You can see it if you check https://fedidb.org/. Monthly active users have gone from just a hair under one million to somewhere around 1.4 million and still growing. How do we think this will go? How do we feel about this influx of new users? Has PixelFed done something different that Mastodon hasn’t?

I feel like I didn’t really recognize having different “platforms” like Mastodon, PixelFed, etc would give multiple opportunities for the fediverse to make a “first” impression with people.

  • unalivejoy@lemm.eeEnglish
    9·
    8 hours ago

    I wonder how many of those users are the same person with multiple accounts on different platforms.

    • bradd@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      5 hours ago

      It’s strange to me how quickly I get +/- feedback on lemmy compared to actual comments and the replies that I get are almost always zero effort compared to what I get on reddit.

      I get the feeling its normal for lemmy users to create multiple accounts and use them to sort of multiply their votes. What’s worse is mods can see who is voting and so should be able to do something about it… so are they as guilty?

  • AeonFelis@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13·
    9 hours ago

    I feel like I didn’t really recognize having different “platforms” like Mastodon, PixelFed, etc would give multiple opportunities for the fediverse to make a “first” impression with people.

    Corporations have learned long ago the importance of properly identifying your audience, and the Fediverse is not exempt from that rule. Lemmy is the Fediverse version of Reddit and Mastodon is the Fediverse version of Twitter, and just like these two giants could live together with each other and also with Instagram without stepping on each other’s toes, so do their Fediverse versions can live with the Fediverse version of Instagram, PixelFed.

    Now we’re just missing a Fediverse version of Facebook.

    • 7toed@midwest.socialEnglish
      9·
      9 hours ago

      There is Friendica… yeah the name doesn’t roll of the tongue, and I only remember just for this comment… no shade to it

    • LandedGentry@lemmy.zipEnglish
      1·
      6 hours ago

      Same. It’s been fun! Just posting some of my film photography here and there, checking out other people’s 35mm work. 5-10min a day tops. It’s perfect

  • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
    4·
    9 hours ago

    I find it sort of shocking that you didn’t think people who use different types of social media would be swayed by non-micro blogging specific platforms. Nobody wants to join the fediverse because it’s the fediverse. They want to join something that’s fun and similar to what they’re used to.

    Micro blogging sucks. I hate it. I’ve always hated Twitter and none of that hate has come from anything related to who has owned it or their policies. I’ve just genuinely never felt a desire to communicate with 280 characters (historically 140). The discussion threads are also garbage and all over the place. Why would someone who is used to platforms like Reddit or Instagram want to use Mastodon?

    Has PixelFed done something different that Mastodon hasn’t?

    Yes, it’s done “not be a micro blogging platform”.

    I’m aware Mastodon doesn’t always have the same character limits that Twitter does, but that’s apart from the point.

    • rayyy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      7 hours ago

      I really enjoy Mastodon. Writers create threads to get around character limits. I actively search out others so I don’t need algorithms to chose for me. If you want spoon-fed it’s not for you though.

  • rumba@lemmy.zipEnglish
    13·
    13 hours ago

    Has PixelFed done something different that Mastodon hasn’t?

    Yes. The interface is good and familiar. The majority of the traffic is on one namespace where discoverability is good. Because of the nature of the medium, getting started with no algorithm is a lot easier to stomach than just looking at what your local people have to say.

    This is not to bash Mastodon, but they need that algo, which is why Bluesky is hoovering up users. Also, their UI, depending on the server is more tweetdeckish, which might scare off a lot of casuals.

    edit: I’ve been informed the bsky has no algo, so somehow they seem to be getting better results in discover, perhaps single name space or perhaps they have something behind the hood.

    Also, to start with, all the journalists FLOODED info, Mastodon, without any algo; you just got a hundred wordsmiths screaming past each other and they all immediately followed each other, so you couldn’t just find people like Jeff Jarvis, you got to see everyone he had a professional experience of which is WAY more than anyone is prepared to read :)

    • oldfart@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      55 minutes ago

      The main Mastodon instance with their official app has discoverability. The difference is so much different from what I normally use - a 3rd party app and a 3rd party instance

    • john89@lemmy.caEnglish
      1·
      10 hours ago

      Looks like pixelfed is just for pictures.

      Seems like it’s the instagram to mastadon’s twitter.

      • Allero@lemmy.todayEnglish
        1·
        2 hours ago

        It federates very well with Masto, it’s just that the latter focuses on text and Pixelfed on pictures.

        In fact, most of my Pixelfed feed comes from Mastodon.

    • merthyr1831@lemmy.mlEnglish
      3·
      13 hours ago

      Bluesky doesnt have an algorithm for its discover feed (the default), or at least it didn’t used to have one, but provides an API for building your own feeds which lets you do whatever you like.

      Bluesky’s big growth was from the fact it was, like PF, easy to use and easy to navigate, and all the content was on one namespace.

      Lemmy is an outlier imo. You can interact and repost and find content on different instances easily. Mastodon made following feeds from different instances nearly impossible which turned me off it permanently even if I believe in its value over Bluesky.

      • rumba@lemmy.zipEnglish
        4·
        13 hours ago

        Bluesky doesnt have an algorithm for its discover feed

        For not having one, my Discover feed was pretty dead on. Maybe just luck or maybe it was the right time for the right facebook influx.

        edit: they might have one https://www.reddit.com/r/BlueskySocial/comments/1g9zzca/bluesky_dosent_have_an_algorithm_so_what_is_the/

        Lemmy is an outlier

        Lemmy is damn close to Reddit’s mental design, but instead of 27 different subs for news on one place, there are 2-3 different places that have a news sub. news@here and news@there isn’t hard to grasp, I think the platform works remarkably well.

  • drapermache@lemmy.worldEnglish
    15·
    15 hours ago

    I’m excited. I’m one of those users, but I haven’t used it much because I can’t find followers. To be fair, I never used Instagram. I like the fediverse, I usually see the same articles get sent through other centralized communities other than reddit (tildes, hacker news, etc), but I enjoy the community discussion the best around here.

    • LandedGentry@lemmy.zipEnglish
      1·
      6 hours ago

      Go back to the absolute fundamentals of social media. Identify a few hashtags that have things you care about, for instance I browse a lot of #filmphotography posts.

    • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      16 hours ago

      Yeah, I never used Instagram or Twitter so getting started on Pixelfed or Mastodon seems a bit daughnting for me. But I assume it you like platforms like that, you just search out a few people you enjoy and then add more from their content and others do the same and eventually it’ll all click into what people had in those corporate owned and controlled products.

      • liv@lemmy.nzEnglish
        2·
        9 hours ago

        I had kind of the opposite. Never used instagram but for some reason pixelfed just felt right and I started posting there when I joined the fediverse.

        • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          8 hours ago

          Awesome, glad to have you here future friend. If you know of people that may be of interest to add for mastodon/loops/Pixelfed please let me know and don’t be shy, I am always open but haven’t found time to search

  • zaphod@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    37·
    22 hours ago

    Lemmy once had a massive influx of new users, a lot left again and monthly active users has remained somewhat constant for a long time now. Let’s wait and see how many people actually stay on PixelFed.

  • Martineski@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    381·
    1 day ago

    Lemmy is full of bad news, hate and toxicity while pixelfed is full of artists and people sharing cool pictures and their passion. Visiting my pixelfed account from 2023 a few days ago set such a contrast with what I see on lemmy that I started using it regularly. It really felt weird to visit such a wholesome place after using lemmy for a long time. Now I use pixelfed to balance out the bad stuff from lemmy for maintaining my mental health and to appreciate the art which is not common on lemmy.

    • ThunderLegend@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      221·
      23 hours ago

      I hear you. I’m getting tired of the massive amount of posts about trump and elon and politics. I don’t see almost any new content about other stuff.

      • billwashere@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        20 hours ago

        It’s like Reddit and you gotta filter out the bullshit. Adding Elon, Musk, Trump, and RFK to my block list improved my mental health quite a bit. Hopefully if it’s egregious enough it will slip through and I won’t be blind sided by some terrible thing they’re doing. That’s the only downside.

        • spookex@lemmy.worldEnglish
          6·
          17 hours ago

          The problem is that Lemmy isn’t at the point where I can browse it like I do on Reddit.

          After the API thing killed my main reddit app, I just lurk on like 4 1 million+ user sports/video game/military meme subreddits and check on them every 1h/30min to see 10 new posts or any important news that happened. I check r/all maybe like once every few months.

          The relevant lemmys just aren’t that active or don’t have low-effort post rules, so I’m kind of stuck browsing the front page of Lemmy if I want to see more than 10 posts per day

          • billwashere@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            14 hours ago

            This is very true unfortunately. Maybe eventually but my fear is that when Lemmy gets that big it turns into Reddit

      • Mubelotix@jlai.luEnglish
        7·
        22 hours ago

        Maybe you could try banning words like “elon” or “trump” if you feel overwhelmed. Some apps have this feature

        • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
          3·
          19 hours ago

          well, i’m against individual workarounds for common problems, there should be common solutions.

          otherwise you just start alienating 99% of the users who won’t put in the effort to install an extra app just to get that filtering, or if using the web interface on mobile, it’s just not possible.

    • Snoopy@peculiar.florist
      3·
      16 hours ago

      @Martineski @koncertejo
      Interesting, thank for your feedback.

      For our instance jlai.lu, we try to balance bad news with the forum libre, where we can share picture, movie, book, some daily game…i think it work pretty well because everyone share what they love.

      For News, we separated usa, israel-palestine from world news so it offers a place where anyone can post there or filter. And it let other communities breath.

    • ekZepp@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      23 hours ago

      Many groups of lemmy are full of political content but you can block them and still have a decent amount of contents.

      • Martineski@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        10·
        22 hours ago

        The political stuff is leaking into any other community though. I’ve already blocked every politics specific and news specific community and a handful other communities and I still get a lot of that. I’m also blocking a few keywords as well, this stuff just gets through regardless of what you do and in no small amount either.

  • Damage@feddit.itEnglish
    5·
    20 hours ago

    Is there a way to peruse pixelfed feeds from Lemmy or Mastodon? Or do I have to make yet another account?

    • leadore@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      14 hours ago

      Yes, you can follow a pixelfed account from your mastodon account and see their posts in your feed. Paste the url of their page into your mastodon search to bring up their profile, then you can view their posts and/or follow them.

      • Katana314@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        13 hours ago

        Yeah, but that’s not browsing; that’s targeting a specific account you want to view more of.

        • leadore@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          13 hours ago

          Oh, to browse all the posts rather than just one account’s, go to https://pixelfed.social/web/explore which should show pretty much everything. (that’s the main server with the most users by far, and any other PF servers are federated with it so most of theirs should show up there as well)

      • bufalo1973@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        13 hours ago

        That’s one thing that should be upgraded. There has to be a way to link your accounts in Lemmy, PixelFed, Mastodon, … so “follow” becomes “follow with” and choose the service.

        • leadore@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          13 hours ago

          There is something like that on most Mastodon pages where if you are viewing it just in your browser rather than from within your mastodon account, you can click Follow and it will ask for the server name you want to follow it from, so you have to enter your server name, then it will auto-open it in your Mastodon account for you.

          I don’t know that there’s much more anyone could do than that, since any given server you are viewing has no idea what various fedi accounts you may have. That’s kind of what “decentralized” means–there’s no central database keeping track of all your accounts.

    • teohhanhui@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      17 hours ago

      You can just open the Pixelfed links using your Mastodon instance:

      Open URL in Mastodon

    • RickyWars1@lemmy.caEnglish
      8·
      19 hours ago

      Well it doesn’t seem like there’s been another Reddit exodus, especially from looking at the user numbers for Lemmy. There hasn’t been a big screwup lately like with Meta or Twitter (but I think Bluesky is absorbing the Twitter refugees currently).