@simsa02 @JamesGleick It may be due to a plentiful lack of understanding on my part, but I find Mastadon pretty easy to use, for the purposes for which I use it. I dwell in an ignorance of the details of the fediverse so vast that it protects me from getting mad about the things that are no doubt upsetting about it. It's what I know about Zuckerberg, Meta, and using Instagram and Facebook that will keep me from downloading the Threads app. Won't get zucked again.

You're on a rather large instance which "sees" a lot of other instances. Furthermore, it's a Mastodon powered instance, so it runs smoothly with a lot of other mastodon instances provided there is no blockwar due to political differences. But once you get out of the Mastodon silo and try interoperability with other "projects", the hassle, the breakdown, the repudiation of connections, etc., start. There is a reason I call Eugen Rochko the Dear Leader of Mastodon: He created a silo every other project in the Fediverse has to comply to. And it's no coincidence that there are negotiations running between Mastodon developers and Meta for shared access. Rochko tries to become a Musk and Zuckerberg, only with his own version of social media silo. He's not better than they are, only cheaper and with less money. And privacy is chimera in the Fediverse which is why Zuckerberg will get a lot of new user data especially from people (like me) who don't use his platforms -- simply by sharing connections with the Mastodon run part of the Fediverse.

@simsa03 Oh, the disillusionment. Privacy is a chimera anywhere you go, digitally or in real life. Ride the chimera. You can pretend but you can’t escape.

Then there is no reason or excuse for you to not download and use Threads. Which looks to me slightly self-defeating. Some chimera we should take dead seriously, others we should laugh at. And it it takes a blessed sage to know which of these is which.

@simsa03 Honestly the only possible reason I can think of for using Threads is if you moved there and signing up was the only way I could stay in contact and continue our conversation. And downloading the app is a high hurdle.