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.

  • AeonFelis@lemmy.worldEnglish
    19·
    2 days 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.

    • LandedGentry@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2·
      2 days 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

  • unalivejoy@lemm.eeEnglish
    10·
    2 days ago

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

    • prodajvodapavel@aggregatet.orgEnglish
      1·
      14 hours ago

      Probably 99% of them.

      Just trying to get in early so they can become “influencers.”

      Make no mistake, this is all about money.

    • bradd@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 days 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?

  • zaphod@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    36·
    2 days 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.

  • rumba@lemmy.zipEnglish
    13·
    2 days 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
      2·
      2 days 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

    • merthyr1831@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      2 days 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·
        2 days 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.

    • john89@lemmy.caEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      Looks like pixelfed is just for pictures.

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

      • chramies@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 day ago

        It’s probably closer to IG than any other Fediverse app is to its non-Fediverse equivalent. Although introducing Collections and possibly Groups might make it more versatile and give it Flickr features (though not perhaps the comprehensive picture info and ability to download the original).

      • Allero@lemmy.todayEnglish
        1·
        2 days 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.

  • drapermache@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16·
    2 days 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
      2·
      2 days 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·
      2 days 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
        3·
        2 days 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
          2·
          2 days 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

  • MysticKetchup@lemmy.worldEnglish
    160·
    3 days ago
    1. The official Pixelfed app just has a nicer looking UI
    2. There’s not really a competing app for people leaving Insta like there is Bluesky vs Mastodon
    3. Pixelfed’s content is mostly visual so it’s easily digestible to casual users and you don’t have to scroll past dry Fedi arguments
    4. Better discover features so users don’t have to do a bunch of legwork to find who to follow

    Just my guesses though, but like any social media it really depends on if big creators will switch and if users stick with it over time

    • hoshikarakitaridia@lemmy.worldEnglish
      32·
      3 days ago

      This.

      Discovery and user abstraction are Lemmy’s biggest issues and we are not addressing them to the degree we should.

      I know there’s some stuff on all those centralized platforms that’s way over the top, but most of it is actually pretty helpful. And you’ll miss it once you switch here.

      • JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nlEnglish
        7·
        2 days ago

        Discovery? Interesting thought.

        I tried out pixelfed and the pixelix app for the past couple weeks.

        The “discovery” page on the official app is worse than useless. It shows almost nobody with over 10 followers, highlighting one person with 50-100 followers, then shows “popular on the fediverse” which are thumbnails of posts of the people it just recommended. It always recommends at least 5 of the same people day after day, week after week, even people you already follow.

        The official app can’t even show a global feed so it is literally impossible to discover new people unless you know their name and specifically search for them, or they are recommended by luck on the discover page (of which there are multiple repeats per day, so not likely)

        Pixelix at least allows you to view a global feed though. Definitely a better experience, but Lemmy discovery is not any worse than that.

        • Quicky@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          2 days ago

          The Discovery section in Pixelfed definitely needs work, but the ability to follow hashtags offsets that somewhat. I’ve found loads of great photographers to follow off the back of following hashtags that I’m interested in.

      • Chloé 🥕@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        6·
        3 days ago

        yup… (at least in the stable channel)

        what’s most infuriating is that it used to have it but at some point they redesigned the app and made it worse…?

        you don’t have to imitate instagram that much, dansup

        • breakfastmtn@lemmy.caEnglish
          5·
          2 days ago

          I think it was more that he wanted to open source the app but had built it while he was learning so it was pretty messy and he felt insecure about it. So he rebuilt the app from scratch and open-sourced it. It just isn’t quite at feature parity to the old app yet. Pretty sure dark mode is coming in the next update though.

          • Chloé 🥕@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
            2·
            2 days ago

            oooh, yea that’s a good point

            and, I mean, the app was in beta, sudden changes are to be expected

            but still, I feel like the app was so much better before… its kinda frustrating

            • breakfastmtn@lemmy.caEnglish
              3·
              2 days ago

              Agreed. It immediately went from being maybe the best app in the Fediverse to the 3rd best for its own service. I stopped using Pixelfed altogether until Pixelix got good enough to be a replacement.

              I honestly don’t understand how getting the new app to feature parity with the old wasn’t maximum priority. It at least seems like it’s going to get there pretty soon.

    • P4ulin_Kbana@lemmy.eco.brEnglish
      3·
      3 days ago

      I don’t think Mastodon was really competing with Bluesky. Bluesky is way ahead while Fediverse fanboys thought people would somehow just learn to use Mastodon. (while they wouldn’t shut up about Bluesky)

  • Martineski@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    40·
    3 days 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
      23·
      2 days 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
        9·
        2 days 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·
          2 days 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
            3·
            2 days 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·
        2 days 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·
          2 days 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.

    • ekZepp@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 days 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
        11·
        2 days 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.

  • poVoq@slrpnk.netEnglish
    91·
    3 days ago

    The tide lifts all the boats… there is also a noticeable uptick in Lemmy registrations, at least here on our instance.

  • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
    4·
    2 days 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
      2·
      2 days 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.

  • Feathercrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
    47·
    3 days ago

    We can’t want the Fediverse to get bigger but be scared of normies when it does. I say welcome in! We should be mindful to listen to the new recruits, because their feedback is the most unbiased.

  • imaqtpie@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    54·
    3 days ago

    Pixelfed’s monthly userbase has gone from 15k to almost 300k in the past month. Absolutely massive for the fediverse.

    I’ll probably try it out eventuallyTM