It was asked a couple of months ago, but given the AI enshittification, it seems a good time to ask again.
I looked around and found:
- Pinetta is/was in development but seems dead with only an alpha release. I am chasing this up on Matrix. edit: Apparently still, technically, active although progress has been slow
- Pinry is a FOSS alternative, but not federated, that seems dormant. However, it works and is in Python, so someone could bolt an AP server to it, he says airily.
You look for a images
You get recomanded other similar images (thus engaging to a pleasant, but dangerous endless scrolling)
You can pin you images on “boards” (for instance I have one for fashion, illustration, etc)
There’s probably a workaround to make something similar available online, but I didn’t look info it do far
Similar? No no no. That’s a shit algorithm.
Let me give you an example. I search for leftist content. I somehow get served a British guy who does floor refinishing. It’s fantastic. I also get people doing skits about working in a restaurant.
A good algorithm follows patterns in people’s preferences, not patterns in the content.
You simply don’t get the usecase. I don’t want Pinterest to show me stuff that I’m into. I want it to show me similar pictures to build coherant yet creative moodboards.
Oh boy… I’m sorry. I’m arguing on another thread against someone who is saying algorithms are inherently bad and we shouldn’t use them. I thought that was you. I will try and remember to check context next time.
Yes, you’re making a lot of sense. I think that’s why I never got Pinterest. I used it for link storage, not idea generation.
Algorithmes aren’t inherently bad. The fact that they are opaque blackbox imposed to you by the plateforms so you get addicted is why they are bad. The day we have the choice between multiple client-side transparent algos it will be better.