FBXL Social

My guess is #meta is thinking that being the Gmail of the #SocialWeb is better than having Elon and #Twitter dominate the public conversation. They'd rather be a big player but not own the space, than have an asshole increasingly lock them out. Their efforts to federate #threads (and thus grow the fedi) need not be motivated by any notion of the greater good.

@wjmaggos facts. This is especially apparent because they aren't really doing anything to endorse turning Fediverse sharing on.

Their employees discuss it sometimes and there's a button that works, but they do go through great lengths to seemingly convince you that doing it isn't a *good* thing.

They're just doing it because it'll give them an edge in case it takes off like e-mail. If it does, they might promote it and discuss it more positively. However, until that happens, they probably won't. Adam Mosseri already confirmed that they don't ever plan to remove the "opt-in" part, which basically kills the idea of open communication.

@BeAware

maybe we kinda disagree here. I think they do want the fedi to grow to the extent it breaks the stranglehold Twitter has on official PR, news etc. they also don't want the toxicity people associate with political talk tho. and also if they replace Twitter with threads without being open, they would force a DOJ monopoly case. the fedi is kinda their weapon against X and lifeline against the govt. growing it is their least bad option. maybe.

@wjmaggos Threads is thriving. And will continue to grow. Mastodon is fairly stale at several years old. What does a user on Threads have to gain by turning on federation on their accounts? That's the real question. News isn't here. Most reporters have abandoned their accounts. Sports and teams aren't here. Sports players aren't here. Local TV and radio isn't here. And they aren't coming. Mastodon has more to gain from federation than Threads does. I check this account once a month or so. 🤷🏻

@LScottSpencer

I'm not going to completely dispute what you said but you should try following more people here and interacting more. doing so has made it lively for me.

@wjmaggos I had an account on mstdn with a couple thousand followers. I joined here day one. I know what Mastodon is and isn't. It's fine for tech (especially Apple Fanatics), photography, and art. It's not a place where journalists and news and radio are coming to. Or sports leagues or teams. Sure, there are thousands of bots relaying that info. It's not the same though. Mastodon is niche. And that's fine. But, not what most users are looking for.

@LScottSpencer

the people who are not here yet but do know what the options are, value an audience more than independence. chicken or the egg etc. I hope eventually being able to be seen fully on threads from here fixes this. meta brings the audience, being able to run their own server on fedi (like many of them do with their websites) provides the freedom. and the incentive for more investment in FOSS AP development.

@wjmaggos I have no issues with FOSS. I worked for Red Hat for a few years. Threads users opting into being part of the Fediverse is the way it should be. Most people won't. Again, look at the journalists and so forth that have abandoned this platform. People here have been less than welcoming. And that's their choice. That same choice lays on the other side. What's the incentive for Threads users to federate. No freedom stuff. People don't care. They care that who they want to follow is there.

@LScottSpencer

this is a long complex conversation. there's very little reason for threads users to federate now cause they can't follow anybody here and even replies are limited. if/when that changes, all the calculus changes. over time, threads will also enshittify. ads. eventually you probably won't automatically see everything the people you follow post ala Facebook. nobody wants a middleman between them and their audience, all else equal. but we also need more AP server options. etc.

@LScottSpencer

I agree about the culture here too but that's changing. should it is a difficult question. basically gentrification. I keep asking people to think about what the point of the #SocialWeb is. you can have a space for your friendly conversation anywhere. this tech (with good norms) can give us a worldwide public forum for attention democracy, where we the people not corporations etc, decide what info, ideas and art deserves to go viral. cultural evolution on steroids.

@threalist

not sure what you know about. everybody there can see our replies now. they added a nice link we can share there to make turning on federation a little easier and more inviting.