Live data from Hacker News

Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

techcrunch.com

341–350 of 371 posts

Re: Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

#341
post #340
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Can you please stop posting flamewar comments to HN? You've unfortunately been doing it repeatedly. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for, and we eventually have to ban such accounts. I've banned some of the other accounts who were posting flamebait stuff in this thread, because they didn't have much history and some look like serial trolls. I don't want to ban your account because it's been aro…

[deleted]

Re: Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

#342
post #256

I don't have an Instagram account so I tried to create one to try Threads. I used my real name and phone number but it was instantly banned as soon as it was created. I submitted an appeal, which required a selfie taken while holding a piece of paper with my username on it, which I provided. The next day I got an automated email that the selfie wasn't "acceptable" (no further elaboration) and that I was permanently b…

I couldn’t log in to Instagram for over a year due to a bug with my account. At first, there was no recourse. Then, they released Meta Verified, which offered customer support for a monthly subscription fee. It took about 50 emails back and forth (most some version of “I’m sorry, there’s nothing we can do”) before they finally fixed it for me. I deleted it shortly after. I really hope all the developers and artists I…

At least you could close your account.

My twitter account is banned. Not sure why as I've never used it. I can neither activate it or delete it, or contact support, as they all require a working account.

Their entire system is falling apart, but maybe this one is intentional.

Re: Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

#343
post #256

I don't have an Instagram account so I tried to create one to try Threads. I used my real name and phone number but it was instantly banned as soon as it was created. I submitted an appeal, which required a selfie taken while holding a piece of paper with my username on it, which I provided. The next day I got an automated email that the selfie wasn't "acceptable" (no further elaboration) and that I was permanently b…

Some years ago I tried to sign up for Twitter and got immediately banned for suspicious activity (following interesting people?).

They required I scan my photo id with address to unlock the account. I told them to go fuck themselve

Re: Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

#344
post #204

From what I have seen so far Threads seems to have been an incredibly rushed and premature launch, done directly to counter Twitter's missteps from the last few weeks. And the decision is proving to be the absolute correct one. What I don't understand is why Bluesky didn't seize the opportunity first. People were literally banging on their doors begging to be let in and they continued to go "sorry we are exclusive, i…

A social network being invite-only is such an obvious non-starter that I genuinely can't imagine the conversation that went into that decision. Assuming the basic underlying tech works more often that not (and ideally some story for community moderation), there's literally nothing I want from a Twitter competitor other than having everyone on it . My interest in a Twitter competitor that is invite-only is and will al…

I don't know about this. I got onto Facebook circa 2007 when it expanded from Harvard to other universities and man did I love it for a few years. Facebook really ended up being a major extension of my college experience. That was when it was just students, and it really had that new freshman undergrad social feel to it where it was all about linking up with new people you just met and seeing what they're up to and flirting and sharing pics and planning events.

I kind of feel like Google was onto something with the "circles" idea and it's not clear to me why something like that didn't catch on. I don't want to share everything with the whole world. My college friends, my professional contacts, my family - these are all social circles that I'd want to be connected to with a service like this, but in separate buckets that don't overlap (or only somewhat overlap).

So from a user's point of view, exclusive/invite-only can be really appealing. But if you're thinking from a "make as much money for the company as possible" point of view then yeah anything that limits the number of potential customers you can attract is going to hurt.

Re: Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

#345
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's great and all, but my kids daycare posts photos on a private Facebook channel. Oh and birthday parties come in on Facebook. And I sold stuff on Facebook marketplace that I wasn't able to sell ok craigslist. It's just a useful ubiquitous app. You can use the features you like. I don't see what the point of taking such an absolutist stance decrying the app as evil. Im just trying to raise a few kids, go to some…

> Im just trying to raise a few kids, go to some parties and sell some junk around the house None of these things should require selling your soul or firstborn rights to Facebook, right? But somehow it does, and we should be angry at this.

At whom? You, your friends and family are the ones who chose to make this the method. If most people didn't have Facebook accounts, it wouldn't be the default for these things.

Re: Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

#346
post #256

I don't have an Instagram account so I tried to create one to try Threads. I used my real name and phone number but it was instantly banned as soon as it was created. I submitted an appeal, which required a selfie taken while holding a piece of paper with my username on it, which I provided. The next day I got an automated email that the selfie wasn't "acceptable" (no further elaboration) and that I was permanently b…

It's outrageous they refuse to allow user defined and owned identities. This is where government oversight is needed to give sovereign identity to the account owner not Meta or any other databroker dressed up as a platform provider.

That's part of what the EU is trying to do with the Digital Markets act, and also the reason Threads isn't available there yet.

Re: Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

#347
post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if this is the reason, but BlueSky doesn't appear to have a trust/safety moderation team that can operate at full scale. I mean, neither does twitter, but Jack understands that some people do want that. On the other hand, it's much easier for Meta to launch since they already have those people in place for Instagram and Facebook.

No one cares. Seriously. The order should be: 1. Generate hype 2. Launch the MVP 3. Focus on growth and scaling 4. Add new features 5. Figure out trust & safety and the rest of the long tail of problems Diverting resources to focus on problems before they become problems is the #1 recipe for failure for startups, and bluesky seems hell bent on it.

Moderation is a key feature of the MVP. If a horde of n-word spewing, cp posting spambots is the image that gets shared on newssites, it's dead in the water.

Re: Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

#348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They generally believe that nearly everyone living in a western nation will already be in their user database. Ie. your friends will have already uploaded your phone number to them, or you'll already have an account on one of their other products (Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram). If you are an adult and they don't have any record of you, then you're probably a fraudster, bot, scammer, or someone else they don't want,…

> The way to get unbanned is to make sure at least 30 or so friends have your phone number in their contacts list synced to facebook, all with similar names, and then sign up to instagram with that phone number. That requires someone with a whole lot more motivation than me. I'll pass.

From their perspective, you're not worth advertising to unless you're "social"

Re: Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

#349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How 1984 is that ?

There are many examples floating about of Threads being very paternalistic regarding what opinions are allowed. This instance, however, is just "bad automated system fails basic scenario". OP never even had a chance to engage in thought crimes.

He's just not worth the ad dollars vs spammer equation

Re: Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

#350
post #286
post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It works extremely well - it guarantees you know* someone on the social network. No empty feeds, no literally-no-one to talk at, you have someone you can ask questions about the site, etc. Speaking from experience working on a social site with loads of signup flow experiments: the results are consistently wild . It's no competition on all the normally-valued metrics like interactions and retention. *for some degree o…

It guarantees you know one person on the network. And if you like it and want to invite everyone else – tough luck. Threads solved the cold start problem by not having a personal feed at all at launch. There is only a single algorithmically curated one, prioritizing first/second/third/etc degree connections and otherwise showing content from everyone else. So the place always felt alive from day 1.

Unfortunately, they likely used AI to sock puppet and prime that pump, along with simply already having a user base.

Nothing very special about those shortcuts. Had they had a standalone system, it's not be much better than all the other attempts. This is akin to how Snoy launched the playstation.

Post reply on HN