Taggart Dec 13, 2023
There are basically two irreconcilable camps in the Threads debate here.

- Camp 1, understandably, wants nothing to do with Meta and view them as an existential threat to the Fediverse for plenty of well-precedented reasons.

- Camp 2, also understandably, sees potential in connecting a managed platform that appeals to entities like news outlets and other services to the Fediverse, enabling us to access that information without requiring an account on a Meta-owned platform.

Camp 1 will not cede ground because they view the issue as existential.

Camp 2 will, I dunno, deal with it or move to a server where they can see what they want to see?

But given the scale of Threads already, widespread blocking of it will create a pretty noticeably weird gap in the federation graph, and make onboarding for new potential Fedi users even more confusing. That part, by itself, kinda sucks.
Show threadjosh buermannDec 13, 2023

@mttaggart

Mastodon instances are "managed platforms", the difference is that Threads is managed by the dictates of whatever it is management thinks the market is dictating. Lies, for instance, are cheap to produce and sell very well, and so will remain at the core of meta's business model.

Show threadTaggart Dec 13, 2023
@buermann Is there a mainstream source of information or news that you consider trustworthy?
Show threadjosh buermannDec 13, 2023

@mttaggart

The top content in Meta's networks are not mainstream sources but Shapiro, Bongino, the Occupy Democrat twins, and a long tail of desperate 'influencers', none of whom have any editorial standards let alone editors. The corporation is at odds with mainstream sources and suppress them if they don't cough up the dough for promotional traffic, while whitelisting popular misinformation hubs from moderation to farm the clicks.

Show threadTaggart Dec 14, 2023
@buermann And this is exactly why being able to access Threads accounts from Fedi is so interesting.

Say I have a news source I trust like the Los Angeles Times, or individual journalists who write for that organization. From Fedi, I can choose to follow those sources and interact with them, without dealing with the rest of that dreck.

I wish those outlets would come here. But if they don't, It'd still be cool to choose to have that material in my timeline.
Show threadjosh buermannDec 14, 2023

@mttaggart

That would be a distinct benefit. I don't know why the flagship lefty rags haven't kept a presence here while continuing to supporting traffic on xitter when they could trivially follow the LA Times' example of cross-posting everywhere.

https://press.coop/@latimes

Los Angeles Times :press: (@[email protected])

700 Posts, 0 Following, 1.47K Followers · News from a West Coast perspective. ( feed imported by https://press.coop )

press.coop
Show threadTaggart Dec 14, 2023
@buermann One stated reason is that the culture here was so anticorporate that it prevented useful engagement. And I saw it happen—to say nothing of the normal Fedi scolds about how to present content. It's exhausting, and for minimal benefit for those outlets
Show threadjosh buermannDec 14, 2023

@mttaggart

The minimal benefit for leftwing outlets would be helping community controlled social media become a viable alternative for their followers so they could keep some faint hope alive of taking the keys back from Zuckerberg Inc's genocide algorithms.

How could the "I demand you put content warnings on all political posts" folks that can't figure out the mute button be any worse than a sea of bargain basement brownshirt bluecheck trolls being promoted to the top of all your replies?

Show threadTaggart Dec 14, 2023
@buermann Okay first of all, I hope we're not including the LA Times in "leftwing outlets." But anyway.

It's not so much that it's worse, but maybe just as annoying plus dealing with all the other weird nuances of using Fedi, like choosing an instance, navigating fediblocks, maybe even running an instance, convincing readers to look there...it is more than most outlets bargained for from social media.
Show threadjosh buermann

@mttaggart

Oh no, the LAT floats from one billionaire's pocket to another. Present ownership seems like an improvement over either the predator Sam Zell or mercenary Heath Freeman.

"convincing readers to look there"

I'm only arguing for a minimum maintenance presence here so when people do take a look around they don't immediately leave due to their conspicuous absence, surrendering opportunity after opportunity to build something better whenever the silos take another piss on their users.

Dec 14, 2023 at 2:46amWeb