Skip Navigation
150 comments

  • 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 like pixelfed. I have a pixelfed account, and feature-wise, I see how it could replace someone's use of instagram, but personally, I was never on instagram for its features. I was on instagram because I made friends in real life who I couldn't keep in touch with in absolutely any other way. Meanwhile, I am on pixelfed because I like the idea of a federated social media platform based around images, but I have zero connections on that platform.

    I posted to it twice. Then, I realized that, unless I could convince the people that I knew on instagram to join pixelfed, it would never be the same experience, so I stopped. I would just rather post pictures to my mastodon account which has more reach than my pixelfed. The concept of an image based social media platform is less compelling when you don't know anyone there, and this is what Meta is banking on.

    Sure, there are alternatives to Instagram that are better, but all of my IRL friends & family are on Meta platforms already and don't want to leave 🤷‍♀️, so what's the point? Even if I manage to convince someone that it is important, they might bail at some point because they can't convince the people they know from instagram to join the alternative, and that's how it is all down the line: friction, friction, friction.

    • Here's a good reason. Since Facebook likes to spy on you, I put Instagram on my work profile on Android, effectively sandboxing it. I'd had the account for several years at this point. Just the other day, it told me that my account had been flagged for violating the rules and trying to access data I wasn't supposed to have access to. It asked me to upload an image of myself with a code written on a piece of paper to prove I wasn't a bot, and they still deleted my profile and said I was acting as a bot and that I could not appeal the decision or talk to a human about it.

      I agree it's a bit of a pain to get people to join these nerd apps, but man, it beats dealing with non-interactive bot/algorithm, punishing you for fighting back against having your information stolen.

    • I think you’re spot on. I use Instagram for one niche sport I do, hydrofoil surfing. Everyone who foils is on there, and as a result the development speed of this 5-year-old sport is incredible. Someone in Australia invents a new maneuver, posts a video of it, and a few hours later while they’re sleeping people in America are trying it out.

      None of that is happening on pixelfed. I tried it out too, and, meh. There’s just nothing interesting on there, and it’s too complicated to explain to non techies. So there’s a huge barrier to entry and no compelling reason to surmount it. Heck, I have an advanced degree in informatics and I barely made it over the choose an instance wall. My perma-stoned surfing buddies don’t stand a chance.

  • 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)

  • 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

  • I never used Instagram. I've tried Pixelfed and I don't quite get it. Sure, you post pictures with captions, but I feel like there is emptiness. When I scroll through my followed users, I just see some art and photographs. I don't know if I'm doing anything wrong, but Pixelfed doesn't seem very active for me.

  • I love seeing pictures of the world from other people's perspective. Urban shots. Nature shots. Any old boring shots like just a side road you walk down, or a tree you like to sit under. I like being able to see the quiet places in the world as well as the loud ones.

    If that describes a lot of anyone's posts, add me there and I will follow you back https://pixelfed.social/i/web/profile/577121287304400256

  • I do enjoy Pixelfed, but export is a bit limited right now. If you have more than 500 posts, you can't (as far as I can tell) export your data, Not that I want to at the moment, but I do like to take backups of my stuff just in case. I imagine the dev is working the issue, though.

  • 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.

  • It definitely is a good alternative for the original Instagram idea (a place for photographers to share their pictures) before Meta bought Insta and turned it into Facebook 2.0.

  • Oh I forgot about this. Just tried it, awesome. Low user count for my niche interest but I hope it can grow

  • I wanna give it a try, but I've been looking at the servers and I haven't found the one for me and what I'll use the account for. Nor do I know of any account on a pixelfed server I could be interested in following...to just follow accounts on completely different federated servers it wouldn't make any sense to me.

  • 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.

  • I made an account on 2 servers and downloaded 3 different apps for it and it's not working but I'll try again later

  • Is there even a proper mobile app for Android and iOS yet? Pixelfed won’t take off because the concept is dependent on a smartphone app.

150 comments