Meta/Instagram launched a new product called Threads today (working title project92). It adds a new interface for creating text posts and replying to them, using your Instagram account. Of note, Meta has stated that Threads plans to support ActivityPub in the future, and allow federation with ActivityPub services. If you actually look at your Threads profile page in the app your username has a threads.net tag next to it - presumably to support future federation.
Per the link, a number of fediverse communities are pledging to block any Meta-directed instances that should exist in the future. Thus instance content would not be federated to Meta instances, and Meta users would not be able to interact with instance content.
I’m curious what the opinions on this here are. I personally feel like Meta has shown time and time again that they are not very good citizens of the Internet; beyond concerns of an Eternal September triggered by federated Instagram, I worry that bringing their massive userbase to the fediverse would allow them to influence it to negative effect.
I also understand how that could be seen to go against the point of federated social media in the first place, and I’m eager to hear more opinions. What do you think?
I can see where you’re coming from, especially with the part about how people came to Lemmy and Mastodon to get away from the type of people who want to reach the biggest audience. But I guess that leads us down the path of, “What SHOULD Lemmy be?”
I recently ditched both Reddit and Twitter for their fediverse equivalents. But they haven’t been true replacements because they don’t have the users to replicate the sheer amount of content. The mildlyinteresting subreddit has 22 million subscribers. The equivalent on lemmy.world has 100 subscribers. The last post was 3 days ago. I’m not even a fan of that subreddit, but the fact that such a weird type of content can keep so many users engaged speaks to how many people are out there searching for mildly interesting things to share.
Lemmy just doesn’t have that.
I guess it all comes down to this. I don’t care that much about expanding my content creator presence into Mastodon/Twitter, that’s just not the type of creator I am. But (I think) Lemmy could use more creators. Not even “content creators” in the traditional sense of youtubers or twitch streamers, but random people making posts on their favorite communities. If someone’s favorite subreddit is mildlyinteresting, and they come over here and see that the biggest mildlyinteresting community only has 100 subscribers, what do you think they’re gonna do?
Which leads back into the question, “What SHOULD Lemmy be?”
Do you think it should be a reddit equivalent with as many users as that has? With as many super-niche communities as you can think of?
Or should it be a somewhat niche thing with an admittedly passionate community?
Maybe I’m just kinda imposing my own beliefs here (as someone looking for a reddit replacement), but I’d prefer the former. And you don’t need super high quality users to post on communities like mildly interesting or whatever, you just need interested people. You need numbers.