Threads.net
threads.netFor those not in the loop: Meta to launch Twitter-like Application Threads on Thursday.
"Threads, Instagram's text-based conversation app, is expected to be released on Thursday and will allow users to follow the accounts they follow on the photo-sharing platform and keep the same username, a listing on Apple's App Store showed."
https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2023-07-03/...
Oh great, so it's gonna be unusable for me anyways. Couple days ago tried to make my first Instagram account. When it came to the step where I had to enter the security code they mailed me I just got "sorry something went wrong" repeatedly for about an hour, then I gave up.
Couple days later I tried again but used my own domain for email instead of gmail this time. Entering the code worked but I was immediately greeted with "your account has been banned because of suspicious activity". They wanted my phone number so I could appeal. Fuck you Mark Zuckerberg.
Just tried to create an account right now and had the same issue, they though it was a spam account...
how is that so restrictive and yet Instagram is full of bots?
If you're willing to give and verify phone numbers, scans of government IDs, and other personal data, it's pretty easy to get your account unbanned. (assuming it works like facebook)
An impasse if you care about privacy, but less so if all you care about is staying on the site.
Perhaps by design. If you care too much about how much information you share, then Instagram / Meta aren’t interested in having you on their platform.
You're obviously going to need to give them a phone number. I'm surprised you were able you back an account at all without one.
had the same happen to me a while ago, also gave up.
Finally a public forum controlled by the right kind of people.
With Firefox "Enhanced Tracking Protection" turned on, the requests to fbcdn.net domains are blocked and I just get a blank page. With it turned off, it's just an abstract splash image with a 2-day countdown and a QR code that opens links to the mobile app stores.
Presumably at some point the trackers list Firefox uses will be updated to mark Threads as a Facebook property and allow those [fbcdn.net] resources to be loaded [there].
[edits]
I feel like "allowing Facebook properties" and "Firefox tracker protection" are fundamentally at odds.
It depends on what the goal is: in this case, fbcdn is first-party for the threads website (because they’re both owned by the same company) and blocking it makes for a worse experience.
Yes, this is what I meant. Facebook properties are allowed to load resources from Facebook domains. https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect-tracking-protecti...
on firefox, facebook sites get put into their own special sandboxed container
If you have the Facebook Container extension installed you can manually whitelist this site which will allow it to load.
Someone at Facebook hates concurrent programming and is aiming to do for threads what Stack Overflow did for google searches for info about stack overflows.
I assume you remember when Facebook launched their 'Hack' programming language. This should be less of an issue. unless you're looking for the BBC series about nuclear war.
"Threads" is already extremely overloaded as a term (the computer science concept, the linguistic concept, the apocalyptic BBC show, the clothes....) Search engines cope.
As you say, Hack (and Go...) were both more problematic names.
Whoever owned this domain before April 7 got a nice windfall. According to Wayback Machine, it has just been squatted since 1997, when it was first registered.
I wonder if there will be any confusion issues with Threads.com which is some kind of team communication app (advertises itself as a Slack replacement for makers).
Mastodon communities are already coordinating trying to fully defederate threads. This is definitely going to be interesting to watch as a big whale jumps into the fediverse with the intent to profit
That's why nobody takes the 'fediverse' seriously.
Threads is not the first server being blocked because moderator x don't like the owner of that server. Imagine if signing up for a @gmail.com email meant that you can't send or receive emails from @outlook.com addresses because the owner is mad at Microsoft.
They could have taken this as a big opportunity to make ActivityPub mainstream but nah, let's keep gatekeeping our bubbles. They're the only losing.
> Imagine if signing up for a @gmail.com email meant that you can't send or receive emails from @outlook.com
This already happens for certain addresses / domains / source ranges. Although most of the time it's some big email provider ignoring a small one.
folks are quite happy in the fediverse so I dont really see the "losing" here. if "losing" means not having to welcome an army of trolls taunting them as "loser gatekeepers" then lose away
The only way to stay away from trolls is running an instance at localhost without any networking. I thought social applications were meant to connect people.
I haven’t had an issue on mastodon with trolls yet. Seems like I’ve been able to connect with people, without really having to deal with trolls.
If that’s losing, then so be it. I’ll happily lose in a smaller community, with people I’d rather talk to.
Instagram is a more oriented community. I do not care about Facebook, but on IG I have a lot of likewise minded people. Making this into a more sprawling community platform makes sense.
This is one thing I kind of hate about Mastodon.
And your example isn't even accurate to what is happening.
Imagine signing up for @gmail.com meant you can't send to anyone at @outlook.com because like 2 users on Outlook said something "kind of rude" if you take it out of context and get over sensetive about EVERYTHING.
Like, I am all for inclusion, and fuck rude people etc, but you can see an e tire instance blocked because one user was a jackass to one tiny server admin who stuck the offending instance on some unmoderated blacklist website with something vague like "hate speech".
Its over the top.
>They could have taken this as a big opportunity to make ActivityPub mainstream but nah, let's keep gatekeeping our bubbles. They're the only losing.
Just curious, what do you mean by "mainstream?" Did you really mean widespread adoption of ActivityPub (AP) or did you mean "one additional instance of an AP instance that has millions of users?"
Meta getting into the Fediverse doesn't do anything to make AP "mainstream," rather it exposes the existing users of the Fediverse to a single instance that has the users that many of those in the Fediverse setup/joined instances to get away from.
What's more, Meta's business model (hyping conflict and clickbait to drive engagement and ad revenue) is antithetical to many in the fediverse.
As such, it's not surprising that many admins don't want anything to do with them, as they've shown themselves to be bad actors on their own platform. And that's the main reason admins ban instances -- because they're (at least from the admin's point of view) bad actors.
It's almost enough to get me to federate my AP instances just so I can ban/block Meta. But I don't even want to federate with extant AP instances, so I won't bother.
I've seen some talk on my feed about servers potentially defederating mastodon.social if they don't defederate with Facebook. And that's "official" server hosted by the project and probably the biggest server. Definitely would make it confusing for those users who just want it to work when they can't interact with users on other servers.
Have you ever heard of Embrace, Extend, Extinguish?
The wider fediverse continues to demonstrate why most people prefer to stick to centralized social media. If I wanted to deal with moral busybodies who feel like they have to respond to everything, I'd just tune back into the political side of Reddit and Twitter.
With the fediverse, the most likable servers I've interacted with all just let people do whatever they want as long as it isn't illegal and doesn't overload the server. It's great not having to see the moderators and admins freaking out over yet another perceived slight against their ideology every other day.
Isn’t the point of the fediverse that you can choose the servers that moderate the way you want?
And I can choose the ones that moderate the way I want?
That can work for those of us who don't mind figuring all that stuff out, I too went through a few accounts to understand how everything worked before finally setting up my own server, but most people just want something they can rely on being relatively out of the way rather than switching accounts whenever they don't agree with moderation decisions.
Thus my emphasis on why most people would rather just deal with centralized social media than the fediverse. That way there isn't any additional research to do, you just make an account and tolerate the terrible moderation. No additional steps about worrying about if the specific server you're on is agreeable, no need to worry about self-hosting.
Eg none of my friends were interested in doing all that research, so the only way to get them into the fediverse was on my server. Now that they're there, they're able to use it however they want and just block for themselves whatever they personally don't want to see.
Of course servers have the option to do whatever they want, which is great, but that doesn't mean they can't be criticized.
> Of course servers have the option to do whatever they want, which is great, but that doesn't mean they can't be criticized.
It's just that to a lot of us, that isn't a thing that makes much sense to be criticized. Like complaining that there's no lovely exhaust smell from an electric car.
To a lot of us it not being a massive central server that is instantly viable for everyone on the planet is the good thing.
Many of us don't want everyone on the Fedi. We want people interested in the premise of what the Fedi gives. Which inherently is tied to being okay with uninterested people not joining.
I've been on Mastodon for ~8 months (or w/e). Back in November, all the people claiming it was just a fad, that it would never exceed Twitter, were doom saying all through Jan/etc when the flood didn't cripple Mastodon. Yet there i and everyone i knew on it was, just using it.
The only interesting/concerning thing here is just having Facebook on ActivityPub.
I love that the fediverse gives you those options.
Some will choose to federate with it (if it's an option), some won't. Just as they do with other instances. That's the beauty of it. Fragmentation is not a bug, it's a feature.
Would be nice if people linked to the site. https://fedipact.online/
Which makes no sense.
They wanted Google to federate. They still want Apple to open messages (xmpp)... And this? Block it before we see it.
(a) It's not necessarily the same 'they'.
(b) The mechanics of XMPP vs ActivityPub (ie point to point messages vs social media stuff) are very different.
(c) It's Facebook, and a lot of people really, really, _really_ don't trust Facebook, particularly on the privacy side. I think if this was, say, Tumblr/Automattic, or even Google bringing Buzz back from the dead, the knee-jerk reaction would be lesser, even if the potential _problems_ would be similar; Facebook just has a horribly compromised reputation (note that they _renamed_ themselves, which is not generally what you do when you have a well-regarded brand).
It is social media. The information is in the open already. If you are concerned, don't post on a public site.
The concerns were about them seeing your messages. Well, they can scrape or use RSS anyway to get your info. Threads isn't eveb needed for this.
I'm not saying the extra level of concern RE Facebook is _rational_, in this instance, just that it's _there_, and that it shouldn't be surprising it's there, based on Facebook's prior record.
I am very positive about that.
Thr name change didn't do much. They are still colloquially known as Facebook. And meta also this bad vibe because of the failed metaverse.
It is smart they choose IG to use for this. It has a different user base. More around communities and interests, and less toxic?
These are not really the same thing.
First off, "they" is a diverse group of people with different opinions on all three of these topics. Secondly, assuming you're talking about RSS, what people wanted from Google wasn't federation but syndication. Google broke the deal and moved to their own solution, acting like they were never a part of RSS in the first place. They later admit they were wrong and added RSS functionality back. Third, people less want Apple to open messages and more want them to make a version of it that doesn't rely on Apple as a single point of failure. It makes iMessage functionally incomplete as an SMS successor.
And this? People will do whatever they want, across thousands of instances, and eventually people will decide whether they were right or not. The fact that these users even have the freedom to reject Meta outright is worth celebrating.
XMPP/Google Talk
They was generally speaking. Nothing about mastodon, Fediverse, pixelfed, or any of the other communities or platforms.
They probably meant one of Google's chat systems. Google Talk was federated with XMPP, and then they dropped it (a decade ago? longer?).
Yep, at least someone knows
My prediction is that this will be even less effective than the reddit blackout protests at actually accomplishing anything. It'll just make people feel like they're sticking it to the man without actually doing anything.
Well, depending on how well-moderated the Facebook thing turns out to be (I would not be particularly optimistic, though you never know) you avoid subjecting your users to all sorts of unpleasantness.
I'm keeping an open mind, for now (though I'm pessimistic, because, well, it's Facebook, and Facebook are _bad_ at this), but I may end up moving instance over this (either direction; maybe threads is a net benefit but my instance defederates, maybe it's bloody awful but my instance doesn't).
I actually see this as an upside of the federated approach; I get to choose whether I want exposure to this.
Anyone from the https://threads.com team around? This must be at least annoying
This is the comment I’ve been looking for!
This might turn into another Clubhouse/Shortcut situation
Stay strong, Threads (.com)
Well, thefacebook.com worked out eventually.
my first thought was that they are going to make a lot of money
I was curious and dug through whois:
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com Registrar URL: https://www.godaddy.com Updated Date: 2023-04-07T13:53:29Z Creation Date: 1997-05-27T23:00:00Z
Did they buy it from a squatter? Somebody with historical whois wanna take a look?
The chance to buy such a domain on the primary market (registrar) is close to zero, so they had to buy it back from someone.
Looking at DNS history, there have been several DNS delegation updates this year (potentially between AWS -> GCP -> AWS) until it finally made its way to Facebook less than a month ago. There was no update in 2022, so such migrations are not typical for this domain.
Imagine how down on Facebook making a Twitter clone everyone would be if it weren't for Mr. E.R. Musk.
I mean, that would be a completely different situation. The only reason it makes any sense for Facebook to even try this is that Twitter has spent the last nine months or so repeatedly shooting itself in the foot. As it is, there's a vacuum. Particularly this week; really remarkable timing on their side.
Now, it's Facebook, so I don't have particularly high hopes for it being any good. But they really were handed a remarkable opportunity by Twitter's... recent decisions.
At this point it's like the ending of Jurassic Park, when the T-Rex comes and scoops up the velociraptor.
I hope Elon gets his ass whooped enough that he snaps out of being a weirdo.
Facebook did clone twitter back when they added the news feed, six months after twitter launched.
Imagine how badly Elon wishes he could broadcast a response to this. If only his website weren't DDOSed and his users not rate-limited.
If this is dropping in 3 days, I foresee a rough return from the holiday weekend for Twitter employees. Musk will be reaching "my kingdom for a horse" levels of desperation at terminal velocity.
If you can't be bothered decoding the QR code:
seriously why put it behind a QR code, why not make it a clickable link. It's not just threads, I see this annoying design pattern everywhere and I cannot fathom why people are doing this
So you have to go get out your phone to scan it, at which point, "Hey, I already have my phone out, might as well download the app!".
On a mobile browser it just has a "Get the app" button.
But I’m already on my iPad and still see this QR code. Is the expectation that I would get my phone out to scan the QR? Is there no iPad app?
Per the app store page it does not appear to have an iPad-specific app or layout. It's just the iPhone layout.
Right, the app store link doesn't appear to open anything for me, so I was wondering what's up. That would explain something.
…except I (apparently) can't, for (apparently) 2 days an change.
A QR code that was frustratingly difficult to decode. I think all the cutesy artsy-ness of it was not helping.
Just a black screen?
Firefox tracking protection?
Yes, that was it!
Try with a Webkit browser.
I get it: Twitter is under pressure
Love it.
But, I generally feel social media is dying in far bigger ways than just these dilutions.
People don't trust it, and are caring far less.
The hey-day and the novelty has completely worn of for the majority who are not narcissistic enough to put the energy in to arguing or self-promoting.
Reality is king! Musk and Zuck and Xi are just all jostling for slices of a crusty, smelly pie.
According to scattered sources of dubious authenticity, daily active users
- 500 million - Instagram
- 150 million - Snapchat
- 50 million - TikTok
People slow down for car accidents, too.
The days of simple joy when connecting with friends on Facebook are well behind us.
People understand it's a certain type of person who actively posts their photo on Facebook and their opinion on twitter. While the majority of normal people remain lukewarm at best.
How is Snapchat 3 times of TikTok? Is it due to the ban in India?
>People don't trust it, and are caring far less.
not trusting or caring so much about social media is the absolute best thing that can happen to social media. and i don't mean that in a negative way, i don't hate social media. it should be a fun thing, people blindly trusting it or caring too much about it makes it less fun.
Remember when Instagram was just grainy pictures of your friends and the weird new person that they were dating, and some nice artists and crafters? Then they decided it was a Snapchat and Tiktok clone and... now we're at Twitter clone? Or is it a Reddit clone? Why must everything get so inbred?
This is Meta's Twitter clone, seeded with Instagram accounts.
The screenshot text: "Keep your username", "Find your followers", "Connect over conversation", "Share your point of view"
Are the targets of this professional influencers and narcissists?
Not working on Firefox on android. You'd think a company as big as Facebook would get this right.
If you're like me, it's probably due to enhanced tracking protection settings. A lot of Facebook domains get blocked
Thx that explains it. Still not going to turn off tracking protection to look at a countdown timer.
How much are people expecting to see for a site that hasn't launched?
The APK for anyone who wants to play: https://easyupload.io/1ajjmu
Zombo.com did it better
Extremely Apple-looking placeholder page.
I bet this is Facebook just from the color scheme. The orange purple thing is instagrams color scheme