Sérgio RamosJul 6, 2023
Derek Powazek 🐐

Threads gaining 30 million users in 24 hours is a perfect example of the unfair, anticompetitive, monopolistic advantage Meta has by owning the social graph.

We should demand laws that make us the owners of our social graphs and mandate that social media companies enable social graph import and export.

Jul 6, 2023 at 10:22pmWeb
Show threadDerek Powazek 🐐Jul 6, 2023
Still, just because they could convince 30M people to try out Threads (a fraction of their userbase) doesn't mean success is inevitable. If it did, we'd be having this conversation on Google+.
Show threadnothingfutureJul 6, 2023
@fraying I might well be the only one, but: I kinda liked G+. They botched the rollout about as badly as one could, but the functionality of circles was (I think) a pretty good idea. It seemed at least like an attempt to accommodate code switching.
Show threadDerek Powazek 🐐Jul 6, 2023
@nothingfuture It definitely appealed to a certain kind of brain that liked putting their friends in categories.
Show threadDerek Powazek 🐐Jul 6, 2023
@nothingfuture Anyway, my point wasn't that G+ was bad, it was that even a player of Google's scale couldn't make it work.
Show threadkccqzyJul 7, 2023
@fraying @nothingfuture It's not a matter of scale, it's a matter of execution. Google is bad at it; Meta is better.
Show threadGeorge StationJul 7, 2023

@nothingfuture Oh you're definitely not the only one. We are legion, just scattered across the social media hellscape that's left. Thanks for the nostalgic tangent.

@fraying

Show threadJacob TenderJul 6, 2023
@fraying how I wish we were. Circles were inspired.
Show threadDerek Powazek 🐐Jul 6, 2023
@Tender Yeah they were appealing to a certain kind of person, but far from mainstream, and then they tried to use their scale to make everyone use them. It didn't work.
Show threadJacob TenderJul 6, 2023

@fraying I think the platform was just too early. There’s been a more recent movement towards smaller communities and walled gardens seen through IG’s Close Friends, Discord, Slack, etc.

Google+ had the best of both worlds, scale and control. A lot of those ideas eventually made their way to other platforms (with a pit stop in Vero), but not so neatly packaged as the circles idea.

Google also wasn’t really “cool.”

Show threadRyan SmithJul 7, 2023
@fraying It’s not a bad start though. I’m hoping this ends up being a rising tide lifts all boats situation.
Show threadrstevens 🐳💨✅Jul 7, 2023
@fraying i think people are just bored and will leave threads when the barbie movie comes out
Show threadColinJul 7, 2023
@fraying I think you just insulted Buzz
Show threadMarcinJul 7, 2023
@fraying I signed up to check it out, but haven’t been back. Didn’t see anything appealing enough to make it sticky yet.
Show threadSteve WilliamsJul 9, 2023

@fraying
Honestly, even Google had a hard time explaining what Google+ was for.
This is butt simple, has a one click adoption route, and leverages a very successful social app.
So not really a great comparison with the shit show that was Google+

Not a fan, just sayin’

Show threadDerek Powazek 🐐Jul 9, 2023
@blabberlicious it’s similar in the one way I mentioned: using scale to force behavior.
Show threadSteve WilliamsJul 9, 2023
@fraying
Yes, in that sense. But google failed utterly because they tried to reinvent a system. Threads is just twitter. Simples.
Show threadNathalie Van RaemdonckJul 7, 2023
@fraying I was thinking about this, how federating to the fedi might actually unintentionally allow people to migrate their social graph out of the Meta silo https://hci.social/@nvraemdonck/110670016705989421
Nathalie Van Raemdonck (@[email protected])

Question to the #fediverse about #threads #threadsapp ; if Meta's shiny new toy potentially federated through ActivityPub, would their users also have portability of their social graph and be able to move to a different instance 😈? I'm still surprised Meta is even considering federating and opening up his walled garden, if it might mean his users could escape with their entire social graph...

🌱 hci.social
Show threadMarcJul 7, 2023
@fraying I’m not fully fully convinced legislation is the way here, but the fact that Facebook created something called “the OpenGraph Protocol” that essentially boiled down to SEO nonsense, while squatting in the name to signal jam, is blood-boiling
Show threadDerek Powazek 🐐Jul 7, 2023
@slpsys legislation is the only way. They’re not going to do it on their own. They’ve proven that.