posted in Fediverse
Fediverse is Continuing, Growing, and Strong
It seems the fediverse is continuing and growing again. Line go up is probably good!
https://fediverse.observer/stats&months=50
Total users are huge now.
There are many websites out there that pull data from the fediverse. So take that with a grain of salt. But anecdotally I am seeing a small rise in people using the various platforms as each get more mature and servers somewhat stabilize.
fediverse.observer/stats&months=50
Replying to @mesamunefire@piefed.social
Though the Threadiverse/Lemmy in particular is shrinking - as that same webpage shows when you filter for Lemmy, currently we have 33K monthly active users, down from 35K in recent months, itself further down from 40K in Dec. 2025, having fallen from 65K at the peak during Rexodus.
See also the graph for PieFed, which shows 7K MAUs.
Which I find highly notable, especially given how people are leaving Reddit… and also Lemmy/the Threadiverse as well.
Replying to @OpenStars@discuss.online
I really wonder where they’re going. I can’t find any substitute for this little purgatory. Piefed? I’m not a fan of the UI. Masto? Twitter’s a weird endless conversation space without proper organization and it makes me want to scream. Modern social media? We’d have vastly divergent desires if that’s where they went.
Replying to @Gullible@sh.itjust.works
Fwiw, a number of highly popular 3rd-party apps including Voyager now offer support for PieFed. Most do not provide the full range of features as compared to the web interface, though some like Interstellar provide the large majority of them - see fully detailed listing of each app and which features are supported at piefed.social/community/fediverse/…/piefed-app.
Anyway, I confirm first-hand that using Voyager to access a PieFed instance is nearly identical to accessing a Lemmy one, except for the gain in back-end functionality of PieFed doing what Lemmy cannot (e.g. you apply some settings rarely in the web UI - maybe a couple times a year - and then those continue to function as you switch to more daily usage in your app of choice).
So use whatever you like - sh.itjust.works seems to me to be a fine instance - but I’m just saying that for a new person joining the Threadiverse, the web browser UI of PieFed is not the only or even the main way that people can choose to access it.
Replying to @OpenStars@discuss.online
I used to download an app for everything, but now I can’t talk myself into so much as considering it. Unfortunately, it’s web interface or nothing for me
Replying to @Gullible@sh.itjust.works
If it’s privacy you are worried about, note that several alternatives like Voyager are FOSS.
But otherwise, yeah then that leaves you with the web UI, or at most a pinned webapp, which constrains you to the standard web UI.
Unless the PyLova fork of PieFed begins offering more tweaks to the UI that you want to see. The developer team is actively soliciting suggestions and have implemented a couple of mine already - like adding downvotes next to upvote counts - so you might voice your preferences to them to see if they can address your concerns.
Replying to @OpenStars@discuss.online
It started out about security before it turned into tool fixation. I prefer to have a robust catch-all for every situation, and web browsers fill that niche incredibly well. 99% of the time, I won’t even consider anything besides hopping onto Firefox. The 1% is bullshit banking apps.
And I’m currently super busy, but I will absolutely check out pylova this weekend. If it is to pieced as mbin is to kbin, there’s plenty for me to be excited about!
Replying to @Gullible@sh.itjust.works
Pretty much, yeah. Except PieFed still exists whereas Kbin died off, though originally the two existed side-by-side. Rimu has even grabbed code from PyLova before, so I presume they will end up sharing back and forth despite the personal contention.