordinary people. Taken during their ordinary day to day life.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

I already registered, you don't have to sell it to me!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Knowing tech companies, it's just a matter of time lol

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I've been posting on pixelfed.social but haven't had much interaction, but maybe this will get the word out a bit.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Someone give me a hard sell here! Why should I use this app? I used to use Instagram (photographer/cinematographer), and I stopped using it because not just the tracking and all of that, but frankly, the content itself. Not to mention the algorithms are so busted and all they do is show me rage bait or flagrant ads disguised as content I would actually care about.

Why do people like pixelfed?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

In my experience it is very much focused around photography, similar to Instagram when it was still good. The lack of algorithms pushing bullshit makes the feed feel much more organic, showing the people you follow - and there are already, in my experience, a healthy amount of talented people sharing interesting content.

Then again, I appreciate nature photography, so I'm not hard to satisfy.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Lol guess so. So it really strips that stuff away?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Yeah, like pretty much all platforms on the fediverse, they're not owned by large companies, and don't try ads or selling user data for profit

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That's great and all, but after you move, how do you get anyone at all to look at it?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Same way you get someone to bother with Instagram. Uhhh.... "somehow."

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Interesting, is Pixelfed mature enough today? Do they support stories?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

Stories feature is there. But I haven't used it myself, so I can't tell more about it.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Ive been using Pixelfed since late June quite happily. I’ve never used stories, but it looks like they have them if that’s something that interests you:

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

More importantly, can I disable stories?

[–] tja 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yes, you can customize your pixelfed experience to a huge degree afaik

Edit: at least he says that you can disable it: https://mastodon.social/@dansup/110836670603821232

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Good to know! I'm not big on them (or at Instagram as a whole to be honest), but I know that can be a deal-breaker for potential users

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Of all the social media I've been on over the years, I don't think any of them have given me less joy and more frustration than Instagram. Anything's better than that garbage.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I see you haven't used Facebook in a while

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Honestly like it better, barely.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So I wonder if the comments get imported too, but I guess no.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The photo app that is terrible at telling me what is NSFW and what isn't.

Literally, I had a picture on Pixelfed that was marked NSFW and opening it revealed a fucking tree.

Then I scroll down and I think, "oh it is another NSFW tree." No it was an image of two people fucking." I don't care if there is porn but the algorithm to determine what porn is on Pixelfed is shit. Make it work better or just give me a damn toggle to turn it all off.

[–] tja 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Isn't it the user who decides if their photo is marked as sensitive?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Yes it is the user who toggles whether their posts are NSFW or not. Clearly OP here is just repeating something they thought they heard and has no experience in using pixelfed.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Ideally there should be no algorithm for this stuff but it would make moderation harder

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Someone give me a hard sell here! Why should I use this app? I used to use Instagram (photographer/cinematographer), and I stopped using it because not just the tracking and all of that, but frankly, the content itself. Not to mention the algorithms are so busted and all they do is show me rage bait or flagrant ads disguised as content I would actually care about.

Why do people like pixelfed?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As with all the fediverse stuff, it feels like early Instagram when you weren't bombarded by a million ads and celebrity bullshit all the time. It feels like a great community of amateur photographers coming together to share and be inspired again to take photos. That's why I like it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Sounds great. How does sorting work on it? Is it just who you subscribe to and show what was the most recent?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah it's either the latest from who you follow, local timelines or the federated one.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Cool! Just joined the largest instance via Verrisage (sp?) hope to see you around! Going to post some 35mm shots of mine soon.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Well, for starters it has none of those things that you dislike so much about instagram.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You know, on the one hand, I really want to support the Fediverse. But on the other hand, too much social media is bad. So it's kind of a delicate balancing act.

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