https://pixelfed.fediverse.observer/dailystats
Looks like Pixelfed’s growth spurt is slowing down. Absent any new external stimuli I’m guessing it’ll stabilize around 200K to 300K monthly active users – over a hundredfold order of magnitude from what it was just a month ago.
I think you’re on to something.
I also think there’s a difference in where the network effect kicks in for different types of social media. IMHO, Lemmy has just enough activity to not feel empty, and even then I wish there was more comments to interact with and more niche communities. With Pixelfed, I feel like as long as there’s enough interesting posts it makes sense for people to visit regularly.
You’re 100% right about that. I’ve never ran out of nice posts to look at on Pixelfed. I think the medium & format is a lot less addictive and a lot more relaxing/positive, which might help to explain it.