Threads has passed 2M sign ups in the first 2 hours • Hacker News Board

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

#201

Post by alxmng » Thu, Jul 06, 2023, 2:53 AM UTC

tradewinds wrote: post #170

I am really still trying to figure out what the problem is with Twitter...

I think Twitter is the best it’s ever been. Edit button, longform posts instead of threads, better videos, paid posts/subscriptions, and more.

I’ve never understood the complaints about hate speech or content, since you choose who to follow, can mute phrases, people, retweets, etc. I think community notes is probably the best anti-disinformation/fact check feature of any platform.

I don’t agree with everything they’ve done, but Musk clearly has made a better effort on product than any of the previous management.

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

#202

Post by NikolaNovak » Thu, Jul 06, 2023, 2:57 AM UTC

afavour wrote: post #92

I feel like there’s a chicken and egg problem for Threads: it uses your existing Instagram social graph to populate your Threads account. Of course FB is going to do that otherwise they lose a massive edge against any competitor. But for me at least my Twitter is a very different social space to my Instagram and there’s very little crossover. So Threads looks like it’ll be text posts with your Instagram friends. Whic…

There's an important point you make.

Google plus failed. But a few of us loved it, because of its interface and ease of managing for the large part, but also because we interacted differently with and with different people than on Facebook instagram etc.

Whereas Facebook to your point is dominated by my friends and family (but less and less their original content and more and more with copied "memes), Google plus rapidly developed shared circles of interesting people with interesting things to say. Thay we could flow. Pretty quickly my google plus was a rich mine of unbelievably high quality content from fabulous people. Not even HN has quite reached thay zenith for me.

(Twitter by all accounts does that for some. I have not been able to get over / subjugate it's insane formatting and threading limitations and sorting and algorithms and submit them to my will).

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

#203

Post by cmrdporcupine » Thu, Jul 06, 2023, 2:57 AM UTC

anonym29 wrote: post #75

impissedoff1 wrote: post #62

How about we not support data mining and go to Lemmy?

I'm starting to become convinced that a significant portion of internet users in 2023 not only tolerate data mining, but have some kind of Stockholm-Syndrome-induced personal data exhibitionism fetish. I miss the era when the internet was just broadband desktop users, with none of the people who exclusively access it via smartphone.

Dear god it's not even the data mining that I find disturbing. It's the blatant manipulation, the locked/closed spaces that can't be searched or linked to, the deliberate cultivation of outrage or other engagement hacks, crappy moderation, etc. etc.

I got put in Facebook jail for a month for posting an "indecent photo" which was just a picture of my son at the beach in his bathing suit that some algorithm misidentified... when I appealed, they punished me even harder; but when I report actual neo-NAZI content, death threats, disturbing content, illegal sales on marketplace... reports rejected.

I miss the fantasy we had about the web in 90s. How naive we were.

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

#204

Post by w-ll » Thu, Jul 06, 2023, 2:57 AM UTC

s3p wrote: post #132

ryan29 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Maybe because threads.com was taken by another company?

threads dot net was also taken, clearly from the gp post. I think they (fb/meta) prob reached out to both and the made an offer that couldn't refuse.

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

#205

Post by femto113 » Thu, Jul 06, 2023, 2:58 AM UTC

afavour wrote: post #92

I feel like there’s a chicken and egg problem for Threads: it uses your existing Instagram social graph to populate your Threads account. Of course FB is going to do that otherwise they lose a massive edge against any competitor. But for me at least my Twitter is a very different social space to my Instagram and there’s very little crossover. So Threads looks like it’ll be text posts with your Instagram friends. Whic…

Fortunately Meta has chickens and eggs. Bootstrapping the graph from Instagram hopefully means that Threads gets enough critical mass that Twitter->Threads tooling (ala Mastodon's Movetodon or Debirdify) will actually work becausethe people you follow on Twitter will already be on Threads when you run them.

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

#206

Post by jakebasile » Thu, Jul 06, 2023, 3:01 AM UTC

danielvaughn wrote: post #173

I cherish the fact that I got my Twitter account in 2009 and thus have my actual name "danielvaughn" as my handle. It's gonna take something really special to pull me away from Twitter, much as I dislike the direction it's going in. Threads is not special enough to pull me away.

I reserve my True Name anywhere I can, even if I don't think I'll use the service. If I can't get it, it's very likely I'll never use the service.

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

#207

Post by tradewinds » Thu, Jul 06, 2023, 3:03 AM UTC

alxmng wrote: post #201

tradewinds wrote: post #170

I am really still trying to figure out what the problem is with Twitter...

I think Twitter is the best it’s ever been. Edit button, longform posts instead of threads, better videos, paid posts/subscriptions, and more. I’ve never understood the complaints about hate speech or content, since you choose who to follow, can mute phrases, people, retweets, etc. I think community notes is probably the best anti-disinformation/fact check feature of any platform. I don’t agree with everything they’v…

That's exactly how I feel. If you look at the responses to my original comment, it's mostly unclear rambling or extremely mild exceptions. "Bad incentives", "weird decisions", "needing an account". My experience has been perfectly fine. I haven't seen anything I'd consider far-right or extremist, I don't pay a cent, I haven't hit a 1000-post daily limit because I have no use for 1000 Tweets in one day, and I've found a few new interesting groups of accounts to follow (mostly AI). When I hear some of these apparent negatives, I really don't understand what they mean or how that impacts anyone's actual user experience.

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

#208

Post by sp332 » Thu, Jul 06, 2023, 3:04 AM UTC

jamesgreenleaf wrote: post #133

dvt wrote: 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…

> I don't want to necessarily block MrBeast, I just don't want to see him when I don't follow him. Is there a mute feature like on Twitter? I use that all the time.

Yeah but there's also a chronological timeline option that just doesn't show me people I don't follow.

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

#209

Post by troymc » Thu, Jul 06, 2023, 3:05 AM UTC

alphabet9000 wrote: post #143

yeah, and they've effectively trapped those 2M users, because when you go to delete your Threads account, it will say [0] that by doing so it will also delete your Instagram account as well... ouch [0] https://i.jollo.org/xNFu9Qvd.png

You can check out any time you like

But you can never leave

from https://genius.com/Eagles-hotel-california-lyrics

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

#210

Post by nprateem » Thu, Jul 06, 2023, 3:05 AM UTC

For a community of entrepreneurs who understand iteration to find product-market fit, the comments here are very shortsighted. I'm pretty sure they won't age well.

No competitor could ask for a better time to launch with Twitter and Reddit users disaffected.

FB have the experience, reach, resources and timing to win here. Their biggest problems will be other well-funded attempts, but I can't think of any other blue-chips with the same experience or initial advantages (eg social userbase) to bootstrap with.

I'll be buying some FB shares later.