Are you going to try Meta's Threads?

Edu4rdSHL@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 260 points –

Will people here use/try Meta's #threads when available? Would love to know the reasons or if it would be just for fun/curiosity.

The amount of data collected is insane imo.

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Definitely not. I didn't come to the Fediverse to be under social media companies again.

Almost same take here - but I also understand that there may be some people which would use/try it for whatever reasons.

They can try all day. I will not. Mastodon it is for me.

The amount of data collected is so insane that it won't come out in the EU for now. And I like it that way.

It doesn't have to come to EU to get this data though, all it has to do is start federating. I'm really curious how is that all going to work out, legally speaking.

Not totally true, the real value is combining data from different sources, but since the data they get wont have your email /ip/device/contacts etc it will be a lot harder to harvest usefully for advertising. Maybe they will figure out things to use it, but what they can use is already quite public, so they don't really need to federatie for that

Everything I don't like about twitter combined with everything I don't like about Facebook? hard pass.

This. To quote Friar Tuck from ROBIN HOOD PRINCE OF THIEVES: “I’d rather roast in hell.”

I stay the fuck away from anything Meta/Facebook, so absolutely not.

I wish more people would adopt this approach.

Thanks to @m0bi13 who posted this breakdown for context :

Data collected by #threads:

  • Health & Fitness


  • Financial info


  • Contact info


  • User content


  • Browsing History


  • Usage Data


  • Diagnostics


  • Purchases


  • Location


  • Contacts


  • Search history


  • Identifiers


  • Sensitive Info


  • Other Data

Oh fuck no. The very first line is basically a HIPAA violation. It gets worse from there. We require less disclosure from Supreme Court Justices and Presidential nominees.

This is a trainwreck waiting to happen - even if Facebook itself doesn't abuse this level of power, you know that bad actors within the organization will. And once the information is collected, you know that tyrannical governments all over the world will be falling over themselves to get access to the data. This is a stalker's wetdream, an Orwellian orgasm of truly grotesque proportions.

Keep the Fediverse from Zucking. Just say no to Threads.

It’s not a HIPPA violation. That law doesn’t apply to companies like Meta beacause they do not fit the definition of an entity that the law was written towards. This is just people freely giving away their personal health information and nothing more. From your own link:

The HIPAA Privacy Rule establishes national standards to protect individuals' medical records and other individually identifiable health information (collectively defined as “protected health information”) and applies to health plans, health care clearinghouses, and those health care providers that conduct certain health care transactions electronically.

So … medical information is only protected if handled by medical professionals. If the abusive mega-corporation owned by a psycho billionaire wants to do whatever the fuck they want with it, good luck.

HIPPA is a law that governs how people and companies within the healthcare system in the US are allowed (and required) to handle, protect, and share data. It was definitely needed, and rectified a lot of bad practices - health care providers were really very sloppy and cavalier about handling data - but even with that limited scope, it’s very complicated.

It doesn’t cover anybody else. Yes, health information SHOULD absolutely be protected more stringently so that OTHER major players can’t abuse your privacy, but that wasn’t the focus of HIPPA.

The gist of HIPAA is that the patient decides who knows their health status. If they want to announce every rash and sniffle on Meta and thus to every advertiser and government agent in existence, HIPAA won’t stop them.

Doctors are allowed to broadcast their own, personal health issues all over social media, but not anyone else’s.

"Banning me from your private platform violates my freedom of speech!"

an Orwellian orgasm of truly grotesque proportions.

Loved this. Is it still hyperbole if it is the best way to reflect the obscene abuse they are trying to pull off?

I think i will shamelessly start using it myself!

Lmao Zucking. Never heard that one before lol

I'm all for the outrage, but what did people expect? It's the same amount of information already collected through the Facebook and Instagram apps, it's nothing really new.

ETA: just to be extremely clear, that's a bad thing.

@Arotrios

@m0bi13 @edu4rdshl

Ok and how is this worse than what Facebook already does? Or TikTok? Or Instagram?

You list all these things as if this new platform is going to be the first and only thing to harvest all your personal data. Like it’s shocking and new and so much worse

How is it worse? It’s the same bullshit. If you already have Facebook, and most do unfortunately, they are already doing that. And I would bet TikTok takes this much and more and has worse actors.

It's worth nothing because it's trying to come here, hungry, grasping, looking to wriggle its tentacles into our federated spaces and suck as much content and data and joy out of us as possible. This is a coordinated corporate effort, with the backing of millions of dollars, to bring centralized control to federated spaces. Their play is that once those spaces become reliant on the traffic that Facebook brings, they'll acquiesce to the weight of the corporate presence, particularly when it comes to developing new features or engaging data security.

Big tech companies do this all the time with promising new open source projects, gaining control of them in the growth phase through their support and audience, and then throwing their weight around once their presence becomes a necessity. Plus, its very likely that the federated nature of instances means that if you post content on your instance of choice, it will end up on Facebook if federated with them. Right now, if you want to avoid the Zuckening, you can do so by not having Facebook, Insta, Tinder, or any of the services that motherzucker runs. If #threads becomes a thing the Fediverse relies on, you can bet your bottom dollar it will zuck the life out of the place if it can't directly control it.

@Arotrios

@m0bi13 @edu4rdshl

Absolutely. I completely agree. I have Facebook because I have friends and family that basically require I use that to contact them. Never downloaded messager or any other thing. Not that they don’t have everything from Facebook anyway.

But the person I was responding to wasn’t making the point that everything Zuck touches turns to shit and a money grab that torches user experience. Or that they are trying to stop any potential competitor or subsume them.

They’re saying “look at all this data it’s going to harvest!!! Isn’t that INSANE?!?” When it’s literally the same almost every social media app on your phone does/has. There are a ton of arguments against anything zuck touches. Pretending the data harvesting is going to be new or groundbreaking is dishonest. Especially when, as I said, I would bet tiktok does all that and more. And it goes to a much worse actor.

They’re saying “look at all this data it’s going to harvest!!! Isn’t that INSANE?!?” When it’s literally the same almost every social media app on your phone does/has.

Just stopping by to point out that these are in no way mutually exclusive. Just because existing social media collects an insane amount of data, doesn't mean the amount of data being collected by threads isn't also insane.

@Unaware7013

Of course not

Again the whole point of my comment is to express how UNORIGINAL it is what threads is doing

It’s terrible. I want no part of it. But we shouldn’t treat it as a brand new slew of invasions when it is most certainly the same invasions most people happily take.

But OP should make it seem like threads is going to be the first and only app that harvests that much, varied data. That’s dishonest.

I never got the impression that this was new or different from the comment OP, just that the level of data gathered was insane/over broad. Which I think we can all agree is the case.

Also, nothing in their post was incorrect, it's a stalkers wet dream, have wild potential for government abuse, and people within the org would abuse it - both things that we know are factually accurate given the shit that's gone down over the decades.

ALSO also, just because the current apps gather an insane amount of data doesn't mean the public is aware of the Faustian bargain they've agreed to. With new products/platforms being created, it's best to point out to everyone just how much they're giving up to join. I know I was one of those who had a Facebook for a while and bailed once I found out just how bad it was.

@Unaware7013

i think we can all agree with everything you said there.

I definitely got the impression from OP that you did not, but I am more than happy to admit I am not perfect, and I can take wrong meanings from things with the best of them.

cause i think we are all saying the same thing - this is fucking horrible, and no one should use any app of platform that harvests data from you this way. I just wanted to make it clear that this level of harvesting is not new. it's not, like, going beyond a new threshold. this is what everyone signs up for when they get tiktok or facebook or even messenger.

we should be angry but not act shocked. you know what i mean?

@bathrobe I don't know about tiktok, but I think that it is the same data that Facebook collects. And the worst is what we have at the end, "Other Data". That means, each moment Meta can decide to collect yet more things without to inform the user.

@m0bi13 @edu4rdshl @Arotrios

All of those are terrible and I refuse to use them for the same reasons. It isn't that it is worse, it is just more or the same.

@snooggums i guess i was the only one that read OP that way. I was trying to say that it's more of the same, that it isn't novel or new, and we shouldn't be surprised. my impression was OP was saying "look at how crazy this is" as in "no one has ever done this before!"

It's worse because a large portion of people here are the people who don't use Facebook/instagram/tiktok. So while this isn't a new extreme in terms of privacy breaches, it is a new level in terms of what's potentially affecting us directly.

I agree tiktak and so are probably the same or worse. But this doesn't mean that it is fine that the new app does it.

@Sephtis-6@kbin.social

@m0bi13 @edu4rdshl @Arotrios

I am not condoning it happening here. I’m saying it’s really bad that they can see your DMs. And people are trying to brush it off as if it’s no big deal

It’s a HUGE fucking deal. And it’s not acceptable in the slightest. There is a reason I don’t have TikTok or Snapchat or Instagram accounts and have never downloaded the apps. And it’s not because I’m super cool with this stuff.

Why does it need to be worse than the awful shit awful companies are already doing in order for it to be a concern?

Especially to people here?

Believe it or not, some of us aren't using any of those apps.

And maybe, just maybe, people should be horrified at what those other apps are collecting, top.

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@Arotrios Why would I want an inferior version of mastadon? But seriously I will likely only end up with one if they auto generate it. (a few family use ig and fb as their only communication so it's checked occasionally via web with adblockers etc....ugh).

@m0bi13 @edu4rdshl

You know, that every post or comment you make on lemmy/kbin can be sent to every federated instance and stored (collected) there? And those comments/posts may contain any of the information from the list, especially when aggregated from different sources and with all the basic meta-data available.

A company as big as meta needs to explicitly state that or they will have serious legal problems.

Of course, we know that Meta will want to abuse that data to monetize as much of it as possible and they have means to do so. On the other hand rogue federated instances could also abuse our data. That is the cost of being open. Company providing closed service can better protect our privacy, but we cannot trust them to do so (especially when the make money by processing and selling data).

I think those problems cannot be solved by technology – open or proprietary, but need to be solved by regulations and law enforcement. And at the same time the regulations should not block all data sharing, as then fediverse could not exist (now I wonder if lemmy/kbin can even be 'legal' according to GDPR, but IANAL). Tough problem.

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Nope. This company is on my blacklist and I won’t try anything they make.

Cries in Virtual Reality Headset

Let's see...

  • I despise Facebook/Meta.
  • I don't want to help Mark Zuckerberg get more money.
  • I was never fond of Twitter, either - an interesting concept, poorly executed.
  • If I did want a Twitter-ish post feed, there's Mastodon.

So no, I won't be trying out the Zuck's attempt to eat the Muskrat's lunch. Sounds like a gross spectacle no one asked for.

No webpage + only phone app interaction = NO, THANK YOU.

My brother in Christ, you're asking people on Lemmy if they're going to try meta spyware

I would have more privacy waking naked in the street

I wouldn't try meta's anything.

I wouldn't try a meta fire extinguisher if I was on fire.

It would first take all your clothes and then read your mind. Then it will make you accept COokies and figure out your height, weight, gender, friends and family. After all that it will finally work but it extuingishes the wrong fire

No, and I will go one step further by blocking the Threads domain assuming kbin itself doesn't choose to defederate from it.

The last thing I need in my life is to have my privacy debased by another data collection app disguising itself as social media, and even less to participate in another echo chamber shitshow like Facebook or Twitter. Hard pass…

It's just a cover for another data-collecting-machine made by the big players. **No thanks! **

Privacy-wise, I already use Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram, and I'm pretty sure that Mark Zuckerberg knows everything that he'd ever want to know about me. I largely believe in the conspiracy theory that Meta actively listens in on users in some way to serve them ads and targeted content, even if the evidence is circumstantial at best.

Despite this, would I still use Threads? Probably not.

Microblogging isn't my thing. 140 characters is nowhere near enough space to articulate your thoughts and it feels like the site was originally designed around SMS text message limitations more than anything. I also don't like how the only way you can get any genuine interaction on places like Twitter or even Mastodon is to be a celebrity.

I do agree that we should collectively defederate Threads much in the same way that everybody on the fediverse collectively blacklisted Gab, not necessarily as a fuck-you to Zuckerberg, but because a flood of Instagram normies would completely cripple other instances with traffic.

No.

  • As you pointed out way too many data permissions
  • While I'm not in the "everything for-profit companies does is inherently evil" camp, Meta has done some sketchy stuff.
  • It's mostly microblogging from what I can tell, and that's best in smaller instances or instances heavily moderated / filtered to feel that way which Threads likely won't be
  • It's name, even though it won't really be mixed threads like the name implies, will mess up momentum for the Threadiverse to mean AP actual threaded apps, and terms are hard.
  • I'm sure their TOS, privacy policies, or moderation policies aren't going to be any better than other Meta apps.

That being said, I do like:

  • They are planning to federate via AP unlike Bluesky
  • Meta is trying new things other than VR.

They are planning to federate via AP unlike Bluesky

We know that they are using ActivityPub. Afaik, we don't know if they are planning to federate with non-Meta instances (or with instances vetted by Meta). It is entirely possible that they use ActivityPub only to federate their own instances and ignore anyone else.

Agreed 💯. Didn't know they were planning to federate.

Well people say it's an attempt at the famous "Embrace, extend, and extinguish" from Microsoft.

absolutely fucking not.

I think we need to cut them the fuck off here. It's obvious Meta sees the Fediverse and Mastedon as a competing threat to its communication ecosystem and wants to EEE ths shit out of ActivityPub

If they're going to make money off my data, then they can pay me to use Threads.

Nope. I have a barely-used Instagram account from before the sale to Facebook. I keep it in hopes that, someday, a regulator will force them to sell IG or spin it off. I have zero interest in having anything else to do with Facebook or any of its subsidiaries.

Nope. If I wanted something similar to twitter, I would use Mastodon, not Meta's privacy hell.

Hell no. Facebook got worse since they shoved every useless ads and recommended posts to your own face.

No! - I'm not a dumbfuck. Mark Zuckerberg once said people who trust him with their personal information are dumbfucks. I have never had an account on any of his platforms, and never will. If something I'm using integrated with his products I'd just stop using it. Just no!

Unfortunately, we’re kind of stuck with WhatsApp where I live but I Signal with the willing.

Otherwise, I avoid Facebook products like the plague.

Hard pass. I’m shit tired of being advertised to and packaged as a product at the same time

I hate to think that it might gain popularity with the Crowd trying to leave Twitter. I certainly don't plan on trying it. I have several friends that think Bluesky or Thread will be a good move after Twitter, but I can't see either option being good for the userbase long term.

Tangentially-related, I'm actually really excited to use Threads's federation with Mastodon to bring interested friends and family over to Mastodon. If you get all the same benefits (connection, more people) with none of the ads or privacy downsides, then it seems like a no-brainer to join Mastodon over Threads.

But to answer the question, no. I run my own Mastodon (and Lemmy) server. I'm kind of all-in on the fediverse.

If anything, Threads will operate more like BlueSky. Anybody who thinks they'll allow the Fediverse to gain the upper hand is sorely mistaken. Joey does not share food. Their main goal is to take over the space vacated by Twitter. Their secondary goal is to suck any data they can out of the Fediverse and discard it when it's convenient. The Fediverse is a body to step on on their way to the top.

Having the Instagram branding would bring more celebrities and such, which will undoubtedly attract more people to the fediverse.

Once they’re in and are more familiar with the whole thing, moving them to Mastodon shouldn’t be that hard.

You say that but I fully believe Meta will tamper with their instance to push external users to sign up in order to engage with anything, while limiting the ability for them to get back out, effectively aiming to become the de-facto 'center' of the fediverse.

The Head of Instagram commented on this:

“We’re committed to building support for ActivityPub, the protocol behind Mastodon, into this app. We weren’t able to finish it for launch given a number of complications that come along with a decentralized network, but it’s coming,” he said.

“If you’re wondering why this matters, here’s a reason: you may one day end up leaving Threads, or, hopefully not, end up de-platformed. If that ever happens, you should be able to take your audience with you to another server. Being open can enable that.”

Look, I don't want to be Devil's advocate for Meta, but I'm kinda hopeful as I truly believe they entering the fediverse can be a good thing in the long run.

That's like getting picked up from Catholic Boys Choir by a white van with "Free Candy" spray painted on the side.

Why even ask that question on Lemmy

Why no? As you can see there are several users who are going to use/try it.

Nah, don't want meta to collect even more data about me than before.

Twitter never made sense to me, so threads won't either.

Nope. Meta's business practices are cancer.

Yes! BUTTTTT I have a master plan!!!

HERE ME OUT!

I'm on Instagram and have a bunch of followers, around 200K.

SO - My plan is to squat as the IG users pick up Threads. Most people will just follow the same people from IG (Meta encourages it and it fills your feed fast).

My follower count on Threads should grow just from that alone, right?

THEN - Facebook finally federates, right?

THEN! Facebook allows for account migration to Mastodon.

First..... I migrate my @renwillis@mstdn.social account to Threads.

Finally.... Immediately migrate all my followers from Threads back to mstdn.social.

Suddenly potentially 200K are following a Mastodon account!!! MWUH-HAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!!

I would wait with your master plan, until you know that Meta allows you to move your account to Mastodon. Oh yeah, and you should use a burner phone without any personal data (medical history, contacts, location, financial information, whatever "sensitive information" is, etc.) when you install the app.

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Unless you are making money from sponsorships due to the high number of followers or your life depends on entertainment im curious to ask why would you feel so dependent of the number of followers? :0

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Will I use it? Absolutely not.

Do I hope that it gets used by others? Yeah, at least a bit. Because if Meta assigns more engineers to work on fedi tech like improving ActivityPub that would be a huge win for the fediverse in general. That assumes they actually contribute to open source, but Meta/FB actually has a reasonable track record there.

I’d agree, except for this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish

Seems more likely that they’ll end up harming the fediverse before they improve things for us.

With open-source, I see it more a question of "How much will they freely give us?" Any proprietary extensions to ActivityPub is simply irrelevant to open-source projects, and would ultimately isolate their product from working with existing FOSS-powered infrastructure. If Facebook gives us a few bug fixes and dips into proprietary bullshit, I could that as a win. Who cares if they create some crazy proprietary version of ActivityPub? For most of the people that use things like Mastodon or Lemmy because they're privacy-conscious or dislike for-profit motivations in their software, they probably are willing to put up with a bit of a feature delta (as in fewer features on open-source software) to stay with software and hosters that aren't in it for the money.

For example, you could say that Autodesk creating the free tier of Fusion 360 with non-commercial restrictions has dampened the potential of individuals to freely license their work, but FreeCAD has happily coexisted for a long time. Sure, it's UX hell and is a bit rough around the edges, but holy shit is it amazing that I can license my work any damn way I please. That right there is worth infinitely more to me than some polished proprietary turd that tries to control me. I think many people will feel the same way about Lemmy or Mastodon, and Facebook's any attempts to win over favor will be soiled by their proprietary nature. And heck, Lemmy itself is already impressively good for as new as it is. If Mastodon is even half as good, I'm sure the diehards will stay put.

Assuming they don't mess with fediverse protocols, here's hoping that I could interact with their users without using Meta's proprietary apps, when it's absolutely necessary. (This is separate from mastodon instances choosing to defederate from Meta servers)

If anyone is chiming in with "just plain don't", I'm talking of situations like Spanish speaking countries where every single fucking thing is done through whatsapp. Everything. There's no avoiding it.

If I can use a self hosted instance and foss app to talk to the borg instead of their borgware, that's a tiny point in my favor.

Honestly, things will go smooth as long as the Fediverse doesn’t scramble to adopt Meta protocols. Which, given the attitude I’ve been seeing, hopefully shouldn’t happen.

(We’ve seen how this went with Google and XMPP).

People on Twitter are already trying it because Twitter has been shit.

Someone in my circle created their account and already deleted it. Their explanation was a FAQ screenshot for Threads saying that it doesn't matter who you follow or who follows you, the algorithm will show or hide things from you based on what they think you will enjoy and there's no way around it and you also can't sort by new.

I mean, are companies really paying attention to user needs? Lol

I mean, are companies really paying attention to user needs? Lol

Look, the user needs to see stuff that keeps them engaged. That keeps them coming back for more. Algos are designed to achieve exactly that. Your self chosen bubble of followings and interests may not be optimized for engagement and addiction.

No, the companies don't pay attention to user needs, they pay attention to the bottom line.

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That's gonna be a no from me, dawg.

After reading another post where it was shown all the private information the app requires, I’ll never even be close to it (a quick resume: location, device information, user profiles on other apps, payment information, even health information).

Edit: found a link (it’s a meme, but the screenshot shows what i’m referring to): https://lemm.ee/post/653305

Literally the first time I am hearing about this now.

I hate FB but I think I hate Elon even more, so if Thread kills off Twitter that would be great.

But I have my doubts.

Everyone already hates all the bullshit that FB does and flying under the Meta banner changes nothing. The tech/young/hip demographics needed to get a platform going seem to be distancing themselves away from FB as being an "uncool" company.

Meta has alienated so many people that they are going to have a hard time breeaking into new product categories because people just don't want to use their products unless essentially forced to. Look at their VR headsets. From a hardware perspective they really are quite good, but so many stupid, stupid policy decisions (such as needing a FB account originally) that folks rather do without than deal with them.

I'm not so sure.

People don't understand tech. Instagram is still a trendy app for people and the name change to Meta might have been enough for people to forget that's it's all still Facebook.

Threads seems to be aligning and integrating with Instagram more than anything.

I tired of having the least worst of the two horrible options, I'm sticking to lemmy, it's finally the third option that isn't bad

I agree with you about Lemmy, but this site (as well as Reddit) weren't really Twitter competitors. Totally different type of platforms.

I don't know why you'd switch from the clusterfuck that is Twitter to anything made by Meta, one of the worst tech companies out there. It's like trading a turd for a piece of shit.
Mastodon is the only reasonable alternative IMO, the only problem is that not enough people are on there.

well, that's going to change as soon as Threads will be available for federation. Then you can use Mastodon and be in direct contact with all the folks from the Meta-verse.

The content is very generic, a lot of people trying to subtly beg for followers, but the worst part is there is no following feed at all, just one (poorly so far) curated page.

Nope. I haven't logged in to Fuckerbergs's shit over the last 2 years, not about to start now

I've still got a Facebook and Instagram account mostly to keep in touch with friends and family. Fuck no to joining another one of Zuckerberg's apps though

Nah, giving all my personal data to Meta for an account I’d hardly use doesn’t seem worth it.

I was all for "giving it a shot" just to see what the hub bub was about.

Other lemmings point out just how many permissions I have to give Meta. So, I've lost interest. Never was a big tweeter anyway.

no definitely not installing it or opening an account.

I'm not against federation tho, I'd be in favour of showing people you can get all the same content through another channel. defederating means that people will have to use it if there's content from someone they like on there. I don't want to give people a reason to install that shit.

I hope that there would be alternative servers/apps for federating with the main server, then it may worth a try. However I doubt that Meta would make it that easy.

Only issue with federating is allowing Meta/Facebook to create shadow profiles for everyone posting on other ActivityPub services. Currently, the fediverse is free real estate for data collectors.

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Of course not, Only a drooling idiot would even consider it or anything else linked to that parent company.

I prefer to just sit back and watch it all burn down, as it deserves.

Of course not, what's the point? Fediverse (Mastodon, PixelFed, Lemmy) is fine and dandy for me!

Every instance owner should be looking to sign this. Every time you see Meta bullshit posted, please repost this. Also idk how to tag people and I know he's super busy as of late but calling on Ruud@lemmy.world to get on board with this as well. With the ever growing size of his community it is his responsibility to help us protect the Fediverse.

https://fedipact.online/

"i am an instance admin/mod on the fediverse. by signing this pact, i hereby agree to block any instances owned by meta should they pop up on the fediverse. project92 is a real and serious threat to the health and longevity of fedi and must be fought back against at every possible opportunity"

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i hear the people who created meth made a new drug. might try it for fun/curiosity...

No. I'm 40. Its exhausting trying to give all my personal data away to all these different spaces now.

Time was, a man could give up all his personal data on just one platform. I would rest easy knowing that every goverment in the world had proof that I am not a terrorist, and every buisness knew how much porn I watched.

But now theres so many and I'm just one guy. I can't keep track of them all. It makes me feel too old for this world.

I have a FB acct for work reasons, while I have no interest in Threads, there's no guarantee that I won't end up using Threads for work reasons.

Installing their app is a good way to get all the entries in Contacts in your mobile sent to them.

The again, anybody who already installed their Facebook, Instagram or Whatsapp apps has nothing to worry about as the deed is already done.

I am on Instagram which quite frankly is more than enough for me, thank you.

Have you tried Pixelfed or other AP alternatives? I haven't either but I also don't understand image based microblogging so I also don't use Instagram, so I'm curious on your perspective. What types of content do you mostly consume/produce when using Instagram?

IG is all about personal public image projecting and media presence for business and influencers. If you don't have the need to present yourself as a product it doesn't make much sense to be there imho

I’m actually pretty interested in pixelfed, but for now I have three new social media I am trying to learn (kbin, lemmy, mastodon.)

I mostly have instagram as a means of communication with a few key people. It’s also kind of my anchor into “mainstream” social media.

I like microblogging but I prefer a text-first approach; I generally try to avoid using it other than as a messaging app. Lately I’ve been posting a lot on my side account (which is just pictures of my pet snails.) When I do scroll on my main I like my friends’ content (their selfies and art) and I follow a few of my favorite personalities as well (drag queens, local restaurants, Bake Off contestants, etc.)

Interesting thanks for sharing! I can see how that could be useful for friends that only post that kind of content. Hopefully there will be a push with Threads to get that more accessible in other platforms too.

Fair. A friend of mine which is there said that he would try it because it's business are there.

While I'm on the microblogging side of fedi I'm gonna be staying far away from Threads, I like that there's more attention on ActivityPub now, and they're free to make it if they want, but I just can't see myself using it really.

will i use the app, hell no.

Will I talk with people who use threads if available, maybe if a topic peaks my interest. I'm not completely against meta's use of the federation, and all I do hope is they contribute to some content and discussion of topics and development of the platform.

All the people I know that use Facebook are old(er) people. Not looking forward to old people twitter 😅

Not released in EU. So can't ;(. Wait, that might be a good thing?

You'll need a facebook account, so no, probably not. Despite whatever security concerns there are for other platforms, I don't want to give Meta any more of my information than they've already stolen from me if I can help it.

it's kinda weird to me that some people are ?excited? about it. it's Meta, it's the Zuck Suck. it's a twatter clone, and we all know how's that going after another rich twat took it over, and isn't it already full of the "crazies"? like to me, it has all the hallmarks of being just another soulless cash grab by another megacorp to take twatter's place, not that it's surprising. so it's a resounding no from me.

Just seeing the list of privacy data collected is enough to make me baulk. I barely ever use Facebook or Twitter as is, I'm not touching that shit with a 10ft pole.

Big fat no from me. I don’t want to see ads in my sleep.

With all that data it’s collecting?

Negative.

I believe the phrase ""Oh FUCK no" has never been more appropriate.

We need to let meta die slowly, so no.

I have 0 interest in giving any information to the Zucc

I made a promise to myself stay away from Facebook as much as possible. (Pretty hard to do here in SEA)

Not even available here in Italy, so no. But don’t care at all, all these massive companies should just die

Nope but I didn't use twitter either, nor will I use Mastodon. Just not my cup of tea as it is a vile place and you can clearly see in the last couple of twitter years why I was right on this one. Mastodon and Threads will suffer the same fate imho. This type of platform attracts....certain weird and extreme people.

Wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.

Nope. Never had a Twitter account either. The whole concept is stupid and just brings a lot of noise from the type of people you'd never hear from in years gone by.

I'm astonished to see people publishing about it on Twitter and even here.

The entire point of the remaining social networks is that they don't belong to Meta, that's it.

I'll keep using Twitter and Lemmy and when I feel able to, delete all my Meta related accounts.

I use WhatsApp almost daily. Have accounts on Facebook and Instagram. Enough Meta services in my life.

Nope. As it will just end like reddit or meta. And i dont want anything to do with that

Absolutely, yes. I almost always try the newest networks/apps because I like to see for myself whether I think they're going to be a hit and/or worthwhile.

Fair :)

I realized after posting that my initial reply may have sounded snarky, and that wasn't my intention. I'm a cross country and track coach, and the reality is that, like it or not, part of my job is ensuring the team has a visible social media presence. I feel an obligation to at least attempt to stay on top of what services people are using the most at any given time.

It's totally okay to say 'yes', that's called freedom, we are not a cult lol. Some of my friends are going to use it as well :)

I think it's a much better approach than the "hurr durr zuck bad" sentiment here. You don't have to be a power user, see if it can add value to your life and how, then go from there.

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I hate meta and honestly don't think Threads will bring anything new that other fedi software already has. I'm also quite happy with all the software available so don't see a reason to use Threads. I am curious to see if people who previously didn't use the fediverse or found it too confusing etc will like Threads.

Hell no, I'll be avoiding it like the plague, just like the rest of facecuck's services.

Zero interest whatsoever. The only way i'd see them is when people post their shit elsewhere and it's worth seeing.

I only ever visited twitter to see content posted by people that was cross shared elsewhere. I have zero interest in utilizing platforms similar to it and would prefer something in the same style as reddit because it allows for everything - self sites with selfposting, interest based sites where you talk about similar topics, and also generalist sites.

I just can't help it when local news happens and it's linked to a sub and the source is what it is.

Absolutely not, Meta can get screwed. The sooner the company crashes and burn, the better. It caused too much damage worldwide.

Too much data collection for my tastes. That and Facebook have shown. That they don't know how to maintain a healthy and engaging community. It would just become another doom scroll rather than anything interesting. But I'll watch what happens.

I wouldn't join even if paid to do so.

I'd take the money and scram.

nope, everyone I follow has moved to mastadon.

I think the idea of it is pretty smart, Instagram probably has a lot of shared users with Twitter. If the quality of Twitter decreases then Instagram making a competitor seems like an easy win, especially if the issues plaguing Twitter aren't plaguing Instagram. The privacy concerns due to required permissions are probably the most concerning, but if you were using Twitter and Instagram you're probably not even considering that.

I'm definitely not going to try it, but I kinda hope Twitter completely busts at this point. Elon's next autobiography is going to be, "The Art of the Deal 2: How I won by losing $44 Billion."

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I will definitely be installing it whenever it comes to Android out of curiosity if not anything else.

Considering I'm already an Instagram user and I would like this platform better than Instagram, I don't see any reason why I shouldn't make the trade

I’ll try it.

Contrary to the majority consensus here, I already utilize Instagram so this data has already been collected for years. (An unfortunate “what’s new”)

We’ll see if it catches on at all…it will be nice once we can see “Threads” from Mastodon so that I can use any of the more privacy respecting apps out there, but until then I think it’s worth seeing how things work.

No. I don't even have a facebook/meta/instagram account. fuck Zuck.

I hang onto Instagram begrudgingly, definitely won't be trying anything new from Meta.

The zuck can go suck a fuck. Dude must be salivating at how much more data Meta can steal off people with Threads

Once hashtags (& maybe trends) get added, we will get a honeymoon phase, before it all gets bloated TF. Give it a few months and we will have Threads Stories, THCAST for long-form audio/podcasts (with AI transcription), e-commerce Thread Shops...

The classic enshittification story.

Yep. Looks like they made it to minimal-viable-product.

Now they're going to be in enticement mode, so everyone there's going to be nice, moderation's going to be better (not great, but less sucky), and they'll work to keep the riff-raff out.

Later comes the Extend-Extinguish part of the Three E's, the festooning with ads, the constant exhortations to upgrade to Premium™, the sudden incompatibility with anything not Meta, and enough tracking to make Big Brother envious.

Agree with everything except the tracking; that's got to be built into it since day one, unless they didn't manage to hit their harvesting goals by the stated release date, which they want to hit in order to compete with twitter asap

A friend of mine tried and said that it's basically banning anything lol

I don't use Twitter, so no. But normies will finally have a potentially credible Twitter replacement that's open to the public, so good for them.

I didn't even use Twitter, so no.

The only reason I've held on to Instagram and Facebook is I do like to see updates from friends I haven't seen in a while, especially as a lot of them are getting married and having kids. I'm not close enough to them to reach out and text them for an update, but close enough to say "oh hey, they just had a baby, that's nice" and then move on.

Facebook I actually don't even do that, I just use it for a music gear swap because they post cheap stuff sometimes. If there weren't such good deals, I'd drop Facebook instantly.

I think it's exciting. I don't hate Twitter, but a competitor with big money back in that's potentially going to integrate with the fediverse? That's fucking exciting.

Will they actively contribute or fork it? Who knows.

They will actively contribute while growing their userbase. When they hit critical mass they will cutoff the fediverse and take their users and their content with them. It happened before.

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Meta is just Facebook trying to hide their awful reputation under a new name. I will never call them Meta.

I'll be damned if I'm going to use any more of their spy products than I have to, too.

This is the reason I call my quest 2 VR headset my "oculus" or "Oculus quest 2" because that's the original company name. Unfortunately that headset is the only reason I have a Facebook account, but I never use Facebook and it's minimally linked to me at all, doesn't even have my real name like they wanted. In fact, the only qualm I had about getting it was the Facebook account requirement, everything else about it is great besides that

Only reason I would consider threads is to post the anti fedi pact and make it harder for them to succeed with turning our safe haven into their corporate dystopia.

I don't use Twitter, don't see a reason to use a FB variant of it.

Have never had a Facebook account. Have never had an Instagram account. No, I'm not about to sign up to Threads.

I do have WhatsApp, it's the main messaging app that everyone I know uses, so I don't have much choice.

I’m still on IG so I’ll have an account by default I guess. I may take a peek to see how they implemented it, but it’s hard to imagine staying.

I might use it for notifications, which basically what I did with Twitter, follow certain accounts that provided realtime updates on something, like for example game stores for preorders. Basically the alternative to the ,much missing in some pages, RSS.

Commenting, submitting or simply scroll it ,nope, I didn't do it on Twitter except once or twice.

If their activitypub integration is worth anything at all, you should be able to do all these things without having to leave Lemmy. :)

I am on kbin.social. I worry that if kbin doesn't defederate from Threads, maybe kbin's servers will be flooded with Threads data (i am not techy, so maybe this would be a minor issue). Also, if someone in the Fediverse but outside of Threads starts communicating with someone who has a Threads account, will the non-Threads person now have all of their data that's now on Threads servers collected?

If I understand correctly, your content on the fediverse is already public (DM’s, posts, etc.). So that data is already collectable. What Threads / Meta can’t get is the rest of the info above in the original post, and tie that to you.

I really hope we defederate from Meta, it has evil intent.

This is going to be popular in places that are already deep on the Facebook ecosystem, such as India. But I really hope it doesn't everywhere else.

i don't use twitter anyway, so my plan is to enjoy this virtual boxing match between musk and zuckerberg until they actually follow through on their real punchup.

I still don't know what this threads thing even is, aside from being bootleg Twitter...

It's bootleg Twitter

Which sociopath billionaire do you want to support? Basically the question you have to ask yourself before using it

I tried it, as I'm looking forward to MORE people using the fediverse.

However, I do not like anything about the app.

Your Home feed is just random posts by people - all served up via algorithm based on what others have liked.

It's basically the shitty part of Twitter's "For You" feed, except that is the ENTIRE Threads app. No timeline for those you follow, no lists, no trending, etc.

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No, won't sign up on that privacy nightmare. Though, once it does support ActivityPub, I'll probably follow people who are not on Mastodon yet.

Fuck no. I need fewer Meta apps in my life, not more.

I think I'm a bit of an outlier here, because I tried it (I already had an IG account) - but the bombardment of influencer-types, big-name brands, and having zero-control over my feed gave me more than enough reasons to leave for good.

Nope, I hate Meta and everything it stands for. I will never use their products.

I'll try it. I don't really care about data privacy very much and neither do a lot of other people until the data receiver is someone they dislike.

How much data is Reddit, Tumblr, Uber, Snapchat, WhatsApp, AirBnB or any other app getting? Who cares as long as I don't hate their CEO.

This is a pretty moronic take. "All of these other companies have already stolen my privacy, so what's one more? It's not like this specific company has helped undermine democracy in a world superpower the last two elections!"

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I can't see any reason for me to ever try it. I've got plenty of social media to deal with already, and this doesn't seem to be offering anything new or interesting for me. Plus the creepy permissions even keep me away from joining temporarily out of any curiosity I might have.

I'd try it out if they paid me for all my data with very detailed explanations of how it will be used.

In other words, no.

Not until they add some basic features and we get some answers on the data collection.

It doesn't even offer a reverse chronological list of posts with only people you follow. That is basic, day 1 level functionality for me.

I don't think I'll use it in any serious way. I left Facebook years ago now. I have an Instagram but never use it. I'm just not a user of Meta's products. But I'll reserve my handle and if Twitter itself finally craps the bed at least I'll have one more off ramp.

I'm still waiting for Blue Sky, but at this point its either Mastodon or something else (like Threads) because Blue Sky just seems to be taking an eternity. Something is going to replace Twitter and at this point I just don't know what it will be.

Absolutely the fuck not. There's no room at the Inn for whores like me on Meta apps ¯\(ツ)/¯

I was permanently banned from Instagram a few months ago because I'm a pornstar. A lot of industry folks were banned around the same time. In retrospect, I wonder if they were trying to clean up the app ahead of the launch of Threads.

I had experienced temporary bans before over the years, we all had. But losing my account and then having my new account banned again within two days, all without posting anything even approaching NSFW was fucking awful. It really hurt a lot of us financially.

So fuck no, I'm not going to spend my time creating content and IP, posting photos, and engaging with my fans on their new platform. I doubt I could join it anyway.

I'll probably go and look at it just to see what it's like, but not make an account. I have never used Twitter or Instagram and have no desire to, Lemmy and the few others I am on are enough for me.

I’m not going to install or create an account in threads, howver, I will be quite non-discriminatory to thread users when they become federated.

I personally hope that Instagram users start to use Threads instead.

Adam Mosseri claims that they are not going to try to prevent Thread users from churning to other instances.

https://www.threads.net/t/CuRtcYTNY3J

Whether they follow through with their commitments is yet to be determined.

Can't even install it. (Apple) App store said it's unavailable in my country. Fortunately. I hope it's not just the app which is unavailable.

I said I would never join facebook. Or msn messenger. Or Discord. Or Twitch. Or Twitter. But then everyone and their grandmas started using them. And despite knowing already back then they would use me as the product, I hesitantly joined.

So if they manage to release an EU-legal version, and everyone-ish joins, and mastodon becomes barren, I might join. Again. Its not like they dont know everything about me already.

The cynic in me have realized most people jumps on whatever is advertised to them and is cheap, and call anything that isnt advertised enough or too expensive for "difficult" or "looks stupid". Those who claims ads doesn't work on them are extra prone to jump on anything commercial while downtalking better and free'er options. So we can't win this way.

Out of curiosity I might would've but not for long term and given that it seems to require an Instragram account I'm not really interested.

I’m interested to see how Threads connects with other social media platforms (like Mastodon), but I’m not using an app with such an invasive privacy policy.

I boycott all the products of big corporations as much as possible. I'm not even slightly tempted to try Threads.

Depends on how many of those data slurping categories I can disable on iPhone. I would at least like to try it.

Good timing from them, but no, I don't like Twitter/mastodon style.

I think this is something which makes kbin pretty interesting. It supports threads and microblogs, so it can serve both purposes. I have a Mastodon that I post to once every few years, but I think I might post or at least reply more to people if I could just click between threads and blogs on the fly.

But yeah, for that and all of the other reasons, Threads is out. No interest whatsoever.

Thanks, I'm good. I don't even want to know what that is.

In case you're curious about it: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.instagram.barcelona

I find it weird that no one is linking it. I literally had to find it on APKMirror.

“An Instagram app. Try Instagram’s new…”

Oh god it’s so cringe how they are branding it as Instagram not Meta / Facebook because they think the Instagram brand is hated less. Ohhh sad.

This is actually the reason. Until they will buy the copyrights for the trademark, Meta can't use it

Ah that’s interesting. Amazing to see them actually respecting a copyright. They could still have gone with Facebook, though. I think the Instagram halo is real.

Not really "respecting" but more like avoiding to engage what seems to be an actual patent/trademark troll. Because I checked the brand's site and it doesn't seem to be working, but the patent is still held

I agree, Facebook is a more comprehensive social nightmare, threads is currently like a streamlined Instagram but into text posts. Data-whoring aside

What does it mean for it to be like Instagram but for text? Instagram I thought would be inseparable from photos. It’s akin to saying “like YouTube but for text.” What does that mean?

I dunno if I'd use the app itself, but I am hopeful it gets traction among "normal" people because I miss following my friends on Mastodon. Threads seems to be the best way to get average non-techy people to accept the fediverse.

Now, I don't trust Meta at all. But I hope I can at least follow my friends' Threads from Mastodon or here on Kbin.