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.
this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2023
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That really is an issue. Shave your head, put an orange robe on and evangelize... I'll try to convince as many people as possible in my friends circle!
This is actually why I’m excited for ActivityPub in Threads. I’m hoping that it can function as a gateway drug to the Fediverse.
“Like Threads? Then continue to follow all your friends there while moving to an ad-free Mastodon client!”
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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.
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.
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.
The only reason I use Instagram is to see my friends' statuses. I don't use Snapchat, so it's basically the only way for me to see what others are doing. Reddit didn't really have any personal aspect, so it was easy to switch to Lemmy. But I don't think I'm gonna leave Instagram anytime soon.
ditto for that. only in there to see friends and i havent posted for years.
I'm using a third party instagram app though. so, UP YOURS ZUCK THE ANDROID!
which app do you use?
yeah I need a 3rd party app for insta too Their official app is a privacy eating pest hence I use it on chrome android
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Unlike Lemmy, instagram and twitter rely heavily on their content creators.
No content creators, no followers, no traffic.
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.
Well, to be fair, Zelle sucks, but point taken.
Out of curiosity how would you choose a server? I joined Lenny.ml as it was the first one I saw.
Go to their homepage and see what the general vibe is of the posts, you can tell almost immediately what it's all about.
I joined after the Apollo debacle started with Reddit, so I joined what had the most users at that moment and it was lemmy.world. But I already had a good idea of how these federated apps work, so I wasn’t super worried about which I picked. I imagine a random normie instagram user would delete the app as soon as they saw the list of servers, if they even got that far.
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I don't really understand how that would work. I'm on Instagram because I follow some specific artists, collectives, companies, labels, etc., and secondarily for friends. If those are not on Pixelfed, what is there to follow?
Although Lemmy suffers of quite a content draught on less populated communities, it still works like Reddit since you follow topics, not people.
The only reason I use Instagram is because everyone I know IRL is on there.
Same with snapchat.
Same for me. Last time I posted there was eight years ago. I only keep it installed for the occasional message from an old friend.
I basically only use it to keep in contact with dealers because they somehow only want to use snapchat. It's not even encrypted.
BuT tHE mEssAGEs DiSaPPEar! So it has to be secure, who needs encryption anyways?
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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
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.
Yep you need pretty girls in your photos, shorts, reels, stories, 20hashtags per image, and co stant interaction bait just to gain some bot followers
I quit a few years back and do not miss it.
I mean, yes if your goal is to have many followers on Instagram. I mainly use Instagram to share stuff with family and friends, because this is the only app which all of them use.
What's your Instagram address?
Or better: open a second parallel account on Pixelfed. And let us know your account.
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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)
They're adding support to sign up to pixelfed with your mastodon account as well. Pretty neat.
https://mastodon.social/@dansup/110671802845980100
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Unfortunately, I can't say the same thing that happened with reddit can happen with instagram/snapchat/Twitter simply because their users don't give a fuck. The familiarity and existence of large content creators on those platforms create a much greater reluctance for their users to make the switch. Better alternatives for all have existed for years and yet no change took place because quality or ideology just wasn't the reason people preferred those apps. It was what it is and even for me, similar to many people, making the swith just isn't sensible as it wouldn't mean shit without convincing 300+ people im connected to to make the switch with me and then again, they don't care.
@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.
I've never used Instagram before but I would like to start posting photos, however the vibe I'm getting from Pixelfed is this is a medium for photography art. I'm learning to facet gemstones and thought it would be cool to do photos of my gems that I cut to show my talent progress. Would that kind of non-photography art fit in on Pixelfed?
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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.
The two servers in the UK are a furry server and a Scotland server....
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Thanks for the recommendation! Trying it out and liking it so far :)
Is there an iOS client app for it?
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 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.
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