It's going to be wait and see on Threads. It's one thing to get people to sign up, but another to get them to stay. Obviously Meta has an advantage, but so far I haven't heard anyone singing Threads' praises as a great place to be. I'm currently a Threads refusenik, though I was a Facebook refusenik too until a friend created an Ada Lovelace Day event there and I had to sign up to manage it. I suspect I'll eventually get forced on to Threads too, but I'll resent every second of it.
It’s a nice place (so far) and there is so much space to expand into in terms of features (hashtags, content search) that it would be amazing if it failed.
Facebook always had far more users than Twitter, but Twitter still endured. (Y’know, until Elon.) The numbers certainly matter for social networks. But it’s not all about the numbers. There is a universe where Threads has close to a billion users but has also failed to become a Twitter replacement. (I am absolutely NOT advocating that we go back there.)
There were a couple of good takes on Threads that kinda nailed it for me.
Jason O. Gilbert on Substack: “Twitter’s best service was instant takes on breaking news. Are bland, micromanaged Instagram celebs suddenly going to have something interesting to say during a presidential debate?” https://jogblog.substack.com/p/facebooks-threads-is-so-depressing
That’s basically how I feel using Threads. In a strange way, the Instagram funnel was actually a downside to me -- I curate different kinds of followers on both sites, and so my first exposure to Threads was a whole lot of “ugh, nope.”
Wait, aren't we all supposed to boo and hiss about billionaire-owned social networks, and tout (toot?) Mastodon and the Fediverse nowadays? I can never keep up.
Anyway, I remember back when Twitter first started, how happy all the "influencers" were about it. How they rhapsodized about the people they'd connect with, the ease of use, the way their fan club seemed to hang on every little thing they tweeted. And how I'd get a lot of flak for not liking it, partly due to the rampant bullying and harassment - which was not consider a major issue at the time, since then it was almost all "punching down" by the most prominent influencers.
Zuckerberg is much better at a certain type of chattering-class politics than the Great Musk Satan. Maybe this is the "MySpace moment" for Twitter. But we're just going from one billionaire who doesn't seem to understand the social media business to another billionaire who knows it very well.
I think this has the possibility of being a win-win. I hire a single user mastodon instance. It's very nice, connected to a community I can chat with each morning.
It's possible that Threads could federate even with me, ultimately. Because why not? I'm not going to steal a million users off them, let alone the billions they normally think of. They can be "open" at no real cost.
And yes actually. I am a grey beard running Linux. I fit the profile.
It's going to be wait and see on Threads. It's one thing to get people to sign up, but another to get them to stay. Obviously Meta has an advantage, but so far I haven't heard anyone singing Threads' praises as a great place to be. I'm currently a Threads refusenik, though I was a Facebook refusenik too until a friend created an Ada Lovelace Day event there and I had to sign up to manage it. I suspect I'll eventually get forced on to Threads too, but I'll resent every second of it.
It’s a nice place (so far) and there is so much space to expand into in terms of features (hashtags, content search) that it would be amazing if it failed.
Oh yeah, much as I'd like it to fail, it won't.
The thing is, what is failure here?
Facebook always had far more users than Twitter, but Twitter still endured. (Y’know, until Elon.) The numbers certainly matter for social networks. But it’s not all about the numbers. There is a universe where Threads has close to a billion users but has also failed to become a Twitter replacement. (I am absolutely NOT advocating that we go back there.)
There were a couple of good takes on Threads that kinda nailed it for me.
Ed Zitron on Bluesky: “Threads is what you would get if only Twitter Blue users were allowed to post.” https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social/post/3jzsxltwgni2e
Jason O. Gilbert on Substack: “Twitter’s best service was instant takes on breaking news. Are bland, micromanaged Instagram celebs suddenly going to have something interesting to say during a presidential debate?” https://jogblog.substack.com/p/facebooks-threads-is-so-depressing
That’s basically how I feel using Threads. In a strange way, the Instagram funnel was actually a downside to me -- I curate different kinds of followers on both sites, and so my first exposure to Threads was a whole lot of “ugh, nope.”
Wait, aren't we all supposed to boo and hiss about billionaire-owned social networks, and tout (toot?) Mastodon and the Fediverse nowadays? I can never keep up.
Anyway, I remember back when Twitter first started, how happy all the "influencers" were about it. How they rhapsodized about the people they'd connect with, the ease of use, the way their fan club seemed to hang on every little thing they tweeted. And how I'd get a lot of flak for not liking it, partly due to the rampant bullying and harassment - which was not consider a major issue at the time, since then it was almost all "punching down" by the most prominent influencers.
Zuckerberg is much better at a certain type of chattering-class politics than the Great Musk Satan. Maybe this is the "MySpace moment" for Twitter. But we're just going from one billionaire who doesn't seem to understand the social media business to another billionaire who knows it very well.
I’m staying away from all corporate-owned social media, and that includes Threads and Twitter.
You can find me on Mastodon. No ads, no Musk, no Zuckerberg, no algorithms 🤗
Running Linux on the desktop too?
I think this has the possibility of being a win-win. I hire a single user mastodon instance. It's very nice, connected to a community I can chat with each morning.
It's possible that Threads could federate even with me, ultimately. Because why not? I'm not going to steal a million users off them, let alone the billions they normally think of. They can be "open" at no real cost.
And yes actually. I am a grey beard running Linux. I fit the profile.
😂