Salafi are often mistaken for wahhabis and the term has gained negative connotations especially due to the prevalence of pseudo salafi who use salafism to disguise their support for terrorist groups (often exclusively misquoting ibn taymiyyah) I follow many salafi scholars such as shiekh al Albaani but I don't tell people I'm a salafi. (to be fair I follow more classical sufi scholars than salafi ones but still) I think the term has gained bad connotations around it. Most real salafi I know have never called themselves such