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Threads has passed 2M sign ups in the first 2 hours

threads.net

111–120 of 356 posts

Re: Threads has passed 2M sign ups in the first 2 hours

#111
Called it [1].

Threads is wildly feature-incomplete, but there's so much demand for a twitter alternative that this is an embarrassingly one-sided product fight. For a 0.0.1-alpha version to steamroll into the space like this, it's now just a matter of the long goodbye for twitter as it becomes a space where you go to find someone's Threads handle.

I give it 24 hours, tops, until it eclipses the entire Fediverse, and Bluesky becomes an obscure historical footnote.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36580669

Re: Threads has passed 2M sign ups in the first 2 hours

#112

I'm amazed that people are willing to give facebook another try. Facebook filled our lives with rage-bait. (Not even going to touch the elections manip) They took over instagram and removed the time based sorting with their algorithm. So fool me once, shame on you. Fool me, you can't get fooled again.

Anything is better than twitter at this point.

Well there’s plenty to choose from. Threads, Mastodon, Substack Notes, Post.News, Bluesky, and all the tangential copycats (Nostr, Spill, T2 Social, Truth Social, Hive).

We have to be reaching oversaturation in this space. I really wonder if all these projects are misjudging the appetite for a Twitter replacement.

Re: Threads has passed 2M sign ups in the first 2 hours

#113
post #12
post #5

Not having a news feed with just people I follow makes it near unusable. At the moment there is just too much garbage content from "influencers" cluttering the app, and very little you can do to curate it.

Apparently it’s coming https://www.threads.net/t/CuVlg88I84C/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA...

Unrelated. But this web interface is weird. There is no UI outside of the content except for their icon at the top. When you click it, instead of taking you to a home view, it toggles dark mode (!) If you go to https://www.threads.net you only get one button instructing you to get the app.

Is there any way to use this without the app?

Re: Threads has passed 2M sign ups in the first 2 hours

#114
post #7

That feels oddly low. It was released at 5ish PM PST on a Wednesday, and considering they have literally all of Instagram + Facebook's userbase to push it on, it seems pretty low. The "sign up" was also just a "log in with FB/Instagram" button where the form was already auto-filled. So it's not like people had to convert, it's pretty much about as pure a product-market-fit test you can get. Discoverability is also pr…

Haha, normally I'd agree. And, I think that's one of the reasons no big company put any real effort (that I'm aware of / can think of at the moment) into trying to create and deploy a twitter-like service.

The "Musko-cringian" empire is an unbelievably ridiculous gift, here. Some of the timing couldn't be better.

Now, even with that backdrop, it's quite likely "Threads" (ugh, ... marketroids) won't take off like wildfire. But, I think we're at something of a fork here. Either this will be the competition current incarnation Twitter needs to start turning things around, or Threads will capitalize on each future misstep, service outage / problem, etc.

Threads has a sort of balanced position, in terms of marketing / uptake. Absolutely not the multi-faceted "cachet" of Bluesky Social, rather, the opposite ... arguably even "less cool" than Twitter (was) ... But, it also has the low friction user sign on you mention, part of an ecosystem incredibly widely used (a winning formula in America, especially, is convenience - about the best marketing available, itself), plenty of technical heft behind it, etc.

It could easily displace Twitter, and I think more quickly than many might argue.

Re: Threads has passed 2M sign ups in the first 2 hours

#115

I'm amazed that people are willing to give facebook another try. Facebook filled our lives with rage-bait. (Not even going to touch the elections manip) They took over instagram and removed the time based sorting with their algorithm. So fool me once, shame on you. Fool me, you can't get fooled again.

Anything is better than twitter at this point.

Why?

Re: Threads has passed 2M sign ups in the first 2 hours

#116
post #48

> @zuck seeing that freaks face made me physically shudder. If they were smart they would distance this product from him as much as possible. it should be painfully obvious that he is toxic for this and any brand. pay him whatever, let him stay in charge, but please for the love of god STOP PUTTING him as the face of anything.

Elon was the best thing that could have happened to Zuck. He looks sane and reasonable by comparison.

Re: Threads has passed 2M sign ups in the first 2 hours

#117
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter had verification based on the account's noteworthiness, and now it doesn't. That was one of the main features of Twitter, and now Threads.net has it.

What does "noteworthy" mean? Who decides what's noteworthy?

Whoever wrote the bigger check. Damn that Elon to hell for standardizing the price for everyone.

Re: Threads has passed 2M sign ups in the first 2 hours

#118
post #77
post #7

That feels oddly low. It was released at 5ish PM PST on a Wednesday, and considering they have literally all of Instagram + Facebook's userbase to push it on, it seems pretty low. The "sign up" was also just a "log in with FB/Instagram" button where the form was already auto-filled. So it's not like people had to convert, it's pretty much about as pure a product-market-fit test you can get. Discoverability is also pr…

2 million users in 2 hours is incomparable to any social network growth rate I've seen. Where as the entire Fediverse has 11 million registered users in 7 years. I don't know how that 2M in 2 hours is 'oddly low' but at that rate, Threads will surpass the entire Fediverse in less than 24 hours and will be centralizing the Fediverse when it turns on ActivityPub.

Firefox, a desktop app in the era of desktop apps when the entire Internet was like 2 billion people got 8 million full downloads in a single day. That was about 15 years ago. FB/Insta/Meta getting about that, or certainly less than an order of magnitude more, is kind of joke, IMO.

Re: Threads has passed 2M sign ups in the first 2 hours

#119
post #30

I wonder how much the threads.net domain cost Updated Date: 2023-04-07T13:53:29Z Creation Date: 1997-05-27T23:00:00Z

It’s really strange, and awesome, to see them launch on a .net domain. I have a decent (8 letter) .com with the .net and others to match. I want to build something on the .net, so I hope this builds some awareness for the TLD.

I would love to hear an explanation of why they chose a .net. I always think of it as an OG TLD that throws back to a time when the internet didn’t suck, but I doubt that’s it. Lol.

It can’t be a cost thing, can it?

Re: Threads has passed 2M sign ups in the first 2 hours

#120
post #40

First impressions of the app are that it’s a bit slow and need some work. Some taps take several seconds to complete or just fail without feedback. But I guess that’s just server load that will even out and be designed around. Scrolling is not as fluid as either FB or IG, which is surprising given how much Meta invest in their feed. But better than most mastodon apps I’ve tried. Interface is pretty minimal and pleasa…

> Interface is pretty minimal and pleasant.

Agreed, but I don’t see any ads yet. Guessing they’re coming soon.

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