Elon Musk. Twitter. Babylon Bee.

[Pelerin]

Two things that are close to dealbreakers for me:

1) Twitter posted things chronologically. Threads posts things according to some sort of algorithm.

2) There’s currently no way to filter posts for people who you follow — the feed is filled with posts from random people I don’t know, don’t follow and don’t care. I think it’s essential to have the capacity to receive the posts in my feed that I want.

So they just replicated some of the things that people hate about New Twitter? The attraction of Twitter was its simplicity whereas Facebook became more and more glommered up with trash. I honestly don’t understand the point of Threads. Is it anything more than just Old Facebook with a promise to do better (or less badly)?

Within the first couple of days, over 30 million users signed up.

In just the first few hours, supposedly. Says Mark Zuckerberg. For reference that’s around 10% of Twitter users. Put me down as skeptical on this. I just don’t think there’s actually that much of a hunger for an alternative Twitter.

When Elon Musk became Bad, there was quite a quite a bit of noise about leaving Twitter for alternative platforms. It wasn’t a very big group of overall users, mostly the kind of people who made that sort of thing their “brand”—i.e. the kind of people who would care whether Elon Musk is Bad or not. And most of them turned out to be bluffing anyway and at best occasionally mention that they also post to other platforms.

Apart from that, most normal users seem more or less content to continue as always. Sure there’s the occasional complaining about some of the annoying changes. But if Twitter finally annoys me sufficiently, I’ll just…stop using Twitter. It’s not like a car that you need to go out and choose a replacement.

So between all that and the fact that Facebook has a history of lying to inflate usage statistics, something just feels off about these claims.

[Ken]

Two things that are close to dealbreakers for me:

1) Twitter posted things chronologically. Threads posts things according to some sort of algorithm.

2) There’s currently no way to filter posts for people who you follow — the feed is filled with posts from random people I don’t know, don’t follow and don’t care. I think it’s essential to have the capacity to receive the posts in my feed that I want.

So they just replicated some of the things that people hate about New Twitter? The attraction of Twitter was its simplicity whereas Facebook became more and more glommered up with trash. I honestly don’t understand the point of Threads. Is it anything more than just Old Facebook with a promise to do better (or less badly)?

Within the first couple of days, over 30 million users signed up.

In just the first few hours, supposedly. Says Mark Zuckerberg. For reference that’s around 10% of Twitter users. Put me down as skeptical on this. I just don’t think there’s actually that much of a hunger for an alternative Twitter.

When Elon Musk became Bad, there was quite a quite a bit of noise about leaving Twitter for alternative platforms. It wasn’t a very big group of overall users, mostly the kind of people who made that sort of thing their “brand”—i.e. the kind of people who would care whether Elon Musk is Bad or not. And most of them turned out to be bluffing anyway and at best occasionally mention that they also post to other platforms.

Apart from that, most normal users seem more or less content to continue as always. Sure there’s the occasional complaining about some of the annoying changes. But if Twitter finally annoys me sufficiently, I’ll just…stop using Twitter. It’s not like a car that you need to go out and choose a replacement.

So between all that and the fact that Facebook has a history of lying to inflate usage statistics, something just feels off about these claims.

As of yesterday they passed the 70 million mark which is closing in on 1/4 the size of Twitter in only a matter of days. Instagram has about 2.5 BILLION users so if only one in 6 of them add threads they are already the size of Twitter. And Facebook has 3 BILLION users. If you have either a Facebook or Instagram account you automatically have a Threads account and can use the same login. So there doesn't seem to be much friction holding them back from blowing right past Twitter in size.

[Robert]

If you have either a Facebook or Instagram account you automatically have a Threads account and can use the same login. So there doesn't seem to be much friction holding them back from blowing right past Twitter in size.

And they are already skimming of user info and selling it.

[Ken]

If you have either a Facebook or Instagram account you automatically have a Threads account and can use the same login. So there doesn't seem to be much friction holding them back from blowing right past Twitter in size.

And they are already skimming of user info and selling it.

Yep, just like Twitter.

[temporal1]

Pelerin:
.. So between all that and the fact that Facebook has a history of lying to inflate usage statistics, something just feels off about these claims.

Elon is eccentric, Mark is (more typically) just calculating.

i never used FB in a conventional way, rarely visit in recent years.
never signed up for twitter. no matter ownership.
no plans for threads.

i used to say, “no twitter, no regrets.” i think that’s still relevant.

[Pelerin]

If you have either a Facebook or Instagram account you automatically have a Threads account and can use the same login.

Yeah that’s what I mean. So if you have an account automatically, when do you get counted as one of the 70 million? When you log into Instagram and it asks if you want to check it out? When you post your first thread? When I was reading around about this I clicked a link to see what the New York Times was citing for a claim (stated as fact) that Threads had reached a certain number of users. It was a Threads post from Mark Zuckerberg. Am I a Threads user now?

But setting that aside, having a big user base already will certainly help smooth them into Threads and jump start it. But the kind of people who use Instagram and the kind of people who use Twitter are different kinds of people. Relatively speaking Twitter is pretty small so there aren’t all that many Twitter type people out there in the first place and most of them have already discovered…Twitter. So who’s going to use Threads? Like I said above, I’m not sure there’s going to be a whole lot of attraction from Twitter. Is Threads going to offer something for Instagram-type people that Twitter doesn’t? Or will the ease of introduction show Instagram users that maybe they’re Twitter-type people after all?

[Josh]

By the same argument, Twitter’s huge user base would have made it easy for them to launch spaces. But Spaces hasn’t really caught on.

Facebook has yet to create any of its own products that sustain large user growth other than the original Facebook.
Insta and WhatsApp were acquisitions. The meta verse was a giant flop.

[Ken]

If you have either a Facebook or Instagram account you automatically have a Threads account and can use the same login.

Yeah that’s what I mean. So if you have an account automatically, when do you get counted as one of the 70 million? When you log into Instagram and it asks if you want to check it out? When you post your first thread? When I was reading around about this I clicked a link to see what the New York Times was citing for a claim (stated as fact) that Threads had reached a certain number of users. It was a Threads post from Mark Zuckerberg. Am I a Threads user now?

You get numbered when you sign up for threads and your number shows up in your Instagram profile. They are now up to over 90 million unique profiles created on Threads.

Apple and Google also count the number of times that each app is downloaded and threads is on the top of both charts.

I think the numbers are legit. How many people actually stick with it and become active users is a different question. But then that is the same for all social media. Of the 400 million or so people with Twitter accounts, only a small portion are actually active on Twitter.

[ohio jones]

Of the 400 or so people with MennoNet accounts, only a small portion are actually active on MennoNet.

[ohio jones]