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Threads, an Instagram app

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Re: Threads, an Instagram app

#801

Post by travisgriggs »

afavour wrote: post #234
mullingitover wrote: post #93

I'm calling it now, this is going to hollow out twitter in extremely rapid fashion. I give twitter a couple of months once this launches, they'll do a Wile E Coyote where they walk off the cliff, followed by plummeting. Meta is going to grind the blue bird to a fine powder, not saying this as a Meta fan, just a casual observer. There's massive pent-up demand for an alternative, and so far Bluesky and Mastodon haven't…

I couldn't disagree more. I don't see any sign Meta understands what made Twitter great, and the fact that they're heavily branding it with Instagram, using Instagram logins etc suggests to me that they're just looking for another angle to vacuum up user data. Maybe I'm unusual but the accounts I follow on Instagram and Twitter do not have a huge amount of crossover so the fact that their onboarding process tries to…

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Re: Threads, an Instagram app

#802

Post by bogwog »

dstaley wrote: post #83
jeroenhd wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most big servers seem to be in a pact to defederate from Facebook before it even goes online. I also remember the rumours stating that the Federation part was exclusively targeting large Mastodon servers, and also mostly unidirectional (from Mastodon to Threads). I don't think the federation support will be all that great from what I've heard. But who knows, maybe it'll bring the Fediverse to the mainstream.

What's great is I can easily swap to an instance that is federating! Unidirectional federation sounds like a nightmare on the UX side, so if that's the case I imagine it'd be Threads to Mastodon, enabling you to follow (but not interact) with Threads users.

> Unidirectional federation sounds like a nightmare on the UX side

What do you mean by this? If you're a Mastodon user, you'd just see Threads users on your feed, and be able to reply/boost/etc their posts normally.

Re: Threads, an Instagram app

#803

Post by gemstones »

afavour wrote: post #234
mullingitover wrote: post #93

I'm calling it now, this is going to hollow out twitter in extremely rapid fashion. I give twitter a couple of months once this launches, they'll do a Wile E Coyote where they walk off the cliff, followed by plummeting. Meta is going to grind the blue bird to a fine powder, not saying this as a Meta fan, just a casual observer. There's massive pent-up demand for an alternative, and so far Bluesky and Mastodon haven't…

I couldn't disagree more. I don't see any sign Meta understands what made Twitter great, and the fact that they're heavily branding it with Instagram, using Instagram logins etc suggests to me that they're just looking for another angle to vacuum up user data. Maybe I'm unusual but the accounts I follow on Instagram and Twitter do not have a huge amount of crossover so the fact that their onboarding process tries to…

As a counterpoint: I don’t use Twitter. I don’t tweet, but I care about reading other people’s tweets. But I never made an account on Twitter, because I would have to curate feeds and create an account, and it’s friction for something that’s ultimately not worth that much to me.

But: I’ve already curated Instagram. My alderman posts things there, the sports teams I care about announce things there, local businesses have accounts there. If they suddenly gain the ability to tweet, great! I’m a new customer that Twitter couldn’t convert before. I’ll check it, and they can serve me ads.

When journalists realize that a broader audience of people are reading stuff there, they will follow the eyeballs. The fact that they are on Twitter will cease to matter.

Re: Threads, an Instagram app

#804

Post by cmrdporcupine »

modernerd wrote: post #481

“Soon, you’ll be able to follow and interact with people on other fediverse platforms, like Mastodon. They can also find you with your full username @username@threads.net.” [1] Did not expect Fediverse integration from Meta. [1] https://9to5google.com/2023/07/03/threads-instagram-app-coun...

It won't last -- if it even launches with this feature -- pretty sure.

As others have pointed out, most hosts will simply de-federate them pretty quickly anyways, and then it will become a useless feature that they turn off.

I suspect it will be one-way anyways, to capitalize on the existing content produced by Mastodon users out there already while they bootstrap. There's no way they'd offer their own content up into the fediverse without the ability to tie it to ads and engagement.

Given the cold reception they've gotten, it will be interesting to see if this feature even makes launch.

Re: Threads, an Instagram app

#805

Post by blitzar »

nonethewiser wrote: post #751
afavour wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I couldn't disagree more. I don't see any sign Meta understands what made Twitter great, and the fact that they're heavily branding it with Instagram, using Instagram logins etc suggests to me that they're just looking for another angle to vacuum up user data. Maybe I'm unusual but the accounts I follow on Instagram and Twitter do not have a huge amount of crossover so the fact that their onboarding process tries to…

> and the fact that they're heavily branding it with Instagram, using Instagram logins etc suggests to me that they're just looking for another angle to vacuum up user data The same user data they already have from instagram? I think you’re missing the real reason they are leveraging instagram. Network effects. Instead of building a social microblogging platform from the ground up they are jumpstarting it by taking t…

> I think you’re missing the real reason they are leveraging instagram

Threads, a Facebook app - hel no. I would rather install the spying app TikTok on my phone than a Facebook branded property.

Re: Threads, an Instagram app

#806

Post by BasedAnon »

photonerd wrote: post #266
BasedAnon wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Musk's actions generally speaking make a lot of financial sense, it's just that he bought a company that wasn't founded on financial sense, and now all that debt requires payment because the economy is in tatters

His actions make zero financial sense. He bought it 30-40% overvalued, has tanked its income, destroyed its brand reputation, absolutely set fire to advertiser trust & safety. Most estimates put it at ~25% of the value he paid 7 months ago. All the debt you mention? He saddled them with that. That was t there until he came along. Another failure. About the only positive financial thing you can say he did is cut payro…

>has tanked its income

Income doesn't matter if you're not profitable.

>All the debt you mention? He saddled them with that.

No, Twitter was already in debt. The alternative was letting it die, which mind you I don't think would have been a bad idea, but if Musk's goal is to keep it alive then the huge amounts of debt would certainly do that.

>Unfortunately he did that at the expense of site stability & reliability.

The site did not have the efficiency or importance to warrant the number of employees it had.

Re: Threads, an Instagram app

#807

Post by bogwog »

dstaley wrote: post #7

As a Mastodon/Fediverse user, I hope the rumors that this is based on ActivityPub are true. I'd love for there to be an easy-to-use interface for everyone that brings more people and content into the Fediverse.

You should look into the story of XMPP and how it got killed by Google. The situation is pretty much identical to what Facebook is doing here, and the ending will likely be the same: once Meta gets enough users, they'll subtly break federation with ActivityPub, and everyone will just move to Threads because that's where all the content is. So, in the end, we end up with just another centralized app owned by a tech giant.

Re: Threads, an Instagram app

#808

Post by BasedAnon »

snowwrestler wrote: post #293
BasedAnon wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Musk's actions generally speaking make a lot of financial sense, it's just that he bought a company that wasn't founded on financial sense, and now all that debt requires payment because the economy is in tatters

I agree with you in part: Twitter needed its costs slashed even before the acquisition, and the post-acquisition debt load made it into a crisis. But on top of cutting costs, Musk has also made terrible product and communication decisions that killed significant amounts of revenue and audience.

Killed audience? Most certainly, but as far as revenue I do think he's making headway. The fact is once you start demanding money for things people leave. The idea that users = money has never been true.

Re: Threads, an Instagram app

#809

Post by HenriTEL »

dbbk wrote: post #782
Remmy wrote: post #525

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Threads isn't even a new app from them. It was discontinued just a few years ago. This is a relaunch with a more Twitter like experience.

It is a new app, it's just reusing a previous brand name, it has nothing to do with the previous app.

Come on, the previous Threads was also Instagram’s standalone messaging service.

Re: Threads, an Instagram app

#810

Post by QuantumGood »

rsynnott wrote: post #711
afavour wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I couldn't disagree more. I don't see any sign Meta understands what made Twitter great, and the fact that they're heavily branding it with Instagram, using Instagram logins etc suggests to me that they're just looking for another angle to vacuum up user data. Maybe I'm unusual but the accounts I follow on Instagram and Twitter do not have a huge amount of crossover so the fact that their onboarding process tries to…

> I don't see any sign Meta understands what made Twitter great I mean, it's extremely clear that current Twitter leadership doesn't understand that either. They're not competing with Twitter at its prime (or at least its peak influence; personally I preferred it when it was a lot smaller in the early 10s) from a few years ago; they're competing with a website that just went completely dark to the public internet and…

Making a Twitter-like service profitable is difficult. To attempt it, you need

(1) Network effects

(2) Infrastructure competency

I think Facebook can provide these faster at a higher level than anyone else who is attempting it. For profit, things that would help include:

(1) No need for profitability

(2) Profit synergies with an existing business

Again, Facebook is a strong competitor here. They can start at #1 and integrate to achieve #2

To get people to switch from Twitter to your service it helps to have:

(1) Brand recognition

(2) Also be a social network

(3) A marketing budget

However, I think getting people to switch is the hardest part for any network; it's affected by many factors. There is also the consideration of getting them to switch, stay, and not be pulled away by a future competitor.

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