"I’m on Threads" meta thread

[G650 14450]

25 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

the size difference is not some new development. the trajectories of these established entities had not materially changed, because they each settled into their niches:

twitter flatlined for years as the news hub; snapchat as youth direct messaging. facebook decelerated as default online presence. tiktok came in and established a new niche in shortform video. 

these guys didnt displace one-another because, as seen with the bluesky and g+ and such, thats a much more difficult thing to do. 

threads shows good metrics at its start because it made it easy to roll instagram accounts over. but “instagram people” are largely not “twitter people”, eg journalists, academics, chronically-online debaters, etc.

so if the conversations dont involve the same people covering same topics i.e. use-case overlap, its not a matter of twitter vs threads. threads might just be instagram-with-nested-replies. 

many of the rabid doomsday diviners calling twitters death from 1 year ago, on that same platform, are still on it now. 
 

The difference now is that Twitter as a product is almost unrecognizable and all of us who were the die hard Twitter users are looking for basically any viable alternative.

[tokamak 6687]

I’m sure this has all been covered in 8 pages I ain’t reading, but goddamn social media is such a fucking beating now.

I don’t want to actively use or have an account for any of these things. What I do want is to find out what time the rain delayed Blue Jays - White Sox game last night is going to start. I used to be able to Google that and find it on Twitter, get the info I need then close the fucking tab. Now Twitter is shut down or what the fuck ever and there’s like 3 replacements. Jesus I’m getting old, I guess. 

[52-80 19377]

21 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

Counterpoint:  Elon has pissed off A LOT of people in the past year.

people may hate elon but…they love the drama. 

i dont see that instagram is a platform with debate and bickering, such that extending its text medium encourages debate and bickering. 

Thomas Bayes would say this is not what deprecates twitter. but then again its hard to bet against the zuck. 

[Celery Man 21103]

3 minutes ago, tokamak said:

I’m sure this has all been covered in 8 pages I ain’t reading, but goddamn social media is such a fucking beating now.

I don’t want to actively use or have an account for any of these things. What I do want is to find out what time the rain delayed Blue Jays - White Sox game last night is going to start. I used to be able to Google that and find it on Twitter, get the info I need then close the fucking tab. Now Twitter is shut down or what the fuck ever and there’s like 3 replacements. Jesus I’m getting old, I guess. 

So many Twitter users like this who have been removed from the product by sheer stupidity.

[chainsaw 10307]

Twitter is a masterfully-designed, neglected, and rapidly degrading ship with a moronic asshole at the helm.

Threads is a no-frills, properly maintained, rapidly improving ship with an intelligent asshole at the helm.

[atomheartbevo 90670]

9 minutes ago, G650 said:

The difference now is that Twitter as a product is almost unrecognizable and all of us who were the die hard Twitter users are looking for basically any viable alternative.

More importantly, as least as far as Musk should be concerned, is that advertisers are looking for basically any viable alternative.

[Prepuce of Doom 21294]

9 minutes ago, G650 said:

The difference now is that Twitter as a product is almost unrecognizable and all of us who were the die hard Twitter users are looking for basically any viable alternative.

And most of us have been looking for a while, but Mastodon doesn't make any goddamn sense, and Blue Sky is so fucking stingy with their precious invites that people are now on the Zuck train for lack of any reasonable alternative, but not for any lack of trying. 

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12301]

15 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

Is he the new Rocko?

Sigh

[52-80 19377]

5 minutes ago, G650 said:

The difference now is that Twitter as a product is almost unrecognizable and all of us who were the die hard Twitter users are looking for basically any viable alternative.

Instagram has 2 billion users and all they have to do is click 1 button to activate a thread account. Even with that tremendous onboarding advantage, 30M represents….1.5% conversion rate. 

Remains to be seen how sticky actual long germ usage is. Zuck dont play around tho. 

(I bought Meta last year around $100, offloaded around $200, missing the extra $100 it gained since then…. 😵)

[atomheartbevo 90670]

3 minutes ago, chainsaw said:

Twitter is a masterfully-designed, neglected, and rapidly degrading ship with a moronic asshole at the helm.

Threads is a no-frills, properly maintained, rapidly improving ship with an intelligent asshole at the helm.

I wonder if Elon is hearing crackling sounds aft.

[Jameslaw121 4498]

17 minutes ago, G650 said:

The difference now is that Twitter as a product is almost unrecognizable and all of us who were the die hard Twitter users are looking for basically any viable alternative.

This is where I'm at. If most of the same people I follow on twitter are posting basically the same thing on Threads, I can get rid of twitter.

After playing around with Thread a little bit today, this feels more like what twitter used to be. 

[Celery Man 21103]

11 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

people may hate elon but…they love the drama. 

i dont see that instagram is a platform with debate and bickering, such that extending its text medium encourages debate and bickering. 

Thomas Bayes would say this is not what deprecates twitter. but then again its hard to bet against the zuck. 

1) I suspect that you see the Twitter “drama” as centering around people who hate Musk’s politics and values. That is true, but it is *also* about very meaningful ways in which he has fundamentally broken what Twitter was and why people liked it. The second part is why it has a very real chance of being replaced by threads for the traditional Twitter audience.

2) threads piggybacks on Instagram but it’s for a different thing. A common first “thread” is “Apologies to my insta followers who are unfamiliar with my Twitter persona”

3) you see yourself as better than people who engage in internet drama and bickering, but your history on this site indicates that you are not different

[SizzleChest 8314]

 

[G650 14450]

12 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

Instagram has 2 billion users and all they have to do is click 1 button to activate a thread account. Even with that tremendous onboarding advantage, 30M represents….1.5% conversion rate. 

Remains to be seen how sticky actual long germ usage is. Zuck dont play around tho. 

(I bought Meta last year around $100, offloaded around $200, missing the extra $100 it gained since then…. 😵)

Yeah I mean don't get me wrong, I'm an OG Zuck hater, but respeck and all. He usually doesn't miss. I loathe getting on one of his platforms but I really cannot overstate how fundamentally changed Twitter is now.

 

If threads can just get chronological sorting, follow only, then I'm gruntled. I don't care about any bickering or whatnot, I just want clear, concise and timely news aggregation like Twitter used to be.

[Brisketexan 107007]

20 minutes ago, tokamak said:

I’m sure this has all been covered in 8 pages I ain’t reading, but goddamn social media is such a fucking beating now.

I don’t want to actively use or have an account for any of these things. What I do want is to find out what time the rain delayed Blue Jays - White Sox game last night is going to start. I used to be able to Google that and find it on Twitter, get the info I need then close the fucking tab. Now Twitter is shut down or what the fuck ever and there’s like 3 replacements. Jesus I’m getting old, I guess. 

Yeah, your Twitter usage is pretty much like mine.  I follow a few accounts that make me chuckle or provide real news on specific things (think Super70sSports and law twitter), but even then....I mostly view it when friends send me links to an interesting tweet.  Otherwise, I look at it because tweets are embedded here (on the Ukraine war esp.), and for some real-time updates on stadium conditions and such.  It's annoying when I DO go to Twitter and it tries to feed me catturd bullshit and such.  And when it gives me a "rate exceeded" message because I read comments on Ukraine war tweets.  And when it won't let me view tweets at all for some reason or another.  And when its imperious leader's narcissist bullshit is at the top of the feed whenever I open it.

Elon had a choice between "a social media site that lots of people used for a variety of reasons, moderated pretty similarly to most other social media sites, with a solid slate of advertisers but in need of some strategy to improve revenue" and "take that site, make its brand be 'we welcome back incels and nazis and nutbars!', don't solve any of the other issues, and run off advertisers and users."  And he chose....option 2.  Brain.  Genius.

[G650 14450]

8 minutes ago, Celery Man said:

) threads piggybacks on Instagram but it’s for a different thing. A common first “thread” is “Apologies to my insta followers who are unfamiliar with my Twitter persona

Seriously people who know me are gonna not understand what shit posting is

[52-80 19377]

1 minute ago, Celery Man said:

1) I suspect that you see the Twitter “drama” as centering around people who hate Musk’s politics and values. That is true, but it is *also* about very meaningful ways in which he has fundamentally broken what Twitter was and why people liked it. The second part is why it has a very real chance of being replaced by threads for the traditional Twitter audience.

2) threads piggybacks on Instagram but it’s for a different thing. A common first “thread” is “Apologies to my insta followers who are unfamiliar with my Twitter persona”

3) you see yourself as better than people who engage in internet drama and bickering, but your history on this site indicates that you are not different

1) shoot your shot as to what on twitter has been broken. as a short-form, text-centric, viral-promoting, borderless site, it has always bred hot takes and the consequential arguing. that *is* a big part of addiction. and user count shows that hasnt changed pre or post musk. 
 

3) where did you hallucinate my even implying that (and what relevance does it have to speculating on the sites trajectory anyway). *obviously* i butt heads here.  *and* i follow finance-twitter. which is only 10% informative but 90% drama. 

[G650 14450]

2 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Yeah, your Twitter usage is pretty much like mine. 

Man, it's how basically everyone used it. The crazies were like 10 people until Musk broke it.

[Celery Man 21103]

5 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

1) shoot your shot as to what on twitter has been broken. as a short-form, text-centric, viral-promoting, borderless site, it has always bred hot takes and the consequential arguing. that *is* a big part of addiction. and user count shows that hasnt changed pre or post musk. 
 

3) where did you hallucinate my even implying that (and what relevance does it have to speculating on the sites trajectory anyway). *obviously* i butt heads here.  *and* i follow finance-twitter. which is only 10% informative but 90% drama. 

1) as an easy first answer, verification. Obviously much more than that, I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention or not but the platform was literally broken (inaccessible) last week.

3)  not super important and I may be wrong but I don’t think I am. If you’re interested, it’s being familiar with your posting style and takes in general combined with “they love drama” and use of the word “bickering” when many other words would more accurately and less normatively describe what Twitter is for.

[Rimbo 27087]

1 hour ago, South Austin said:

I feel okay about not knowing what the fuck “fediverse” means.

I already know what it means, and kinda wish I didn't.

[52-80 19377]

27 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

More importantly, as least as far as Musk should be concerned, is that advertisers are looking for basically any viable alternative.

advertising on twitter must have been a terribly low return venture for forever. the platform has next to nothing in terms of user profiling, so ad targeting was a long running joke. (mine shows CRM and Boston Consulting Group ads, which feels like being at the airport…)

i wouldve guess musks plans relied less on ads and more on corporate subscriptions and running lean

[Rimbo 27087]

1 hour ago, Lurch said:

Totally, but discovery can be a bitch even if the initial claim is spurious. All it takes is one of those former Twitter employees with a poorly worded or even sarcastic/joke internal email saying “we did it like this over at Twitter” for everything to go sideways

I don't think that's how this works.

[NoName 17171]

37 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

Instagram has 2 billion users and all they have to do is click 1 button to activate a thread account. Even with that tremendous onboarding advantage, 30M represents….1.5% conversion rate. 

Remains to be seen how sticky actual long germ usage is. Zuck dont play around tho. 

(I bought Meta last year around $100, offloaded around $200, missing the extra $100 it gained since then…. 😵)

They converted 1.5 percent in less than 24 hours. That's fucking incredible.

[Rimbo 27087]

51 minutes ago, G650 said:

The difference now is that Twitter as a product is almost unrecognizable and all of us who were the die hard Twitter users are looking for basically any viable alternative.

I had sworn off Facebook and Insta. But I'm on Threads now.

[Rimbo 27087]

40 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

Instagram has 2 billion users and all they have to do is click 1 button to activate a thread account. Even with that tremendous onboarding advantage, 30M represents….1.5% conversion rate. 

Remains to be seen how sticky actual long germ usage is. Zuck dont play around tho. 

(I bought Meta last year around $100, offloaded around $200, missing the extra $100 it gained since then…. 😵)

30M is also 10% of Twitter's entire user base.

[Lurch 5951]

I don't think that's how this works.

In my depositions it was.

[Js1 87281]

1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

Putin's personal mercenary company threatening to arrest his Minister of Defense and the Army Chief of Staff, and then marching on Moscow.

The Titanic adding to its body count.

...and with Elon rehabilitating Zuckerberg, well all three of these things have happened within the last month.

Can't wait to see what August has in store for us.

And we still have the September to November aggy coaster 

[Rimbo 27087]

25 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

shoot your shot as to what on twitter has been broken.

1. Blue checkmark went from meaning "this person actually is who they say they are" to "this person is paying $8/mo"

2. API limits restricting people from being able to use it as much as they like to, which also happens to reduce the amount of ad impressions, btw

Those two are the big ones. There's political bullshit Elon has introduced as well, but you could find your way around it, sorta.

But there's no way around those first two.

[52-80 19377]

7 minutes ago, Celery Man said:

1) as an easy first answer, verification. Obviously much more than that, I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention or not but the platform was literally broken (inaccessible) last week.

3)  not super important and I may be wrong but I don’t think I am. If you’re interested, it’s being familiar with your posting style and takes in general combined with “they love drama” and use of the word “bickering” when many other words would more accurately and less normatively describe what Twitter is for.

(1) for one (or two?) days, non logged-in web access was blocked. im not a paying user and despite moderate usage didnt encounter a rate limit. afaic, the gnashing over the rate limit had more bite than the actual rate limit.  long term, site traffic shows its the same as its ever been. 

(3) you could also read the post preceding what you quoted, and see that my reference about the drama and bickering was explicitly about the people portending the downfall of twitter *on twitter*, who then continued to stay on twitter (instead of being an implied dig directed elsewhere).

people on that site love to complain about it dying, about it being broken, and now about it hemmoraging. and yet it moseys along. its a doomer party and i enjoy spectating the scene.

ive said many times on this site, whatever opinion people may have of musk, to me, above all else, he brings sheer entertainment. 

[Grade of D as in David 13256]

1 hour ago, South Austin said:

I feel okay about not knowing what the fuck “fediverse” means.

 

It's a world where Kevin Federline fucks like Genghis Khan, aka our current reality.

[52-80 19377]

19 minutes ago, Rimbo said:

I had sworn off Facebook and Insta. But I'm on Threads now.

Is the rizz bussin?

[Neonmoon 38130]

It’s not surprising to see who is “ just asking questions” about Threads on Twitter and here. 

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

I have 8,353 followers on shittygram. So far only 2 people are following me on threads. Curious to see how that grows.

[Grade of D as in David 13256]

1 hour ago, troph said:

sweet jesus. so it's 2? I mean no big deal but that's easy to read.  12-16 ok who knows. 2-more than wilt chamberlain and magic johnson combined?  ok that's 2.

And those two...

 

Left hand and right hand

[atomheartbevo 90670]

53 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

It is ironic that Twitter literally rationing how much people could use the app was the final blunder that prompted Meta to launch and seize the moment, and BlueSky is over there like, “Yeah, I get it man.  Gotta keep those usage hours lean when you’re running a social network.”

42 minutes ago, Celery Man said:

1) as an easy first answer, verification. Obviously much more than that, I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention or not but the platform was literally broken (inaccessible) last week.

23 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

And this wasn’t something that had been advertised for months.  It popped up online with minimal push (relatively speaking for something like this) a few days ago, and the timeline kept getting moved up.  It’s a big number.  

I think if given the chance, Meta would have waited a little longer and had a few more features (the stuff they are currently working on) ready to go.  Everybody already knew they were working on it (and I'd almost bet money that the "leaks" about Threads were deliberately planned by the higher-ups). The fact that they slid into the major app stores extremely fast and then launched ahead of an already short schedule meant that they had been lining this up for weeks, even months (not to mention influencers being shortlisted for early access).

Completely destroying verification and making it so that any 20-something, shit-posting, Holocaust-denying, little neo-Nazi incel shit had the same verification badge as somebody who was the child of Holocaust survivors and who had spent 50 years researching and writing about the Holocaust was it for a lot of people, but that was still a very slow burn. 

Elon not paying more bills, shutting off twitter to non-users and rationing everybody else, and having Twitter crackle under a reduced infrastructure was the equivalent of JFK's limo pulling out on to Elm Street in Dealey Plaza. Zuck was never going to get such a clear shot again.

[G650 14450]

14 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

think if given the chance, Meta would have waited a little longer and had a few more features (the stuff they are currently working on) ready to go. 

 

I actually have a hypothesis that Musks cage match bullshit caused Zuck to launch it now. Not being EU compliant yet tells me it wasn't fully baked

[South Austin 53260]

13 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Zuck was never going to get such a clear shot again.

Are you trying to tell us there was a lone gunman?

[Lurch 5951]

Find someone with similar interests as you and click their followers count. Then click into their Following tab. Now you can quickly scan their list to add to your own

[Celery Man 21103]

25 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

(1) for one (or two?) days, non logged-in web access was blocked. im not a paying user and despite moderate usage didnt encounter a rate limit. afaic, the gnashing over the rate limit had more bite than the actual rate limit.  long term, site traffic shows its the same as its ever been. 

(3) you could also read the post preceding what you quoted, and see that my reference about the drama and bickering was explicitly about the people portending the downfall of twitter *on twitter*, who then continued to stay on twitter (instead of being an implied dig directed elsewhere).

people on that site love to complain about it dying, about it being broken, and now about it hemmoraging. and yet it moseys along. its a doomer party and i enjoy spectating the scene.

ive said many times on this site, whatever opinion people may have of musk, to me, above all else, he brings sheer entertainment. 

1) unregistered users have been blocked for… weeks? Still blocked, not being unblocked. I was of course referring to the rate limiting which made the site inaccessible for regular users.

of course, getting rid of verification fundamentally breaks Twitter in a meaningful way. And of course, even in your post you refer to “paying users” (which should properly be understood as “advertisers”) - the whole concept of paid amplification ( and the reverse for regular users) outside of advertisements also represents a fundamental breaking of what Twitter was and was for.
 

3) fair point about missing some context but I see you still have not denied it. Like I said, it’s not important.

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Is there a way to mass approve? Just had to approve 167 followers one by one because I am not smart.

[Lurch 5951]

I have 8,353 followers on shittygram.

Anal porn or unboxing Pokémon cards?

Is there a way to mass approve? Just had to approve 167 followers one by one because I am not smart.

Ah, so anal porn, then

[Celery Man 21103]

5 minutes ago, Patricio Swayze said:

Is there a way to mass approve? Just had to approve 167 followers one by one because I am not smart.

Sounds like you may be set to private?

Might be intentional, you just mentioned like 1500 followers or something so…. If you’re having to approve follows I think you are set to private and it’s possible that may not be what you want.

Edited July 6, 2023 by Celery Man

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Sounds like you may be set to private?
Might be intentional, you just mentioned like 1500 followers or something so…. If you’re having to approve follows I think you are set to private and it’s possible that may not be what you want.

Nope, not set to private.

[4th&Five 42026]

2 hours ago, Pig Bellmont said:

Turns out being an unrepentant asshole has consequences 

[Celery Man 21103]

3 minutes ago, Patricio Swayze said:

Nope, not set to private.

Huh. Well my brand new totally fictional threads persona is followed by two slammin hot babes and I didn’t have to approve them or nothin.

[Aqua Buddha 14809]

3 hours ago, Neonmoon said:

Lol

FREE SPEECH!!!!!

Just not over there.

[South Austin 53260]

6 minutes ago, Celery Man said:

Huh. Well my brand new totally fictional threads persona is followed by two slammin hot babes and I didn’t have to approve them or nothin.

[G650 14450]

20 minutes ago, Patricio Swayze said:

Nope, not set to private.

Weird. Mine just automatically does it

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Weird. Mine just automatically does it

Fuck if know.

Anyways, I am sitting at 2% of my IG followers now following me on threads. Meh.

[52-80 19377]

32 minutes ago, Celery Man said:

1) unregistered users have been blocked for… weeks? Still blocked, not being unblocked. I was of course referring to the rate limiting which made the site inaccessible for regular users.

of course, getting rid of verification fundamentally breaks Twitter in a meaningful way. And of course, even in your post you refer to “paying users” (which should properly be understood as “advertisers”) - the whole concept of paid amplification ( and the reverse for regular users) outside of advertisements also represents a fundamental breaking of what Twitter was and was for.
 

3) fair point about missing some context but I see you still have not denied it. Like I said, it’s not important.

people may follow different accounts and ascribe different significance to a checkmark. my feed of finance and tech remained the same - with same people posting, checked or not.  most palpable difference is crypto spambots disappeared or relegated to hidden replies….somewhat replaced by OnlyFans spam (is that a net win?)

the previous twitter ‘alternatives’ were factional offshoots - gab and parler for RW, mastodon and post for LW, etc.  they were supposed to pull users away from twitter (but failed).  threads i can see permanent migration of people who used twitter to follow big media celebs.  my guess is its pulling user time away from instagram instead of from twitter, and twitter will continue to persist in parallel. 

i cherish web drama. its not a non-denial, its an open admission.