Pinterest is in the middle of my Venn diagram between "signup wall i see most often after googling something random", "To this day I have no clue idea how it works" and "I don't know a single person who uses this"
It’s used to collect references and build mood boards.
So, while self hosted Pinterest is a nice idea, it does miss the powerful part of Pinterest which is its search and community. When I want to find roman armour or steampunk vibe architecture, I don’t even have to leave Pinterest most of the time because the collections I need to find are right there.
But on the other hand, in specific markets (like fashion, artistic photography etc.), Pinterest is unavoidable. People use it for planning all sorts of creative endeavours.
I loathe it, but I might consider using this for my mood boards.
Not something I use though.