CNET: Fed Up With Instagram? How to Move Your Photos to Pixelfed

submitted by Blaze (he/him)

www.cnet.com/news/social-media/fed-up-with-inst…

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31 Comments

spaduf

Crossposted over to reddit. Posting here worked really well last time so:

If you're on reddit and don't mind being a fediverse evangelist, please go hit this thread:

https://reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1i7kbvt/fed_up_with_instagram_how_to_move_your_photos_to/

Blaze (he/him) [OP]

We should probably have a dedicated community for that

spaduf

Eh I'm not sure this is something we should be doing normally, but I'm thinking of this moment as more or less an emergency. That said, I certainly wouldn't mind a place to share resources and graphics for getting people switched over.

Blaze (he/him) [OP]

Yeah, that could be considered brigading, and Reddit might monitor that and just remove entire threads

FundMECFSResearch , edited

I was in a group like that at one point for countering COVID disinformation.

The best solution we found was a private discord server on an invite only basis.

For the fediverse, Matrix works well.

JaggedRobotPubes

Occasional comments here and there are probably better.

ggwithgg , edited

What I notice is that people really like the 'my story' functionality of instagram. It's a nice way to share some random stuff, without it being on the internet 'exposed forever and for everybody'. And you can share also something with only close friends, or just followers, etc

I really hate zuck, but I don't think pixelfed has such a functionality yet, right? I feel that, or just something similar, is sort of a main key to getting people make a transition from instagram.

Bluesky/mastodon transition is going pretty well though

Otter

Part of the problem is that pixelfed feeds are public, and in order for private posts/feeds to work you'd need the other user to be on the same instance as you

Signal has stories, although I don't see many people using them. If more people were on signal, it might get more use?

ggwithgg

Well, whatsapp has stories also, but I don't see people using them. I don't like to give my phone number to everybody. And it is very easy if someone has a profile, to look them up and send a follow request. That stuff you won't find with signal stories.

Though, pixelfed lacking stories should be possible to overcome right, given the protocol. If two users can handshake, and the instances accept the handshake, then they should in theory be allowed to send each other stuff. Like, in other fediverse platforms you can also send private messages

Otter , edited

Well, whatsapp has stories also, but I don't see people using them. I don't like to give my phone number to everybody. And it is very easy if someone has a profile, to look them up and send a follow request. That stuff you won't find with signal stories.

That's a good reason yea

Though, pixelfed lacking stories should be possible to overcome right, given the protocol. If two users can handshake, and the instances accept the handshake, then they should in theory be allowed to send each other stuff. Like, in other fediverse platforms you can also send private messages

The problem I think is that we can't guarantee that the other federated instances will respect the private setting, or the risk that other instance admins might be snooping on the posts.

A proper E2E solution would be ideal

nasi_goreng

Usage levels is depends on different community.

At least in Indonesia and other SEA countries, WhatsApp stories has widespread usage. All of my family (especially older ones) are regularly share things there, even just saying "Good Morning" or their daily activities.

mipadaitu

I'm confused about signal stories. I tried to use it while I was on vacation, but it looked like I had to push it to people? You definitely have to whitelist who can see it.

breakfastmtn

It does have stories but they aren't supported on the apps yet and don't have the editing function that IG does. It doesn't have the "close friends" thing though.

spaduf

What I notice is that people really like the ‘my story’ functionality of instagram. It’s a nice way to share some random stuff, without it being on the internet ‘exposed forever and for everybody’. And you can share also something with only close friends, or just followers, etc

It does have stories just not supported in the official app yet.

3dmvr

well that was them robbing snapchat either way, I do want loops to intergrate with it for video, I like reels, the algorithim is very good, my main page only gets funny stuff, my 3d page only gets cool art (sadly a ton of loweffort ai these days, i still like high effort ai mixed with simulations)

MisterFrog

Thank you for voicing this opinion. The fact so much of the fediverse is just public just makes it impossible to sell for real identity social media.

Really curious why the community in the fediverse hardly talks about it.

I'm really holding out hope for someone to pickup Futo Circles or something else that's an e2ee replacement for Facebook / Instagram.

3dmvr

Does it have chat groups and dms? That not being in mastadon is why I wont tell my friends to use it.

pelespirit

Does that mean that every instance is populated with my photos? Meaning, if I change instances or mine goes down, will I still have my pics?

sheodox

I don't think so, at least when I scroll my pixelfed feed it loads images from various domains.

browser dev tools network tab showing various domains

shininghero

There is a procedure for migrating profiles and posts to new instances, if the old instance is still up.

And on the admin side, there's established time frames and grace periods for server closures. Barring a big disaster, you'll have time to move your stuff.

GrumpyDuckling

After seeing that the creator of Pixelfed is also the single Deb dev of two other big projects and is trying to crowdsourse money for it, in a bit hesitant until they allow other people to work on the project and make sure it's not just a pump and dump.

spaduf

They've gained several maintainers since it took off! Hopefully Dansup can transition to a more sustainable model soon though.

corroded

Here's an idea: Save your photos on your phone or computer. Back them up periodically. Send them over SMS or email to your friends and family if you think they're worth sharing. Stop relying on social media to give the the dopamine rush that you could be getting by actually doing something useful.

nasi_goreng

Here's an idea: Some people enjoy sharing things for close friends and family with a single post. Also helps building lost connection. There are already private Pixelfed instance for close family only.

SMS and email only works for single or small group interaction.

slumberlust

Triangle of choice. Sounds like you are hesitant to give up one thing in exchange for less social media control. How do we make things better then, assuming everyone has a different thing they are unwilling to sacrifice?

nasi_goreng

Striping all algorithm, ads, and any other harmful system, social media is simply a way to keep track and update hundreds of people and relation that you know.

You can use it as a tool, without being addicted or dependant on it.

slumberlust , edited

That's true of drugs and gambling too. Would you support removing any government restrictions on those?

cm0002

Oh neat, the Fediverse is on a CNET article lmao, now we just need to make it to the NYT or something lolol

FeelThePower

sadly the main thing that keeps me from switching to most decentralised things is the lack of a private account.

MisterFrog

Me too, the second one shows up, or PixelFed gets e2ee implemented, I would seriously start asking people to join.

Until then, what's the point? (Unless you want to share publically)

unalivejoy

The only reason I even *have* an instagram account is because my apartment did virtual tours with it during COVID. No big deal for me to archive all my non-existent posts :)