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.

  • haui@lemmy.giftedmc.comEnglish
    2·
    3 days ago

    Tbh I feel a little queasy about the change of tone but thats how it goes with influx of people. I‘ll keep my strict anti tech bro stance and will rapidly block any bigots as I always have. People can of course say and do what they please here and I‘m not gonna stop them. But i also am not forced to listen to it. Thats very incompatible to the outside world so clash is inevitable imho.

  • AeonFelis@lemmy.worldEnglish
    21·
    7 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.

  • rumba@lemmy.zipEnglish
    14·
    7 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 :)

    • merthyr1831@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      7 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·
        7 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.

    • oldfart@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      6 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

    • john89@lemmy.caEnglish
      1·
      7 days ago

      Looks like pixelfed is just for pictures.

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

      • chramies@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        6 days 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·
        7 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.

  • unalivejoy@lemm.eeEnglish
    11·
    7 days ago

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

    • bradd@lemmy.worldEnglish
      32·
      7 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?

      • Kichae@lemmy.caEnglish
        3·
        5 days ago

        I mean, there’s limited content, and Lemmy hasn’t attracted the same kind of personality as modern Reddit. It makes total sense that things would be upvoted quickly, but comments would be sparse or short.

        People patted themselves on the back when they showed up for being “old reddit” and “power users”, but most of us were just cranky phone users who didn’t want to use the official app. Lemmy users are not the boistrous, verbose philosophers people wanted to believe they were.

        We’re scrollers, sitting on the toilet.

  • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
    4·
    7 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
      21·
      7 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.

  • MysticKetchup@lemmy.worldEnglish
    167·
    8 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
      353·
      8 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.

        • kate@lemmy.uhhoh.comEnglish
          131·
          8 days ago

          Relates to what server an account is on and how it affects the experience. Most people don’t want to know/care

          • biofaust@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            7 days ago

            Oh thanks for giving me a proper term to use when pointing at my biggest problem with the Fediverse.

            Has it ever been discussed by any developers? Is it technically possible for ActivityPub? Would the costs be exorbitant?

            • kate@lemmy.uhhoh.comEnglish
              4·
              7 days ago

              There are different options to solve this. The current “solve” is to dump everyone on one big server. Mastodon.social, lemmy.world, etc.

              Another solution might be a button that sends you to a random top10 instance. Might work for mastodon but lemmy servers defederate like hell and some of the biggest instances are .ml, hexbear, etc.

              XMPP has this tiered list https://providers.xmpp.net/ but it’s the same problem of expecting users to care what a server is

              I don’t have solution, and if you do then I’m not the person you should be telling :)

              • phlegmy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                1·
                5 days ago

                An ‘ideal’ solution might require a complete redesign on how federation works.

                Something like a more decentralised network where you don’t have a ‘home’ instance.
                An instance would be more like a relay into a ‘core’ network, and you could swap between them at any time.

                It’d probably require your account info to be public though, so passwords wouldn’t be possible to implement in a foolproof way.

                Instead of signing in, your device could generate a public/private keypair on signup.
                The whole network would have your public key, and only content/actions that your device signs would be propagated on the network.

                Sorry, you probably don’t care about my ideas lol. Just thinking out loud I guess.

      • JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nlEnglish
        7·
        7 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·
          7 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·
        8 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·
          7 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·
            7 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·
              7 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
      32·
      8 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)

  • poVoq@slrpnk.netEnglish
    95·
    8 days ago

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

    • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
      47·
      8 days ago

      The tide lifts all the boats…

      Exactly. I do not care much for Pixelfed. Or Mastodon. Or Friendica. Or really much of anything other than Lemmy. But I just stood up my own PixelFed server, so if someone wants to get away from Meta, I will happily support their decision (and pixelfed.social’s server by offloading resources) and they can find me there.

    • simple@lemm.eeEnglish
      27·
      8 days ago

      Yup, I spotted a few Lemmy accounts that were less than a week old recently. Very nice.

    • wise_pancake@lemmy.caEnglish
      14·
      8 days ago

      This makes sense to me.

      All these people had to pick an instance and now probably understand how to do that.

      That’s the biggest hurdle to signing up for lemmy or mastodon.

      • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.worldEnglish
        19·
        8 days ago

        Me in 2024: “Which one is the main one?”

        “There is no main one”

        “Which one is the biggest?”

        “Lemmy.World”

        “Thats the one for me!”

        “THATS NOT HOW YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO DO IT!!!”

        “…but that’s what I did.”

        • small44@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          6 days ago

          Here, the issue. People don’t feel like small instances would live for long and migrating do not transfer the old posts so people feel more safe subscribing to the large instances

        • mesamunefire@piefed.socialEnglish
          7·
          8 days ago

          Some people care, most don’t. Lemmy.world is the vanilla ice cream of the fediverse. Thanks for being part of the community!

          • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.worldEnglish
            5·
            8 days ago

            I like vanilla ice cream. It’s a great base. Maybe today you throw some butterscotch and peacans on it! But tomorrow it’s caramel and fudge, and the next day it’s chocolate chip cookie dough, and yhe day after that it’s whipped cream and strawberry syrup. And the day after that it’s chocolate sauce with peanuts.

            Meanwhile, the guy who got chocolate just ate the same bowl of ice cream for 5 days.

            See it’s kind of like sex, too. Some people just do the same thing over and over. But what I do, is I take some handcuffs, and chains, and baby oil, and some… trails off

            And that kids, is how I met your Mother!

    • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝@feddit.ukEnglish
      2·
      7 days ago

      Yeah, we usually tick along at 1 or 2 sign-ups a day, 7 days ago that went to 10 and has settled back to 3 or 4.

      I don’t know if they are coming directly from Pixelfed but there were a few high profile posts about the Fediverse over at The Bad Place, so, following the example of @Blaze@feddit.org, a few of us jumped in to do some missionary work/help man the lifeboats.

  • imaqtpie@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    58·
    8 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

  • Feathercrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
    48·
    8 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.