I am actually looking forward to threads taking off. I, as a mastodon user, will be able to follow my friends, celebrities, artists and interact with them when federation is activated. It is hard to get friends on to mastodon. The software is great and is better than Twitter, but the people are not on Mastodon but on Twitter, Instagram, etc.

Now, I know platforms by Meta (Facebook) are terrible and spy and leech out pretty much all the data from users. I am also aware that Meta has some hidden agenda behind the launch of threads. Yes, I also read about EEE(Embrace, Extend and Extinguish). Even if Threads decides to drop federation/activitypub, I don’t think the fediverse will be harmed. I quote the founder of Mastodon

There are comparisons to be made between Meta adopting ActivityPub for its new social media platform and Meta adopting XMPP for its Messenger service a decade ago. There was a time when users of Facebook and users of Google Talk were able to chat with each other and with people from self-hosted XMPP servers, before each platform was locked down into the silos we know today. What would stop that from repeating? Well, even if Threads abandoned ActivityPub down the line, where we would end up is exactly where we are now. XMPP did not exist on its own outside of nerd circles, while ActivityPub enjoys the support and brand recognition of Mastodon.

I think many instance admins are all ready to defederate with threads. It just doesn’t feel right. Imo, we should welcome users from threads and see how it goes.

What are your thoughts?

  • @[email protected]English
    19•1 year ago

    will be able to follow my friends, celebrities, artists and interact with them when federation is activated

    Yea and then they’ll either defederate, or purposefuly break some interoperability functions. But since “everyone” will be on Threads anyway, you’ll just move there too.

    It’s happened before even with Meta itself. Their messenger was xmpp compatible. Oculus didn’t need a fucking Facebook account.

    You can say that everything will just get back to how it’s now, but it won’t. Right now, Fediverse has momentum. Twitter and Reddit are imploding. People have reason to pay attention, and potentially move or expand their online presence here.

    Once Threads has a billion users and they cut the rest off, who will care about some tiny competitor? How many Instagram alternatives are you aware of?

    I don’t know why it’s so controversial to keep cancer away in the first place, and not wait until it spreads and kill you.