I'm wondering the same. I wanted to look at a Pixelfed instance to see if it was worth joining (or following from a different account in the fediverse)--and I can't even see whether or not I like the content without making an account?
I can see why a for-profit app like Instagram would force everyone to sign up to browse, since that helps their bottom line, but I can't see why that decision would be made here.
Alternatively, does it integrate with Mastodon in such a way that Mastodon hosts could easily offer immediate access to Pixelfed for their already registered Mastodon users without requiring any additional form filling etc on the part of their users?
By that I mean, does Pixelfed integrate with Mastodon in such a way that a Mastodon server could also run a Pixelfed server instance, and use the same user database for both services?
For example, the Mastodon server I am on, vis.social [1], seems like a place whose user base might want to use Pixelfed. That Mastodon server describes itself as “a social space for anyone in data, visualization, creative coding, and related arts and research.” (Said description is what prompted me to choose this specific server when creating my Mastodon account.)
