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.
I suspect image browsing is less reliant on specific content creators, so Pixelfed probably has an advantage there compared to something like Mastodon. You’re only going to move to Mastodon if the people you wanna follow are there too, while if you’re for example just looking to browse pictures of food and cats you don’t really care who is posting so you’re not as reluctant to try Pixelfed.
I don’t use either Instagram or Pixelfed though so might be totally off base here.
What? I respectfully disagree. The reason I struggled to stay on Pixelfed, and recently Loops too, is because as a new user all I was seeing was classical art, and landscapes (and the odd weirdo) but nothing actually entertaining. Loops at least has people copying stuff from TikTok. I’m not condoning that behaviour, I’m just saying as a casual new user, that was pretty much the most compelling content.
Maybe I was doing it wrong, but IMHO the content creators are the core of any social media. Pixelfed and Loops will both live or die by the creators they attract
ETA: I love weirdos by the way, that wasn’t meant as a negative. If anything, more please!
I never vibed with Twitter or Instagram, so I struggled with both Mastodon and Pixelfed. It wasn’t until I started looking for content based around my hobbies that Pixelfed really started becoming interesting to me. That, and having the ability to be absolutely deluged in pictures of cats if I need a morale boost. Mastodon is still something that I’m having trouble getting value out of. I may just end up being a Lemmy and Pixelfed user.