despite not knowing what it means, in this context, it means whatever affords me the chance to nitpick. in essence, despite lacking any authority to make such a decision, and the absence of any motivation to the contrary, i define words how i like. the result is that, despite my efforts, my arguments are incoherent. however, in lieu of better alternatives, despite, which heretofore had usually be defined such that it always was in reference to spiting a particular thing.
100% this. For everyone that takes their online privacy and freedom very seriously, there are literal millions of others who couldn't give less of a fuck and proudly parrot the "if you have nothing to hide, you've got nothing to worry about" bullshit, like they're some enlightened cunt atop their own tower who conveniently ignores the consequences of every company that experiences a major data breach.
These people are the reason the internet has devolved as hard as it has, and it makes me sick to know there's nothing that can be done to stop things from only getting worse - the masses enable the surveillance capitalist machine, and what's worse is that they've become convinced they need it to survive. Meta pushing their fucking nose into places it isn't welcome, like the fediverse, just further proved it to me. These big tech firms will not stop until they own a piece of every free region of the internet, and they know that no matter how vocal their opponents are, that the lobotomized fuckwits that make up the bulk of their userbase will just lap up anything they put out.
Not to sound like a naïve, brain dead optimist but maybe this is our chance to draw our line in the sand. If Threads falls on its face, it will likely serve as precedence for other companies who think they can use the fediverse for their own gain, no?
As Louis Rossmann says, "never go to war with the internet because you will lose". I'd like to think that the people who make that quote possible are all migrating or have migrated to the fediverse.
Data collected by Threads can include users' sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, biometric data, trade union membership, pregnancy status, politics, and religious beliefs. Threads can also collect data on users' employment, as well as health and fitness. Beyond that, the app also can collect data monitoring users' location and other web activity.
Geez meta, do you want the results of my colonoscopy too? (spoiler: they do)
"Health and financial data, precise location, search history, browsing history, and more are not needed for a user to be on the app and are instead used to create a more hyper-personalized and targeted experience on the app or shared with and sold to advertisers," Schroeder told Ars.
Fuck targeted experiences, all my homies hate targeted experiences
Maybe. I think there’s a lot of dislike towards Elon out there, people are just looking for an alternative to Twitter. The recent surge in popularity for threads is just proof of that.
Unless Twitter completely turns things around (spoiler, they won’t) I expect Threads will slowly grow over the next several months; both in users and features.
At the moment Threads isn’t ready (from a functionality standpoint) to absorb Twitter, but it will be the more time they have.
From a Mastodon/Fediverse standpoint the sooner Twitter falls over, the better. (Assuming it’s ready to scale and take on users, I think probably, but who knows.)
In short unless something dramatic happens I expect Threads (for better or worse) will be around for a long time.
I made a few comments on various news sites (and techie news sites too), and the overwhelming response was basically they were happy to choose the lesser of two evils. And the fact that Threads is working while Twitter is in shambles.
Well, Threads has an estimated 30+ million users already. Threads will easily have more daily active users than the entirety of the Fediverse if even just 1% stick around.
Threads would have 150% the number of users in that case, and that’s assuming the app stops growing.
I’ve gotten a good amount of pushback (well reasoned, but pushback nonetheless) about my position on how we need to think of where we fit into all of this. But realistically we are tiny. ActivityPub—if it ever comes to Threads—can be easily bastardized and made proprietary by Meta unilaterally.
We’ve seen it more times than we can even remember. Microsoft did it with IE, Google is doing it with Chrome and RCS (for those who haven’t seen my other comments: no, Android RCS is not an open standard. Google closed it with proprietary layers which is why no other messaging apps are allowed to access Google’s RCS save for a few like Samsung), and even Mastodon.
That’s right: Mastodon has not adapted ActivityPub fully to standard and instead opts to go it’s own way. And now other projects are hiving off and—you guessed it—implemented Mastodon’s approach rather than the official ActivityPub standard.
At least according to ActivityPub co-creator Evan Prodromou (on the Changelog podcast episode “Into the Fediverse” on 2023-02-24 around the 10 minute mark). He isn’t putting down Mastodon at all; but it stands to show just how easily a single big player can hijack things. We got lucky that Mastodon didn’t radically pivot and integrate hostile practices.
But Meta will. We all know this. This is what capitalists do. They gain nothing by allowing competition, even if minor.
Edit: in case I wasn’t clear, I’m not attacking Mastodon. I love Mastodon. I don’t love the NDA that the creator signed with Meta. I don’t like his stances regarding Meta. I understand things do need to deviate at points, as is the nature of all software. I’m a software engineer myself (albeit not for anything related to ActivityPub or social media). It is more an example of how quickly things can go sideways with just one big player willing it into existence.
Agreed, to an extent. But falling into the siren song of “the goal is federation no matter what” will inevitably lead us down the road traveled many times before. The problem comes when Meta starts tweaking and exploiting. If our implementations change to maintain adequate federation with Meta—well, it is only a matter of time at that point.
I again point to RCS. That was tiny. Google still bothered, and now the only real implementation is their own because anyone with a say simply went along with it (whether directly, or via passivity).
On the other hand, we are significant enough to warrant pandering and supposed adoption. There’s no reason for Threads to use (eventually) ActivityPub.
Some have theorized that Meta glommed onto it in order to skirt EU regulations regarding gatekeepers. That could be another angle.
But I’m truly worried that, as decentralized communities and ultimately disorganized projects, one big player will swing through and take it all away in one way or another. It’s happened before.
I don't think anyone is saying that should be the case. However, neither do I think we should be saying "no federation, no matter what". Meta is purely self-interested, of course, but I don't think we have any idea what it's intentions are with regard to ActivityPub
they are linked if you have an insta, or you can just make a threads account like some of my friends did. But you Dont have one by default, you still have to give your consent to sign up for it.
You use an Instagram account to register a Threads account, but they are two different services. After the Threads account is linked, there is however no way to remove that account without also removing the Instagram account.
Just for comparison, there are something like 2.3 BILLION Instagram accounts.
I’m more interested in seeing the daily users in like a month or so. Tons of folks I know, including myself, are checking it out just bc it’s brand new. Personally, I’ve seen enough and it’s pretty garbo, and I’m guessing a lot of people will do the same.
Folks will drop it because it’s cringe before they drop it for anything privacy related.
Makes me wonder if they’re not using Instagram user base to inflate the numbers to make the social network look more enticing to new users as well with a success for investors.
The question here is: how many users should we expect Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, with all the cash hoard of Meta behind it, to be able to get together for a new app?
30 mil sounds like peanuts in that context. Aren’t there like a billion people on Meta’s properties?
It is peanuts to Meta but not to others like Masterdon and the Fediverse. It’s also enough of a message to the likes of Twitter to be seen as a threat.
It goes to show how monopolized the social converse is these days online.
@Kovu Threads is the perfect example that if you put a huge warm and steamy turd into people's faces, but you spent some good money in advertising and PR. They still will want it, even if you tell them that is a 💩 that has no value at all.
@Kovu. Your average person will go oooh Instagram, I know them. Sign me up for the new app! Privacy, security, etc never even were involved. Of course that also assumes Meta didn't just "create" one for each IG user (no clue what the usercount is).
In a Threads post, Zuckerberg took a light jab at Twitter while optimistically predicting that Threads could become the first online public square that attracts a billion users
Doesn’t Facebook already have more than 1 billion users?
I'm guessing it's a poorly worded way to say that Threads will reach 1 billion users before Twitter. Otherwise, I don't know. Facebook has almost 3 billion users.
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