Meta's New Instagram Spinoff, Threads, Looks Like the Opposite of Existing Fediverse Services

cross-posted from: discuss.online/post/128452

It seems that there are at least 30 Million people that want a different experience than me.

Forbes described the Threads service with the following summary:

The most significant difference between the two platforms is the timeline, as Meta’s app only displays an algorithmic timeline—in a similar vein to Facebook and Instagram—and offers no option for a Twitter-like reverse chronological time showing the most recent posts.

The algorithm-driven timeline also displays posts made by accounts that the user does not follow—something that Twitter only restricts to its alternate “For You” timeline.

Threads is a mobile-only experience at the moment and users can only make posts, write comments and follow people on the platform’s mobile app, unlike Twitter, which allows all of this on its website as well.

Meta’s official blog announcing the launch of Threads also makes no mention of a native desktop or web browser experience, which is currently limited to seeing people’s posts and their profile pages.

Hashtags—a key element of Twitter’s identity and a feature that has permeated other social platforms including Facebook and Instagram—are not present on Threads, as the platform does not allow users to search for specific content.

This means that there is no “trending section” on Threads and the only way to discover content on the platform is based on what Meta’s algorithm decides to serve.

nlm,
@nlm@beehaw.org avatar

The biggest problem for me with the commercial social networks is the use of algorithms to try and spoon feed me with stuff.

I hate that. Let me follow people or stuff I like and then give me that in a chronological order, that’s all I want. Stop injecting other stuff in my own curated feed, it really shouldn’t be so hard…

scrubbles,
@scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech avatar

Know what algorithm I want? Order by date created, descending. That’s all I need. I’m okay if there is also a ranking by activity to show what’s active.

I do not need social media to do anything else, no priority, no ranked users, no suggested posts. I want the raw feed, sorted by date created descending.

UnhealthyPersona,

This is exactly what made me leave Instagram years ago. When they changed it so you only get the algorithmic feed. I can’t stand it, why can’t we just choose the fucking sort order we want?? These platforms give users no control and it’s what makes them so frustrating to try to use. Reddit was the last “social” platform I was really using and now that’s gone to shit too.

nlm,
@nlm@beehaw.org avatar

You can still get your follower feed in chronological order by clicking the instagram logo in the corner and selecting Followers or whatever it says. Can’t make it the default though and it really sucks.

1000knives,

i also absolutely feel this way, but i think more people like the algorithms than people like us suspect. you have no idea how many new people i’ve seen complain about this on mastodon. people show up, see a blank feed that they have to make an effort to populate, and turn around and leave. i think a lot of people enjoy frictionless spoonfed content a la the tiktok for you page these days…

LucyLastic,

Aside from it sounding as horrible as Facebook, the rush of new users is probably because a) Instagram users can go straight in, b) curiosity, and c) oh god what is Elon thinking. They probably aren’t aware of Mastodon. Or Lemmy.

ericjmorey,
@ericjmorey@discuss.online avatar

That’s a fair assessment.

Ignacio,

I think it’s a), but only because who has an Instagram account, automatically has a Threads account. There is no other way that 70 million people “joined” in just 3 days.

ericjmorey,
@ericjmorey@discuss.online avatar

They are generally counting installations of the app. So it does take conscious effort to be one of the counted. But it’s certainly less friction than most new services.

retronautickz,

Meanwhile the fediverse microblogging alternatives have either three or four timelines, none of them algorithm-driven

EthicalAI,

That sounds useless

Hammy,

Meta/Insta/Threads has already confirmed that both chronological sort and “Follow Only” view are in the works.

1000knives,

good to know, but it speaks a lot about their priorities that neither was there on launch, imo.

ollien,

Someone on Mastodon raised a good point that the idea of “changing handles” is incompatible with a lot of fedi, too. I’m curious how they will tackle that problem when they eventually federate

ericjmorey,
@ericjmorey@discuss.online avatar

Is the ability to change handles something that you want?

ollien,

Me personally? Not really. But it’s definitely a feature I’ve heard folks wanting.

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