Pixelfed is going viral because it's a real instagram alternative, not some academic ideal of social media.

[dansup@mastodon.social]

This post is deleted!

[aleciabatson@mastodon.social]

@dansup if you have a moment, could you please provide insight regarding the pixelfed.social instance perspective on use of AI-generated imagery, and privacy protections? This will help in my instance selection. Tysm.

[tizmic@mastodon.social]

@dansup I think, Pixelfed goes "viral" because people are currently searching for an Instagram alternative, which Pixelfed is, but Mastodon, Lemmy etc. obviously are not.

Mastodon had also a larger rise of accounts (and, incidentally, still does as seen by German Unis shifting right now) after the shift of X/Twitter.

Every platform has different target audiences and expectations tethered to it.