Facebook has tried to compete with Twitter in numerous ways over the years, including copying signature Twitter features such as hashtags and trending topics. But now Facebook’s parent company is taking perhaps its biggest swipe at Twitter yet.
I know I'm practically begging for downvotes here, but it is also possible that some people are perfectly aware of the tradeoffs, pros, and cons of social media, and have decided that the positives outweigh the negatives. That you have different priorities doesn't necessarily mean that everyone else is stupid or ignorant.
It's ironic how the Fediverse on the one hand celebrates the fact that anyone can join and instances can all do their own things and hold their own views, and then it goes "but not like that" in this case.
It's ironic how the Fediverse on the one hand celebrates the fact that anyone can join and instances can all do their own things and hold their own views
Yes, all in contrast to corporate enshittification and algorithmic spyware.
and then it goes "but not like that" in this case.
Yes, because its corporate social media waiting for enshittification with algorithmic spyware.
If some instance wants to enshittify itself it's free to do so. The Fediverse makes it straightforward for its users to move to other instances when that happens.
If Reddit had been magically federated with the rest of the threadiverse, for example, it would have made reacting to their recent API decisions much easier.
I dont really see your point. Sure, instances can do that. But instances and its users can also not do that, and right now its just instance users arguing that we shouldnt do that.
Thankfully, "we" are not a monolith. People who don't mind some level of interaction with Meta can do that, those who want zero contact with it can do that, and all is well.
I think it moreso has to do with the fact that as soon as Fediverse networking became more popular, Meta immediately comes along and creates another social media platform that uses Fediverse as more of a flashy buzzword.
The point of the Fediverse seems to be "content where you want to see it, how you want to see it, when you want to see it". Promoting a more open ecosystem of specially tailored instances for what an individual user wants as their content.
Meta comes along with Threads, the nearly perfect antithesis of what the Fediverse is. Immediately gobbling up users due to both brand recognition and by seizing a customer base fleeing Reddit trying to figure out what the Fediverse is and not wanting to "miss out" on their communities and content as it migrates here.
@BraveSirZaphod I mean, if they're not, then that means that they're fine with hate speech and run away bigotry, and to be honest, that's not a truth I want to face
People don't care about principles when it comes to a social media site (or really anything for that matter). They want something easy to use, that everyone is on.
I'm almost certain there's a first to market FOMO kinda thing happening with influencers/scammers/advertisers. Everyone with that disgusting "grindset" mentality on Instagram just got a blank slate on an entirely new platform with a lot of media attention.
Its happening with every new Twitter replacement. Twitter for all its faults was actually a widely used resource for brands, companies and influencers. Now that it is so erratic they're all trying to jump on anything with a hint of success to replace Twitter.
Brands and government accounts are going to flock to Threads. They want a place for general announcements that has some consistency in moderation and stability. Musk has largely destroyed that on twitter.
I can see it for those types of accounts. The National Weather Service for example doesn't want to deal with random tweet limits and pricing changes and all that. All they need is a stable platform that is popular. If Threads can give them that, I can see it taking off. Already it seems to have more hype and activity than any other alternative in the last few months.
I didn't even think about the porn aspect. You're probably right. Although I'm sure people are going to test it and see how close Meta will let them get.
I have just read elsewhere that they're using the same account as Instagram uses. So if you have an Instagram account, and have done nothing with Threads at all, they're likely still counting you as a Threads user.
yeah my insta was not set up for threads when i opened the app. i had to purposefully consent to linking the two accounts. Seems to me like its 10 mil actual users.
In the US alone, Instagram has over 150 million users. Even if the only country accessing it was the US, the number should be much higher than 10 mill, were they automatically adding the users.
They're not counting all Instagram users. However, if you have an Instagram account, all you have to do is download the Threads app, and it'll log in with the same saved credentials. The barrier to entry is extremely low, so a lot of people have at least tried it.
Because to an average person mastadon is confusing and niche, nobody they want to talk to is on there and they don’t care about the ethics or privacy implications.
Maybe, but I think it has more to do with the wall-to-wall mainstream news coverage of the launch of Threads in recent days, compared to the relative handful of isolated mentions Mastodon has had in the last 12 months.
If people didn't care about ethics or privacy, that doesn't mean they won't switch to Mastodon, it merely doesn't mean they will go. Those people will just go where the crowds go.
Just because of the sheer power of marketing, really. I dabbled with Mastodon, but it wasn't any harder to use than Twitter. Maybe some people just disengage entirely when they hear about instances when in practice for a casual user it makes very little difference.
Exactly, having explained mastadon to people they often don’t really understand or care about the actual concept, they just want to be where the content is.
Because Mastodon is the Linux of social media...and we all know how popular that OS is on the desktop. Techie people have a habit of putting themselves in a bubble and think everything is as easy to use for a normal person as it is for them.
I've stopped explaining it to my friends and family because they literally just give me blank stares when I even say the word "federated". If they want to come over, they can figure it out on their own just like I did. You can't beat it into them.
It's the advantage of advertising money and monopoly abuse. Nobody advertises linux, when's the last time you saw a linux commercial? You don't. You'll never be inundated with linux or fediverse advertisements, so nobody gets to find out you exist. You'll notice how in the media free software is never mentioned, ever, unless it's something scary with the tired old picture of a dude in masked street garb looking to steal your families identity and make them destitute.
Linux low market-share (in the desktop space) has less to do with marketing and more with the fact, that Microsoft has made many contracts with PC vendors and professional PC users everywhere.
Normies don’t install any OS. Businesses don’t want to waste time and money switching over to Linux.
Marketing in the OS space is practically irrelevant.
Then that's good because there are still Linux users after all these years and it could mean there are still going to be stubborn Fediverse users in the long run despite all the EEE attempts.
At some point, honestly, it's just inertia. My sister is smart enough to figure out Mastodon, she calls instances confusing because she just doesn't WANT to move. She's still on Facebook, saying she's just not into Twitter or Reddit like stuff, but she'll be on Threads I bet.
I don't think we need to be the biggest thing in the world, though, as long as we have ENOUGH people in the Fediverse to be active.
People want to be "where it's happening" and mastodon isn't that. Which might be fine for the people that do use it, but mastodon isn't going to be a platform where you can potentially interact with celebrities, politicians and journalists the way that twitter was for example any time soon.
I was going to join just to reserve my handle, but then I saw you can't even make a purely chronological feed of just accounts you follow. That is base level functionality for me and all I really want in a Twitter replacement. I'll give it some time.
It sounds like a lot until you realize that Threads is basically just a DLC pack for Instagram, which already has one of the world's largest user bases as it is - something like ~2.5b users, I believe.
I find it hard to consider any user count on Threads to be "growth", when the accounts have already existed since before Threads launched. It's like if a bakery sold cakes to 500 customers a day, and then decides to start selling pies, as well. If the same 500 cake customers come back and buy pies, the restaurant didn't gain any new customers; it's just the same customer base enjoying a different product being offered now. Maybe this is just me being pedantic, maybe this is just me reaching for a reason to downplay Meta. I dunno.
This is exactly my feeling as well. I like the design of it, but it doesn't feel like it's own thing. It feels like alternative content from the people I already follow on Instagram. It's like an echo chamber in an echo chamber.
I'll be curious to see if they ever decide to open it up to non-Insta users. I turn to Microblogging like Mastodon/Twitter for a completely different social media experience, not a different side of the same coin.
But in your metaphor there is an important part missing. Twitter, the pie shop around the corner, just lost a chunk of customers to the bakery. Now I’m not saying this will kill twitter, I think Elon manages just fine on his own. But it’s going to contribute to its death, as it gives people an easy alternative.
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