How do I discover the Pixelfed content that is out there when so many big instances block exploration?
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Feels like they're still figuring out how they want to do this, themselves. Every now and then i've been visiting the art themed pixelfed to follow people with mbin, and the explore page is sometimes there and sometimes not.
The thing that I don't get is that it seems like this should be a solved problem, because I can visit any Mastadon instance and see the content there just fine. Rather, Pixelfed seems to have gone out of its way to construct an artificial wall that prevents people from doing this.
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But if a hashtag has not made its way over to my instance, then it effectively does not exist to me. Even if I do see it show up and decide I want to see more content related to it, if said content has not ever made its way over to my instance then I am still left out. The great thing about being able about able to check out what is on other instances is that I am no longer restricted to whatever the people on my instance are interested in.
This a completely different experience from Lemmy, where I was immediately able to go to a bunch of different instances, look through their communities, and go: "I want to subscribe to this one, this one, and this one!"
Off topic, but how do you do that on Lemmy? In jerboa there is no option (that I know off) to browse another instance.
Do you open your home instance in one browser tab and the one you want to explore in another and once you find a community you like you switch to the other tab and subscribe to it there? -
Off topic, but how do you do that on Lemmy? In jerboa there is no option (that I know off) to browse another instance.
Do you open your home instance in one browser tab and the one you want to explore in another and once you find a community you like you switch to the other tab and subscribe to it there?I just go to the web site, e.g. https://lemmy.sdf.org/.
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But what if I want to be on a small instance or even self-host? Then I cannot see any potentially appealing hashtags because I do not start with a large library of locally downloaded content.
You can type the hashtag in the URL on the web, and follow it from there.
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Very very unfortunately, Pixelfed doesn't have a way to just start exploring feeds without knowing exactly who to look at. This has been a very longstanding problem with the platform that the engineer has pretty much outright refused to do. Pixelfed-Glitch is attempting to add in better discovery options, but for now it's a non-starter for me. I turned off my pixelfed server because of the lack of discovery.
Are there open bugs/feature requests about it?
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You can type the hashtag in the URL on the web, and follow it from there.
I only see a couple of the most recent posts, but the number 2K seems to indicate that there are a lot more that it just is not showing me.
By contrast, I felt like looking at pictures of galaxies right now, so I went over to https://astrodon.social/tags/galaxies, and behold--look at all of them! So easy!
In fact, maybe the lesson here is that I should just give up on Pixelfed and use Mastadon for discovering cool things to look at in my downtime.
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So lost in anti-big tech social media that they forgot that algorithms are actually good and helpful!
Algorithms are not universally good and helpful. They should be designed to boost engagement only in that they serve to find content you wouldn't be able to see otherwise, not to boost engagement at all costs by feeding you things they think you will click on. It's an important distinction.
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I only see a couple of the most recent posts, but the number 2K seems to indicate that there are a lot more that it just is not showing me.
By contrast, I felt like looking at pictures of galaxies right now, so I went over to https://astrodon.social/tags/galaxies, and behold--look at all of them! So easy!
In fact, maybe the lesson here is that I should just give up on Pixelfed and use Mastadon for discovering cool things to look at in my downtime.
are you on .social? [ie, for me the link would be https://pixelfed.art/i/web/hashtag/urbansketching]
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That's kind of a trend on the Fediverse to be honest. Mastodon has the same problem with their chronological-only feed.
I feel like transparent and open algorithms should be the way to go. For example, in the Lemmy documentation, I can find the exact math that is used to rank posts in
Scaledsorting.Perhaps an even better aporoach may lie in letting the users customize the factors determining ranking and how much they affect it.
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That's kind of a trend on the Fediverse to be honest. Mastodon has the same problem with their chronological-only feed.
What I loved about twitter was the algorithim at its peak before musk bought it
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But if a hashtag has not made its way over to my instance, then it effectively does not exist to me. Even if I do see it show up and decide I want to see more content related to it, if said content has not ever made its way over to my instance then I am still left out. The great thing about being able about able to check out what is on other instances is that I am no longer restricted to whatever the people on my instance are interested in.
This a completely different experience from Lemmy, where I was immediately able to go to a bunch of different instances, look through their communities, and go: "I want to subscribe to this one, this one, and this one!"
Would you be able to subscribe to those things via your account if they hadn't made it across to your instance though? I'm no expert but perhaps this is side-effect of controls for moderating federation i.e blocking or allowing content from other instances.
I do agree that it should be easier to browse any instance though. Some Pixelfed instances browser home pages seem to allow it and some don't - I'm guessing it's an admin option somewhere.
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I use Pixelfed by subscribing to hashtags that I'm interested in and artists/photographers who I come across via hashtags or my instance feed.
I'm guessing that this is how Pixelfed is designed to be used as users and hashtags are what makes up your home feed.
I've never felt the need to browse by instance but I can see that this could be a cool feature to add if there are any which are dedicated to a particular subject or style. Of course the same functionality can be accomplished simply by users adding unique and specific hashtags to their posts e.g #celticsculptures or #seeninplymouth.
Hashtags aren't discoverable though, server A still needs to subscribe to at least one user from server B before hash tags will start
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So lost in anti-big tech social media that they forgot that algorithms are actually good and helpful!
Kind of surprised this is the take. Algorithms in general, just sorting by highest to lowest or whatever common problem that needs to be solved, aren't bad. "Algorithm" has become a dirty word mostly because of the stuff pushing short-form content over long-form content, outrage that generates engagement over something you would enjoy that doesn't enrage you enough to make you type fifty paragraphs and keep coming back to fight in the comments, etc. So I agree with the literal statement that algorithms aren't always bad.
But as for what you meant, I'm super surprised at all the people who want an algorithm to feed them content. I looked for the stuff I was interested in, subscribed, and am happy. When I run out of content I either log off and do something else or go seek out stuff I'm kind of interested in. I am just really wary of asking for algorithms back because I really don't want the Fediverse to become another place catered towards outrage porn for max engagement. I really want users to have options if this is implemented, so as not to force this algorithm on users like myself who like the "chronological order of stuff you purposely followed only" algorithm. And for that option to not be taken away from me in an effort to "drive growth!" and all that.
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