Category: Mastodon

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Pixelfed’s Charm: A Haven for Creatives

I’ve been interested in photography since I co-opted my father’s Kodak 620 camera as a young boy. I used it to take pictures of the flora and fauna of our neighborhood. My love of photography led me to an Instamatic camera in high school and eventually to digital cameras as they entered the marketplace in the late 1990s. Now, I use an iPhone 15 to snap pictures of scenes that inspire me. I started using Instagram in 2011 when my daughter suggested it. I have over 4800 posts, but increasingly, the platform is driven by algorithms prompting me to buy products or serve me AI-generated images that fail to capture my imagination.

What if there was a social media platform that is as vibrant and visual as Instagram but without constant ads, data mining, and profit-driven motives? Enter Pixelfed—a decentralized, open-source alternative offering fresh air in social networking. Whether you are a seasoned photographer, an aspiring artist, or a social media enthusiast seeking a more ethical and community-focused platform, Pixelfed provides a visually stunning way to share your moments and connect with like-minded individuals.

Joining Pixelfed is easy! Go to the Pixelfed flagship instance Pixelfed.social and choose sign-in with Mastodon.

Screen picture by Don Watkins CC by SA 4.0

Your avatar, bio, username, and followed accounts from Mastodon will be automatically imported, saving you time and effort. The Pixelfed blog documents the process for signing in with your Mastodon account.

Once logged in to the web, you can choose the ‘Discover’ button on the left and find other Pixelfed users. It’s easy to upload pictures to your account from your web browser or from an app on your phone. Pixelfed supports both iOS and Android users.

Screen picture by Don Watkins CC by SA 4.0

Import your content directly from Instagram, or you can host Pixelfed if that interests you.

Pixelfed allows you to share your pictures with a broader audience without sacrificing privacy. It doesn’t track your activity or show ads. You have more control over your data and who can see your posts. Community-driven: Each Pixelfed instance has its own community and moderators, creating a more intimate and engaging experience. It’s decentralized, which means Pixelfed is spread across many different servers called instances. Pixelfed connects to the broader Fediverse, allowing communication with users on other ActivityPub-based networks like Mastodon. You control who sees what. You can share images, follow others, and interact across different Pixelfed instances. Pixelfed offers a more ethical and empowering way to connect with others online.

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The Fediverse is rich

I am really enjoying the Fediverse and what it has to offer. That doesn’t just apply to the instance that happen to belong to either. There are so many rich conversations from all over. I am interested in open source in the broadest sense of that word which includes Linux of course which is my daily driver. I am also interested in open education and open educational resources, Python, libraries, educational technology, open organizations, Creative Commons and more. I have found all of that here and the best part of this experience is that it is not driven by an algorithm. This morning I was thinking how grateful I am that I was literally driven here against my will. I haven’t left Twitter entirely but my focus has definitely shifted. If you are new to Mastodon as I am and you are looking for help I suggest you follow Fedi.Tips.

If you are new to the Fediverse I suggest you take a look at this help for beginners. Consider following the Fediverse group which is a community dediated to Fediverse news and discussion.

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Welcome to the Fediverse

Three years ago when I first signed up for a Fosstodon account I really had no comprehension of what a wonderful universe of learning I was getting involved with. Fast forward three years and the impending erosion or collapse of the birdsite and I’m reevaluating my use of social media. I had forgotten how great it was to be with folks who posted interesting content and were more interested and engaged with what I was sharing too. I’m still a neophyte in this federated blogging world but already I can appreciate the richness of what is offered.

I am only beginning to appreciate what it means to be federated and to enjoy what the fediverse has to offer. I spent much of a good deal of my work years in public education and while I was there I worked as a school district technology leader and a classroom teacher who specialized in keyboarding, coding, staff development and digital citizenship. In addition to that I worked as a system administrator for Windows, LInux and LInux servers some of which existed as virtual machines. That unique mix of teacher and technology administrator left me with a broad skill set that I still enjoy today.

The district that I worked didn’t always have robust funding and that sent me looking for innovative solutions for teachers and students. Discussion outside of the classroom and insights from friends led me to consider Linux and open source as viable alternatives for education. I have found in the past almost twenty-five years that open source can provide answers and opportunities not found in proprietary solutions. WordPress is one of those open source gifts. When our school was struggling to afford software for our students and staff that provided a common platform for discussion I saw WordPress as that medium and I continue to believe that WordPress could easily be used in many PK12 classroom and could easily be used in most educational settings to provide an inexpensive and flexible program for home and school interaction.

I see some of those same possibilities with Mastodon and the federated blogging that it supports. At this point Mastodon has not seemed to make as many inroads into PK12 as it has into higher education. I hope that can change. I am recommending it to all of my personal learning network who are still mostly stuck at the birdsite. How can we get the word out to those folks in a way that doesn’t disparage what they are currently using. I think it’s possible to use Twitter and Mastodon. I don’t see it as an either/or but a both/and universe.