The Steampunk Explorer has two new homes in the Fediverse. Our Mastodon account has a new location—and a new handle—and we’ve begun posting images on a photo-sharing app called Pixelfed that’s similar to Instagram.
The Fediverse is an informal name for a group of decentralized social networks that share the same communications protocol. The networks run on separate, independent servers capable of interacting with one another.
When we joined Mastodon in 2022, we used the indiepocalypse.social server, but on Tuesday we moved to mastodon.social, which is operated by Mastodon gGmbH, the German non-profit that develops the software. We also have a new handle: @steampunk_explorer.
We had no problems with indiepocalypse.social — we just wanted to be on a more-established server. We had to change the handle because the old one, @steampunk, was already taken on the new server. The new handle is also similar to the ones we use on other platforms.
Older posts remain at the previous location, but they consist largely of stories shared from the website, so they don’t have much archival value.
Kicking the Tires at Pixelfed
Pixelfed is an open-source photo-sharing app that’s similar to Instagram, but without sponsored posts or pesky algorithms that manipulate what you see in your feeds.
The app gained legions of new users in the past week after multiple outlets reported that Meta Platforms — parent company of Facebook and Instagram — was automatically deleting posts that linked to it. (A Meta spokesperson later told Engadget that this was a mistake and that the posts would be restored.)
The software was created by Daniel Supernault, a Canadian developer who has also launched a TikTok alternative called Loops.
We set up an account on Pixelfed and posted some photos that originally appeared on our Instagram page. It seems that the influx of users has caused growing pains — the app is sluggish at times, and Supernault reported that he was in the process of adding server capacity. Aside from that, it functions very much like Instagram.
Supernault recently published a “Digital Platform Charter of Rights,” a set of principles covering areas such as privacy, freedom from surveillance, safeguards against hate speech, and protections for vulnerable communities. Many of the principles stand in stark contrast to stances taken by Meta and other social media companies.
What Happens Now
Henceforth, we plan to use Mastodon and Bluesky as our primary platforms for sharing content, mainly because their algorithms do not penalize posts that contain external links.
With fewer than 360,000 users, Pixelfed is still a minnow compared to the whale that is Instagram, but we intend to continue posting there as well.
As for the “mainstream” platforms, we’ve already observed a mass exodus of steampunk creators from X, and given recent changes at Meta Platforms, a small number of creators have declared that they intend to reduce their activity on Facebook.
The steampunk community remains entrenched on Facebook, and to a lesser extent on Instagram. Given their enormous reach, I doubt if that will change significantly any time soon. So, we’ll continue to engage on those platforms while exploring the alternatives. We encourage other steampunk fans to do the same.
