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Pixelfed – An alternative to centralized image sharing platforms

pixelfed.social

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Re: Pixelfed – An alternative to centralized image sharing platforms

#51

Post by Kovah »

jedberg wrote: post #13

I clicked the link and... have no idea what this is. It looks like instagram maybe? I can't even figure out how to figure out what it is. The only clickable thing I see is "@admin" which just takes me to what looks like an Instagram page. It doesn't even mention fediverse on that page, and even if it did, you'd have to know what the fediverse is. This feels like a huge barrier to adoption for them beyond the nerdiest…

To be fair, Pixelfed is in its early shoes. I know it from a "alternatives to Facebook etc." list but it still has to gain some traction mike Mastodon. However - and that's the problem - as long as you build an ethical service you probably won't reach the masses, because non-ethical platforms will always outperform you, and if it's just by how much they spend on marketing.

Re: Pixelfed – An alternative to centralized image sharing platforms

#52

Post by kpcyrd »

coldacid wrote: post #50
r3bl wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author posts regular updates on Mastodon that I follow. From my understanding, federation is relatively new, and he seems to focus on expanding the functionalities of the core product right now instead of focusing on the presentation. So indeed, it is a bit of an awkward time for it to be on the front page here.

What's the author's handle? I'd be interested in following to see what's happening.

https://mastodon.social/@dansup

Re: Pixelfed – An alternative to centralized image sharing platforms

#53

Post by Kovah »

acdw wrote: post #19
grumpy-cowboy wrote: post #7

I'm in the process to move out mass-surveillance social sites like FB, Twitter, Google, ... I'm about to install my own Matrix and ActivityPub nodes (Mastodon, Pleroma, PeerTube, ...) on a cheap VPS. I also have my own email domain hosted at Fastmail.com (I don't want to manage an email server). This way I'll manage MY own data. I'll share it with who I want. And it's a fun project. :)

Could you share a bit what VPS you'll use to host your ActivityPub? I've been wanting to do this too, but I have no idea at all where to begin.

As there are simply no providers yet who offers ready-to-install packages of all these services (at least I don't know one), you go with that service you trust and that suits you best. Some examples for relatively cheap VPS are Digitalocean, Vultr, Linode or, if you want to host somewhere "safe": Exoscale, which has datacenter in Switzerland and Germany.

Re: Pixelfed – An alternative to centralized image sharing platforms

#55

Post by Deimorz »

Quanttek wrote: post #48
AsyncAwait wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://tildes.net doesn't seem to be federated. Is it?

How do you get an account there?

Just send me an email - the address and more info about the site are in the announcement post (offer's open to anyone else that's interested too): https://blog.tildes.net/announcing-tildes

I send out invites daily. It's not intended to be difficult to get an account, I just want to prevent it from getting out of control when it gets a huge burst of attention due to situations like a subreddit getting banned.

Re: Pixelfed – An alternative to centralized image sharing platforms

#56

Post by Deimorz »

codetrotter wrote: post #39
AsyncAwait wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://tildes.net doesn't seem to be federated. Is it?

I don’t think so, no. They probably would have said so if it was. I wonder if they are open to patches that would make it federated.

I've got a note about this in the FAQ (https://docs.tildes.net/faq#why-isnt-tildes-decentralizeddis...):

> Why isn't Tildes decentralized/distributed/federated?

> Decentralized communities are interesting and have a lot of potential, but that model also introduces its own problems and difficulties. Tildes is already attempting to do quite a few things differently to improve the quality of online communities, and I'm more interested in focusing on those goals without introducing the additional complexity of decentralization.

> However, since Tildes is open-source, someone else could certainly use it as a base for their own decentralized version.

I'm not interested in running a decentralized version myself, but I'd love to see someone else try to make it work.

Re: Pixelfed – An alternative to centralized image sharing platforms

#57

Post by messo »

an4rchy wrote: post #28

On first glance, looks like a decentralized Instagram. A couple of questions: - What is the business model? If millions of people are on this and there's no ads/monetization -- how is the service covering costs? - If people had to pay, then it might limit adoption, how are you going to handle that? - How are you guys thinking about support, monitoring content (removing illegal/copyrighted content)

There is no corporation and no business model, and that's by design. Each instance can do what it wants regarding covering the cost of running the server. I plan to set up my own instance on my modest homelab for family and friends, and will not charge anything. Some bigger instances might choose to offer a certain amount of free storage before requiring to pitch in to cover the costs. My guess is that a big majority of instances will be populated by 10-200 users, give or take, which would be feasible to keep running with minimal cost and a modest amount of administration.

Regarding moderation; I'll keep my family and friends under control and bigger instances will have to delegate moderation rights to trusted members of that community – much like on any forum. It's a far more sustainable model compared to the nightmare Facebook and Twitter, which is relying heavily on algorithms and outsourcing.

Re: Pixelfed – An alternative to centralized image sharing platforms

#58

Post by screaminghawk »

Roujo wrote: post #30
soared wrote: post #25

> Registrations are closed. Can someone explain this?

As I recall the idea was to promote looking for a Pixelfed instance with a community that fits your needs and interests, which in turn makes the network stronger by distributing the userbase over a variety of servers. Keeping registrations open on what is often perceived as an "official" instance can lead to that instance getting most of the new users of the network, since it's usually the one you'll find if you sear…

That's a nice thought. I'm the kind of user that's going to give up and move on if my first attempt fails, and I imagine I'm in the majority here.

Re: Pixelfed – An alternative to centralized image sharing platforms

#59

Post by Quanttek »

Deimorz wrote: post #55
Quanttek wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you get an account there?

Just send me an email - the address and more info about the site are in the announcement post (offer's open to anyone else that's interested too): https://blog.tildes.net/announcing-tildes I send out invites daily. It's not intended to be difficult to get an account, I just want to prevent it from getting out of control when it gets a huge burst of attention due to situations like a subreddit getting banned.

Thank you! I reached out
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