8 ms·

“Soon, you’ll be able to follow and interact with people on other fediverse platforms, like Mastodon. They can also find you with your full username @username@t

“Soon, you’ll be able to follow and interact with people on other fediverse platforms, like Mastodon. They can also find you with your full username @username@threads.net.” [1] Did not expect Fediverse integration from Meta. [1] https://9to5google.com/2023/07/03/threads-instagram-app-countdown-plus-details/ https://9to5google.com/2023/07/03/threads-instagram-app-coun...

arianvanp 3y ago
They used to run an XMPP bridge on chat.facebook.com
- manojlds 3y ago
  Used to being the keyword.
  - sequoia 3y ago
    Yeah talk about good old days. Pidgin or Adium (or Finch, in the terminal), I could have google chat, facebook chat, and even IRC in one app. Throw OTR plugin on that & I we had end to end chat encryption over google & facebook. Very sad day when they shut these down.
    - hyperdimension 3y ago
      Agreed. As an interesting look at the human side of technology decisions, Google dropped XMPP federation the year after I graduated high school, leaving me extremely isolated from all my friends once we went our separate ways.
    - Breza 3y ago
      Agreed! Facebook was a very open platform, especially pre-newsfeed.
luckystarr 3y ago
People on the Fediverse expected it very much. Meta already was trying to talk to the larger instances "off the record"[1]. Fediverse users are already planning to boycott any instance which federates with Meta to block any Embrace, Extend and Extinguish moves. [1] https://fosstodon.org/@kev/110592625692688836 https://fosstodon.org/@kev/110592625692688836 edit: More info here: https://wedistribute.org/2023/06/fedipact-blocking-meta/ https://wedistribute.org/2023/06/fedipact-blocking-meta/
- hhh 3y ago
  This behavior is pathetic. As long as Meta is open to federation to other instances, this can only be a good thing for the entire ecosystem.
  - CaptainFever 3y ago
    > As long as Meta is open to federation to other instances That’s a pretty doubtful condition, especially if Threads becomes too successful for the Fediverse. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguis... > Fediverse users are already planning to boycott any instance Though if this is true, yeah, I dislike that too. It should be individual admins’ choices.
    - smoldesu 3y ago
      > if Threads becomes too successful for the Fediverse. I wager most Fediverse users aren't worried about this (at least speaking for myself). The status quo is 2 or 3 big private companies and a few thousand federated alternatives. If Meta betrays the community, things will go back to square one and core functionality of their app will start to falter. They need the community more than the community needs them.
      - cmrdporcupine 3y ago
        When threads goes live there will be tens of millions of people with existing Meta user profiles entering it overnight. There are currently ~13M Mastodon users, most of which I'm sure are not really active. So depending on how federation into ActivtyPub is set up, it will be like Eternal September x 100. Their content will likely dwarf anything out in Mastodon land. And judging by what I see on Facebook and Instagram, I don't hold out high hopes for the quality of that content or the behaviour of those users. I'm not worried about it really because I think the ethic of fediverse as such that they will be quickly de-federated. But it won't be fun along the way.
runeks 3y ago
So they allow Threads-to-Mastodon, but they key question is whether they allow Mastodon-to-Threads. The former is just a way to recruit users to their platform, while the latter gives access to their platform without being a user.
- api 3y ago
  A large number of fediverse instances are defederating preemptively to prevent the obvious spam and embrace-extend-extinguish. The fediverse will never be as big as corporate social media, but that’s a feature. Meta can keep the dopamine scrollers and influencers and ads.
- TobTobXX 3y ago
  Read the parent quote again, it's quite clear it's 2-ways.
cmrdporcupine 3y ago
It won't last -- if it even launches with this feature -- pretty sure. As others have pointed out, most hosts will simply de-federate them pretty quickly anyways, and then it will become a useless feature that they turn off. I suspect it will be one-way anyways, to capitalize on the existing content produced by Mastodon users out there already while they bootstrap. There's no way they'd offer their own content up into the fediverse without the ability to tie it to ads and engagement. Given the cold reception they've gotten, it will be interesting to see if this feature even makes launch.
- dahwolf 3y ago
  The most realistic comment in the thread, you don't deserve these downvotes. Threads development started last January. Quite obviously it's a rush job to capitalize on the fall of Twitter before BlueSky does. They'll instantly fill it with a zillion Insta users to get a critical mass going and take things from there. Surely they don't give a crap about any fediverse.
  - cmrdporcupine 3y ago
    The story I'm seeing around Mastodon is that in fact this feature will not launch until the fall. Also that it they will only peer with hosts that sign an agreement with them. There is rumour of $$ involved. I think you can guess how this will all shake out. (Snarky aside: maybe Truth Social will federate with them?)
    - dahwolf 3y ago
      That sounds logical. Federation without conditions would make no sense at all for Meta. You could then run an ad-free Threads copy, create any client you want, easily train your AI on their content. Surely if such deals materialize, many idealistic Mastodon instances will defederate with Meta. A few big Mastodon instances might not. Next, the idealistic Mastodon instances will defederate with the Meta-compatible Mastodon instances. Which...makes large Mastodon instances pretty pointless. They'll be largely isolated from the rest of the Mastodon part of the fediverse. They can interact with Threads users, but in that case...why wouldn't users simply use Threads?
romilshah29 3y ago
Adam mosseri clarified about one way vs two portability on his thread https://www.threads.net/t/CuRtcYTNY3J/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== https://www.threads.net/t/CuRtcYTNY3J/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA...
- modernerd 3y ago
  What did he say? I only see, ”Sorry, this page isn't available“.

arianvanp 3y ago

They used to run an XMPP bridge on chat.facebook.com

manojlds 3y ago
Used to being the keyword.
- sequoia 3y ago
  Yeah talk about good old days. Pidgin or Adium (or Finch, in the terminal), I could have google chat, facebook chat, and even IRC in one app. Throw OTR plugin on that & I we had end to end chat encryption over google & facebook. Very sad day when they shut these down.
  - hyperdimension 3y ago
    Agreed. As an interesting look at the human side of technology decisions, Google dropped XMPP federation the year after I graduated high school, leaving me extremely isolated from all my friends once we went our separate ways.
  - Breza 3y ago
    Agreed! Facebook was a very open platform, especially pre-newsfeed.

luckystarr 3y ago

People on the Fediverse expected it very much. Meta already was trying to talk to the larger instances "off the record"[1]. Fediverse users are already planning to boycott any instance which federates with Meta to block any Embrace, Extend and Extinguish moves. [1] https://fosstodon.org/@kev/110592625692688836 https://fosstodon.org/@kev/110592625692688836 edit: More info here: https://wedistribute.org/2023/06/fedipact-blocking-meta/ https://wedistribute.org/2023/06/fedipact-blocking-meta/

hhh 3y ago
This behavior is pathetic. As long as Meta is open to federation to other instances, this can only be a good thing for the entire ecosystem.
- CaptainFever 3y ago
  > As long as Meta is open to federation to other instances That’s a pretty doubtful condition, especially if Threads becomes too successful for the Fediverse. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguis... > Fediverse users are already planning to boycott any instance Though if this is true, yeah, I dislike that too. It should be individual admins’ choices.
  - smoldesu 3y ago
    > if Threads becomes too successful for the Fediverse. I wager most Fediverse users aren't worried about this (at least speaking for myself). The status quo is 2 or 3 big private companies and a few thousand federated alternatives. If Meta betrays the community, things will go back to square one and core functionality of their app will start to falter. They need the community more than the community needs them.
    - cmrdporcupine 3y ago
      When threads goes live there will be tens of millions of people with existing Meta user profiles entering it overnight. There are currently ~13M Mastodon users, most of which I'm sure are not really active. So depending on how federation into ActivtyPub is set up, it will be like Eternal September x 100. Their content will likely dwarf anything out in Mastodon land. And judging by what I see on Facebook and Instagram, I don't hold out high hopes for the quality of that content or the behaviour of those users. I'm not worried about it really because I think the ethic of fediverse as such that they will be quickly de-federated. But it won't be fun along the way.

runeks 3y ago

So they allow Threads-to-Mastodon, but they key question is whether they allow Mastodon-to-Threads. The former is just a way to recruit users to their platform, while the latter gives access to their platform without being a user.

api 3y ago
A large number of fediverse instances are defederating preemptively to prevent the obvious spam and embrace-extend-extinguish. The fediverse will never be as big as corporate social media, but that’s a feature. Meta can keep the dopamine scrollers and influencers and ads.
TobTobXX 3y ago
Read the parent quote again, it's quite clear it's 2-ways.

cmrdporcupine 3y ago

It won't last -- if it even launches with this feature -- pretty sure. As others have pointed out, most hosts will simply de-federate them pretty quickly anyways, and then it will become a useless feature that they turn off. I suspect it will be one-way anyways, to capitalize on the existing content produced by Mastodon users out there already while they bootstrap. There's no way they'd offer their own content up into the fediverse without the ability to tie it to ads and engagement. Given the cold reception they've gotten, it will be interesting to see if this feature even makes launch.

dahwolf 3y ago
The most realistic comment in the thread, you don't deserve these downvotes. Threads development started last January. Quite obviously it's a rush job to capitalize on the fall of Twitter before BlueSky does. They'll instantly fill it with a zillion Insta users to get a critical mass going and take things from there. Surely they don't give a crap about any fediverse.
- cmrdporcupine 3y ago
  The story I'm seeing around Mastodon is that in fact this feature will not launch until the fall. Also that it they will only peer with hosts that sign an agreement with them. There is rumour of $$ involved. I think you can guess how this will all shake out. (Snarky aside: maybe Truth Social will federate with them?)
  - dahwolf 3y ago
    That sounds logical. Federation without conditions would make no sense at all for Meta. You could then run an ad-free Threads copy, create any client you want, easily train your AI on their content. Surely if such deals materialize, many idealistic Mastodon instances will defederate with Meta. A few big Mastodon instances might not. Next, the idealistic Mastodon instances will defederate with the Meta-compatible Mastodon instances. Which...makes large Mastodon instances pretty pointless. They'll be largely isolated from the rest of the Mastodon part of the fediverse. They can interact with Threads users, but in that case...why wouldn't users simply use Threads?

romilshah29 3y ago

Adam mosseri clarified about one way vs two portability on his thread https://www.threads.net/t/CuRtcYTNY3J/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== https://www.threads.net/t/CuRtcYTNY3J/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA...

modernerd 3y ago
What did he say? I only see, ”Sorry, this page isn't available“.