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.
If you find one, keep up updated! It’s one of the things where you really need a critical mass already for it to be useful so it’s hard to kick off.
If it integrates with the fediverse, it can be promoted on other platforms and doesn’t need critical mass.
That’s the advantage. All the platforms are trying to synergize, not steal from each other like the corporate apps.
Idk about you but I use pinterest to find inspo for all kinds of things. For that to work, the posts need extensive hashtagging/indexing that goes beyond the occasional hashtag on Mastodon I think. In Pinterest, I really want their Algorithm to find the stuff I don’t know yet I’m looking for. If that kind of search existed, we wouldn’t need a specific Pinterest clone I guess - maybe a topic-board thing on Pixelfed would be enough if the indexing would be sufficient.
Open source serving algorithms exist. They have the benefit of being customizable, not purely engagement driven.
As for tagging, I think Ao3’s system is exemplary: https://fanlore.org/wiki/AO3_Tagging_System
That sounds good! If Pixelfed or similar implemented that, it could be sufficient. A new fedi service starting from scratch would lack the existing pool of resources since federation only happens when a post gets posted/boosted but after some time it could actually be useful.
Apparently, Pinetta is still active. There is an alpha release but it seems like the devs were struggling with time limitations and getting the AP protocol right. It is in Python if anyone wants to take a look.