Guys check out pixelfed. Its better than Instagram.Same concept of fediverse as Lemmy and Mastodon.
Website: https://pixelfed.org
Servers: https://pixelfed.org/servers
Even has a android client called pixeldroid on fdroid.
I love the idea of this, but the only reason I check Instagram is to see what my friends are posting, which I couldn’t do on an alternative, sadly.
I use Instagram (well, Instander) for the bands I like. I wish I didn’t have to but it’s useful for these reasons. Ditched Facebook but unfortunately can’t loose them both 😤
Same for me. Same with Snap. I’ve never used SnapChat before, but once I actively went to parties it’s impossible to not use it.
Instagram differs from Reddit in the sense that most people use Instagram because that’s where their friends and family are. You’re posting more personal things there. An alternative doesn’t really work for most users if no one they know is using it. Good luck with the push, though.
Yeah this is the issue I have. I wouldn’t even be on instagram if it my friends weren’t on it. Pixelfed has a much tougher road to snatch users than a place like Lemmy or even Mastodon for that reason. If everyone I know hopped over with me (which let’s be real, I would never be able to get everyone to do that because they would run into the same issue with their own friend networks) then i’d gladly move over.
the best thing is for people like me who just used instagram to lurk it works really well with mastodon or calckey. just follow whoever you like and it’ll show up in your feed no problem
Pixelfed seems to only show Mastodon posts with an image attached. Which seems intuitive when you think about it, but the user profile page is a bit wonky as the summary line lists a different number of posts for the person than what it shows for that person’s feed. Vice versa, following Pixelfed profiles from Mastodon, seems much more consistent so far.
Hate the be a downer but I can’t see anyone but “tech savvy” people joining this. I can’t even get my sister to verify her Zelle account to get money I sent her. Having to choose a server is going to be wildly confusing to most people.
Out of curiosity how would you choose a server? I joined Lenny.ml as it was the first one I saw.
Maybe I should give it a try. I’ve been on instragram for like 10 years and I’m quite proud of the quality of content on my page (smartphone nature photography) but I only have like 23 followers and posting there seems like talking to trees. Why even bother if people rather watch short videos instead of photos.
For some unsolicited advice, you could do better with networking on Instagram through hashtags, following similar people and browsing their work. I posted desolate building photos for 2-3 years and ended up with ~500 followers, which isn’t really much but a lot more than 23.
They have made the algorithm steadily worse over the years, though. Back in 2013-2014 people I knew from a niche art community ended up with 5-50k and since then it has slowed down a huge amount. People whose followers increased by 20,000 from 2014-2016 have increased by maybe 3,000 in the subsequent 7 years.
Yeah I’ve been using hashtags but probably incorrectly because I’m tagging what’s actually on the photo and not what the popular hashtags are. I’m also posting quite irregularly.
I’m not trying to grow a big audience or anything. I’ll keep taking photos for myself nevertheless but I’d also like to share the best ones with others but with intagram it just feels like waste of time. On twitter I post about just as often but there I have 1600 followers (of which a significant portion is bots though)
If you want people to see your work, you have to find the popular hashtags for your niche. Check out photos by people who post similar stuff and see what they use. For my stuff I could have labeled them #door #abandonedbuilding or #oldstorefront but the tags in popular use are more like #facadelovers #windowshiding and #ihavethisthingwithwalls.
What are some good places to follow on Pixelfed? I haven’t had much luck finding accounts that appeal to me. I’d love to replace Instagram, but their algorithm is so damn good, and I’m struggling to find stuff that compares (which I’d expect since it doesn’t hold the same “influencer” weight and has a smaller community to begin with)
Oh I forgot about this. Just tried it, awesome. Low user count for my niche interest but I hope it can grow
I’m using Pixelffed to get replace Imgur and IG at the same time. One, it’s federated image site I can use to share image links on Lemmy. Two, while I haven’t found any of my social circle on there, it let’s me see all pictures posted throughout the Pixelfed fediverse while a lot from Mastodon. I like this feature because it helps me expand my exposure to users and images I wouldn’t have seen otherwise on IG.
They’re adding support to sign up to pixelfed with your mastodon account as well. Pretty neat.
https://mastodon.social/@dansup/110671802845980100Oh sweet!
Are there any mobile apps for pixelfed?
PixelDroid is the main app for Pixelfed. It is not the official app, that is still in development.
You can also login to pixelfed from https://tusky.app
@Yoz I’ve been on Pixelfed for about a year; highly enjoyable. All the good of instagram without the celebrities and “influencers”. I also follow my Pixelfed account from my mastodon so I can boost to all of my mastodon followers as well.
Love PixelFed, I just like chronological and tag based systems. This way every user gets an equal opportunity to be seen. Unlike what’s happening with recommendation systems, where only a few super stars are pushed by the algorithms. If anyone like traditional illustrations, here’s my profile: https://pixelfed.social/i/web/profile/495699973550816234
Taking a quick glance of Pixelfed now, and while I don’t think I quite understand it, I didn’t really understand Instagram either
Exactly what I’ve been looking for! Does it include photo editing tools?
I would need an app on the Play store though, my phone doesn’t allow sideloading.
Instagram also has a full account data export feature, and Pixelfed can import from that data. When I used it earlier this week it seemed to ignore my latest posts, which use the webp format instead of jpg or png. But since the import is processed server-side once they resolve that I should be able to import from the same zip and get just those missing posts.
I didn’t know this was possible! Thanks for sharing, will give this a try.
