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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

#71

Post by jcfrei »

I think I understand the mission: A federated alternative to instagram where anybody can create a server which is accessible to other users on the fediverse network (doesn't have to be pixelfed). But I don't think this is the right approach. If the public really wants to compete with large internet corporations then there needs to be a single non-profit organization akin to the Wikimedia Foundation which runs these social media applications. Of course it's both legally and technically a less resilient setup than a federated network. But you are never going to cause a significant part of the population to switch to a federated image sharing platform - not least because most users aren't going to understand the concept.

If you really want people to move away from social networks run by for-profit corporations then you need a single non-profit organization with a charismatic leadership, a captivating mission statement and lots of people to create public awareness.

Re: Pixelfed – An alternative to centralized image sharing platforms

#72

Post by aasasd »

evolve2k wrote: post #27
wicket wrote: post #23

> Registrations are closed. I think the lack of a common name/URL is the biggest problem that is preventing federated open source social networks from gaining mass popularity. I remember when identi.ca came out as an alternative to Twitter. It seemed like it was starting to gain some traction, then they switched to pump.io and closed registrations. I haven't heard of anyone using either since. Look at Diaspora, that…

> Which pod do I choose? That is actually a great UX question. For federated services how do you think we best solve this? I mean everyone wants to just not pick one. But different loss suits people better in terms of location/interests/something else. UX folks, what patterns would you suggest to help solve this?

Funny enough, choosing a node wasn't such a show-stopper for users ten years ago and before. I've used local email services in my backwater town, hanged out on local forums. The entirety of Fidonet was built on people connecting to their acquaintances—and it was rather popular here almost until the 2000s.

As for the present, I'm sorta baffled that the anarchic dream of decentralization turned into not-quite-that-cool federation where you're tied to an instance, instead of the identity working across the net. If my chosen server goes down, I'd love to be able to just move to another one with my keys.

Re: Pixelfed – An alternative to centralized image sharing platforms

#74

Post by byproxy »

uptown wrote: post #65
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. :)

Check out Koken for self-hosting photo albums. It's pretty great: http://koken.me/

There is also https://www.textile.photos/ , for a more decentralized approach.

Re: Pixelfed – An alternative to centralized image sharing platforms

#75

Post by StudentStuff »

AJRF wrote: post #69

Thoughts on federated services; Just silly ramblings that hopefully open up a discussion because god knows I don't have the answers, but I do have ideas. 1. How do I get my friends to use them - Solution? Maybe we now live in a world where privacy being part of the public discourse would enable something wonderful like a rich person who cares about this to spend for an ad campaign altruistically (I'm thinking in the…

I've not done anything beyond linking friends to funny/high quality posts on the Fediverse, and already a few have made the jump. For many instances, there is a very high signal to noise ratio that is an enticing factor for outsiders to join (if the user shares the interests of the instance).

The UX for boosting, replying and interacting with users on other instances is pretty straightforward, you merely fill your handle once when trying to boost/reply to a post found on another instance (if you don't follow or otherwise have a copy of that toot on your local instance) and it will OAuth (IIRC) to boost/like, or redirect you to your instance if you chose the reply option (with said toot your replying to pulled up). Overall pretty slick IMO.

One factor in this is there is generally not a wall between linking users to content on the fediverse, and them being able to view it. No Quora, Twitter or Facebook full screen popups that cut off reading a thread or toot, just here's the thread :P

Open linking/access to public toots unlike other "social" media is a big differentiator.

Re: Pixelfed – An alternative to centralized image sharing platforms

#77

Post by Aeolun »

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…

It also subverts the idea if users are on no instance at all.

Re: Pixelfed – An alternative to centralized image sharing platforms

#78

Post by Haydos585x2 »

deft wrote: post #16
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…

It is an instagram knockoff. I think they are avoiding the fediverse mention on purpose in order to get users by just marketing it as an alternative without any special magic. This about page as a landing page is really confusing but the homepage doesn't do much better... Also registration is closed so this is a really strange time to be advertising

The federation side of it is pretty new and Dan wants to have the core product sorted, including security testing before federation is really pushed. There's a new post UI coming soon that looks really good.

Re: Pixelfed – An alternative to centralized image sharing platforms

#79

Post by dawnerd »

holler wrote: post #76
muvek wrote: post #5

Twitter alternatives (mastodon), instagram alternative (pixelfed), reddit alternative (prismo.news)... Things are looking great!

check out sqwok, new & starting beta https://sqwok.im

Gross, broke back navigation on my trackpad.
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