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I am drowning in mutes: The current Threads experience

• eatonphil 3y ago
  Follower feed is said by the head of Instagram (and I guess thus the head of Threads) to be coming eventually. There doesn't seem like much to do but wait. https://mashable.com/article/threads-following-feed-feature https://mashable.com/article/threads-following-feed-feature
  • wetpaws 3y ago
    Or you could use other platforms, you know.
• tazjin 3y ago
  I'd link to the Paris Hilton tweet where she wrote "If you're not having fun, then just leave.", but alas ...
  • ta1243 3y ago
    I remember when she first entered news headlines with the "Paris Hilton Sex Tape". Couldn't give a stuff so never read it, but for years I assumed this was some important business person or world leader who had been discovered having some illicit affair in a hotel in France.
    • onetokeoverthe 3y ago
      [dead]
• whalesalad 3y ago
  This is a fools errand. Stop using it for a week. The product is a literal MVP right now and lots of stuff is in the pipeline. You’re spinning your wheels on this when shortly you’ll be able to see a different timeline.
  • 542458 3y ago
    Yeah, I used threads for a few minutes and quickly discovered that’s it’s just not a product that caters to me… yet. Right now I think it’s probably only great if you’re really into the e-celeb scene. But this is Meta/IG we’re talking about, I’m sure they’ll get their near-freaky level of algorithmic content targeting precision in there soon enough and my feed will become full of stuff I care about. I’ll check back in on it in a couple months.
    • Al-Khwarizmi 3y ago
      I discovered that it doesn't cater to me before actually using it. Googled how to use it on desktop, found that there is no way other than emulating the mobile app. Not for me, I pass.
      • intrasight 3y ago
        I expect that they'll add a web client this year. And then we'll be able to add whatever filters we can dream up (and implement)
    • internetter 3y ago
      > But this is Meta/IG we’re talking about, I’m sure they’ll get their near-freaky level of algorithmic content targeting precision in there soon enough I keep hearing this. "Oh! The Algorithm gets me so well! It's so freaky!" about TikTok, IG, everything really... But let me tell you how my IG feed goes: I get 3 posts at the top, posted by my friends. I like all of them – even if I didn't like it. I'm just pleading to the algorithm to show me more from the people I care about. I then scroll for another 30 seconds through endless muck of golden retrievers, frat boys, etc. I'm hoping to see another post from my friends, but it just doesn't come. I leave the app for another week, until my friend shows me a post she made 2 weeks ago that was never shown to me. The algorithm makes social media a painful experience I avoid. I've enjoyed Mastodon, Snapchat, and BeReal MAGNITUDES more... Platforms without one, platforms where I'm actually "social".
      • 3y ago
• hhh 3y ago
  Muting like this is in my opinion dumb. Just move on, you don’t need to ‘purge’ their ability to reach your eyes. Threads is brand new, and the home feed is not meant to be only people you follow as of now.
  • bowsamic 3y ago
    > Just move on, you don’t need to ‘purge’ their ability to reach your eyes. Why not? Why shouldn't I? I don't get it
  • ykonstant 3y ago
    I don't know about Threads, but in Mastodon mutes, filters and the occasional block make the experience vastly better.
    • cmrdporcupine 3y ago
      Because Mastodon only has a linear feed, I don't even see the point, you're only going to see what you explicitly followed. It actually takes a lot of time just to build up interesting content to follow. One of the more frustrating things is when someone I find interesting goes crazy posting and the lack of algorithm just means I see way too many posts from them in a row. Maybe the mobile apps improve on this, I dunno.
      • timbit42 3y ago
        The key to Mastodon is to follow hashtags so you instantly get any content relevant to your interests. I'm only following a few people because most people who have a similar interest to me will also post stuff not related to our common interest. By following hashtags, I get every post I want to see and none of the noise.
  • pferde 3y ago
    Nonsense. As with any and all "social media", block early, block often. It's your time, your attention, so you should get to choose what you see. Of course, you run the risk of enclosing yourself into an echo chamber, but that's up to each individual user to consider.
• Reason077 3y ago
  I feel like Twitter has gotten worse for this lately too: I've had to use the mute button much more frequently than I used to. In the past, Twitter's feed was almost too smart/focused, and kept giving you basically only the same subjects and content over and over again. Now day's it's broadened what you see, but also keeps giving random (and sometimes, offensive) nonsense that I have to mute. It also doesn't seem to learn from mutes very well: shouldn't mute not only mean "I don't want to see tweets from this account", but also "I'm not interested in Tweets on this subject"? Similar issue with Spotify. I feel like it used to be better at finding me NEW tracks based on what I'd liked in the past. But now it just mostly wants to play the same things I've listened to before, over and over?
  • mantas 3y ago
    Turns out quality content targeting hurts views and engagement.
  • m3kw9 3y ago
    Reddit app does this too, it’s risky but it can help discover new content areas. Threads has that dialed to 11
• roody15 3y ago
  Already deleted Threads… just a bunch of celebrity promoted garbage. Cannot search or sort by hashtags… just a stream of corporate promoted nonsense mixed with ads. Not sure I where this app fits in with Instagram and Facebook already overlapping.
• pornel 3y ago
  The app is obviously an MVP. The force-fed feed makes a lot of sense when there's little content, plus helps set the intended style/atmosphere/topics they want on there. They've probably underestimated how quickly people will rebuild their social graph.
  • idlewords 3y ago
    It's obviously an MP; whether it's V remains to be seen.
• rburkej 3y ago
  I feel this; I also have only found the app usable after spending a significant amount of time muting accounts that I don't want to see.
• whimsicalism 3y ago
  For me, Reels has never been able to zero in on my interests in the way that TikTok has. Reels mostly shows stupid, low denominator content compared to TikTok which is showing me math videos, videos about ML, etc. Algo-feed only Threads means trusting the same sort of algo behind Reels and I am not convinced that it will work. Twitter allows for much easier bootstrapping. Already, I am pretty turned off by how inundated Threads is with celebrity content that I really could not care less about.
  • codekansas 3y ago
    It's very possible that ranking will be a lot better for threads though, simply because NLP models are currently so much better than what exists for video
• distantsounds 3y ago
  Yes, when you have no followers/new posts from followers the feed with fill itself with what it thinks you might like. It's not very good right now because it probably needs more data points, but if I can suggest one thing, it's this: Get More Friends. That way the feed has people you want instead. Algorithms can only help so much in that space. I can't believe this isn't obviously pointed out.
  • mgbmtl 3y ago
    It would be great if all these sites (including Reddit) just had a button "show me content I might like", instead of distracting me with click-bait. I get too distracted and end-up wasting too much time doom-scrolling. I've deleted all my accounts.
    • distantsounds 3y ago
      you can't search hashtags yet, once when that works I'm sure it will be much better. discoverability on the platform sucks right now, for sure.
• idlewords 3y ago
  Meta is courting the risk of going full Orkut, where people come by to check out early hype on an unfinished product, find the feature set underwhelming, and head off elsewhere. The tradeoff with getting tens of millions of users at launch is that it will be harder to get a disappointed user to come back and try again than it was to get them to try the first time. I'm sure for the dev team this is a busy time, and the work they need to do to accommodate so many new users creates a feeling of forward progress. But none of that work (from what I'm seeing in discussions) seems to involve adding basic functionality, while in the interim people are forming a durable first impression of the service.
  • deepfriedbits 3y ago
    Good insight. I think what might help them a little bit, however, is that the features they're sure to add in the coming weeks are known commodities at other networks, so people will already be aware of the value the features add, such as a timeline that only shows folks you're following.
  • octacat 3y ago
    If non-working product was the stuff they've ever cared about. IG: - reels were rolled/rerolled so many times with so many bugs. - have you tried to open some old post from your grid? Scroll is soo broken and loads 1 page of images, freezes, loads another. So, to scroll 300 posts you need to spend 5 minutes. Never was fixed and probably never will. - Chat for IG does not open images on desktop (or some images). Yea, I know desktop is not a priority anymore. It feels like it is neverending AB testing or neverending beta.
• damnesian 3y ago
  This is Meta. In no time it will be the same old "tailored for you" experience. Soon his timeline will be spammed with tractor ads. He and other early adopters should just enjoy this wild-west phase, it will be tamed soon.
• bunga-bunga 3y ago
  You don't have to use it. I don't understand this obsession to have to do something because it's trendy.
  • octacat 3y ago
    It is not even trendy. FB literally killed Pages before and now is actively killing IG. Many creators just don't really care about any new Meta products anymore.
• infinitezest 3y ago
  If you have to put that kind of work into a platform to make it usable, I would suggest putting it into a platform that aligns with your values. I just can't understand why anyone, even "normals", would be so eager to jump into bed with Facebook again after the last decade.
  • paddw 3y ago
    people love twitter. they want twitter run by "normals". zuck has said threads will be twitter run by "normals". this is what they want. this is what they will use.
  • mchanson 3y ago
    I don't think it's fair to call it getting into bed. More like trying out the new ice cream place that everyone is trying.
    • deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    • meitham 3y ago
      I think in this case we —-the customers—- are the ice-cream and Facebook’s tongue licking all over us, as if they haven’t had enough taste of our metadata yet!
    • FridgeSeal 3y ago
      (Continuing this analogy) Except that the icecream place is run by a group known for extremely poor hygiene, manipulating customers and lacing their other food products with nicotine to ensure chemical dependency issues.
      • whartung 3y ago
        “This Carolina Chocolate is amazing! I just keep coming back!”
      • internetter 3y ago
• exabrial 3y ago
  As an alternative, you could just not use the product
  • berkle4455 3y ago
    Seriously. I didn't sign up for Threads and I haven't had to mute a single account.
• soldeace 3y ago
  One of the most useful features on Twitter for me was the option to mute retweets. After doing this, my feed's signal-to-noise ratio skyrocketed.
• bakugo 3y ago
  I just uninstalled after 10 minutes of use because of this. Absolutely 0 interesting or organic content in the feed, just an endless stream of blue checkmark celebrity and corporation accounts making painfully cringy "hip with the kids" tweets. Easily one of the most forced product launches I've seen in years.
• Zigurd 3y ago
  You should see my block list on Twitter. It used to only be obnoxious people, but lately the number of shady ads that need blocking has shot way up.
• speak_plainly 3y ago
  I think there is a larger question about the role that celebrities, influencers, meme accounts, thirst trap accounts, or any other account that is incentivized to post play on social media. You immediately saw the energy and positivity drop as these groups arrived to threads. Perhaps it was a mix of egotism, phoniness, and shallow attempts at engagement, but you also saw engagement and follows rise with that group. The head of Instagram has said that news is going to be less of a priority for them, which coincides with Canadian legislation demanding pay for links and upcoming US legislation that is expected to be similar. I would love to see them deprioritize these financially motivated accounts and try to focus more on local and more genuine interactions, otherwise they will just fall into the same trap Twitter has been stuck in for years. Ultimately, these accounts drive engagement but perhaps there is a cost to the long-term health or viability of the platform when taking this approach. Given Meta has seemingly no need to monetize Threads, I hope they try new approaches that are healthier for the platform and better for their users rather than cheap engagement.
  • jfengel 3y ago
    I'm interested in the contrast between the news producers, who want you to pay for content, and the flood of people desperate to attract your attention without anything of value. It feels like there is a certain amount of worthwhile stuff, despite vast numbers of people seeking ways to create it. You'd think with billions of people trying we'd get more things worth actually looking at. Is is because a lot of people just really have nothing to contribute to the world?
    • one_level_deep 3y ago
      == Is is because a lot of people just really have nothing to contribute to the world?== Perhaps they simply have a different definition of “contribute”? Seems there are plenty of things for other people to look at given the download and signup data.
      • jfengel 3y ago
        There are plenty of things to look at, though it seems to be a constant maw that is never satisfied. And on the other hand there are "influencers" and "content producers" and "digital marketers" who want to slip into that gap, but know full well that their contribution is not of any value. They're trying to be middle men in a world that's overconnected already. They plagiarize and copy and SEO and use generated content in the hopes of snagging a fraction of a cent simply by being in the way. I don't mean that as personally derogatory as it sounds. I don't know them or their story. But I've seen many thousands of human lives spent in quiet desperation and wish that there was a better way to use the mind they were born with.
• dorfsmay 3y ago
  I was surprised by having no option and forcing everybody to their algorithm when their other platform either show you content from accounts you follow first and tell you when you're done (instagram) or have an option to show you content from your friends only or friends + group (Facebook's "your feed" and "friends"). I personally don't mind ads, somebody needs to pay for the service and I prefer ada over forced paid for content wasting my time.
  • giarc 3y ago
    I suspect they will launch "Following/Friend" soon. Part of me thinks they pushed the launch when Elon was limiting tweets. I don't mind ads either if they are obvious and targeted (no more penis ads like the early days of the internet). I suspect Meta won't turn on ads for awhile, but when they do, they have one of the biggest ad markets to tap into. I suspect soon enough advertisers will see an additional button in their preferences. Run ads on Instagram and Threads.
    • dorfsmay 3y ago
      > they pushed the launch when Elon was limiting tweets. Isn't Musk hinting that twitter implemented rate limits because Meta/Threads were scraping them agreaaively?
      • claudiulodro 3y ago
        AFAIK originally he said it was 100 AI companies using it for training data and then eventually morphed that to this line of reasoning, but why would Meta possibly need to scrape Twitter and, even if they did, why would they be so hamfisted about it given that they already have the `facebookexternalhit` scraper which hasn't been causing issues. I'd take Musk's statement with a big grain of salt.
        • giarc 3y ago
          The other theory is that they can't pay their cloud computing bill and therefore had to restrict traffic. Jives with the reports they aren't paying rent at certain offices.
• chmod775 3y ago
  If you have to put in that much effort to fine-tune the machinery that is supposed to trickle-feed your brain with short-lived dopamine hits, maybe you should try a different product. Not all junkies are the same. You may not be the target audience. Tongue-in-cheek response aside, when YouTube managed to trick me into wasting a couple hours with YouTube shorts, my reaction after reflecting on what I just did wasn't to try and make it even better by curating it - instead I blocked YouTube shorts recommendations with my adblocker.
• segmondy 3y ago
  You can set it to see only notifications from those you follow.
  • intrasight 3y ago
    Where?
• svaha1728 3y ago
  I stumbled into threads like this one that helped me find AI/ML researchers: https://www.threads.net/t/CuYdZ_oBX8v/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ== https://www.threads.net/t/CuYdZ_oBX8v/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ... Seems bearable now.
  • InCityDreams 3y ago
    Genuine ask (I'll never use threads, same as i never used facepalm): could these researchers have been found using any other method?
    • svaha1728 3y ago
      Not yet! I agree that as of right now, scientific or ML discourse seems to be something that is happening in an ad hoc way. It certainly hasn't been designed for it.
• J_Shelby_J 3y ago
  Twitter is popular in the zeitgeist, but Reddit is the dark horse. A Reddit replacement with the reach of meta is a very fertile opportunity.
  • deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
• revskill 3y ago
  The number of sign up on Threads can show how much broken the world is today.
• NullPrefix 3y ago
  But why would you mute Aldi UK??
• gumballindie 3y ago
  I just find it hilarious how people pivoted from crypto to ai to threads. What’s next on the list? Deffo not something useful. But like i said before - anything that puts twitter out of its misery is welcome.
• uptownfunk 3y ago
  Threads is just tiktok meets Twitter, stuff you didn’t ask for but hopefully stuff you really like. They nailed the first part, the second part not so much. I quit it once I figured out they were trying to hook me like all the other social media. Twitter, for all it’s controversy, doesn’t feel that way.
• seydor 3y ago
  > insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results
• coolbreezetft22 3y ago
  Am the only one who doesn't make profiles on these things and just goes directly to the URL of the people whose posts I'm interested in reading?? That way I'm only reading people I am actually interested in. Might reduce discoverability but eventually the people I "follow" in this way will mention/reply/retweet someone else worth following as well.
• notjoemama 3y ago
  Slight twist on dead internet theory. It's not that the internet is full of bots, it's that the internet is full of self promotion. Finding real people to have real conversations is more difficult because so many want your engagement/attention for their "brand". Similar to the Black Mirror episode about social credit score.
  • rcme 3y ago
    I’m not commenting on your theory, but what I love about HN is that, for the most part, people comment purely to talk about a topic. There’s very little self promotion. It’s very nice.
    • pdntspa 3y ago
      Unless you're posting a show HN, in which case every brother and their mother chimes in with "this is nice but here's my cloud service that does a similar thing but better" sideswipes
      • wruza 3y ago
        Personally I find this useful, because it’s rarely just a pitch (at least I tend to assume some degree of honesty from an active HN user). Also it allows to explore a subject area even if you’re not interested right now. I often make bookmarks or simply threadshots of other products people talk about in show hns.
      • rewmie 3y ago
        > Unless you're posting a show HN, in which case every brother and their mother chimes in with "this is nice but here's my cloud service that does a similar thing but better" sideswipes. I don't understand why you are classifying as "sideswipes" posts in a "Show HN" where others chime in to "Show HN". I mean, "Show HN" is about showing and discussing stuff, not a pulpit to worship a submitter.
      • rchaud 3y ago
        Yeah but Ask HN is clearly marked. I don't have to click it if I don't want to see self promo stuff. With social networks, you don't get a choice at all, just an endless, unpredictable feed.
• mattgreenrocks 3y ago
  Once I saw giant Gary V hustle culture threads pop up on my timeline 1 day into trying Threads I knew I had seen enough.
  • firecall 3y ago
    Yep, same here. Immediately saw a sanctimonious GaryVee thread and was instantly turned off. It’s all so cringe, as the kids say.
• alistairSH 3y ago
  Sounds just like Twitter. Just more garbage. The only thing I ever found useful on Twitter was notifications from government agencies. Mostly recently, changes in ferry schedules in NC. I feel like I need a “Twitter for governments and public services”. Verified accounts and none of the influencer garbage.
  • stubybubs 3y ago
    Threads may end up being the best place for exactly that. Uncontroversial content on a stable platform.
    • m3kw9 3y ago
      It must be heavily censored to have low controversial content
    • alistairSH 3y ago
      What will prevent it from being filled with influencer and other garbage like Twitter.
• wnevets 3y ago
  Until they add a real following only feed I don't see it replacing any existing social media platform.
• Julesman 3y ago
  Half hour of blocking and I have no problems at all. No brands or big celebrities. This is not rocket science.
• grishka 3y ago
  This forced recommended content is infuriating. It's the platform rudely getting in the way of the one purpose I want to use it for — staying up to date with things happening in my followees' lives, with zero entertainment. Their promised ActivityPub support can't come soon enough.
  • oneeyedpigeon 3y ago
    The irony being that it's twitter's use of the same that drives so many to seek alternatives. At least twitter has a 'following' feed, even if it's far from ideal.
  • molave 3y ago
    Being active in an ActivityPub space lately, a bunch of folks there are very vocal against Threads being part of the ecosystem. They're confident Meta will Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish.
    • timbit42 3y ago
      Also, a number of Mastodon servers already plan to block Threads' servers.
      • vitorgrs 3y ago
        Doesn't seem likely that mastodon.social will block it (and they are the largest)
  • notatoad 3y ago
    it's not like they tricked you into using it, and then changed the algorithm to make it harder to "stay up to date with things happening in your followees lives". this is clearly not a platform that caters to that use case, so if that's what you want then you shouldn't use it. if you're infuriated because the entire world isn't designed to specifically cater to your expectations, you're going to spend a lot of time being infuriated
  • sethhochberg 3y ago
• m3kw9 3y ago
  if you go the threads from twitter, it’s likely gonna ng to be a worse experience content wise, but most don’t care because they are there to pull the middle finger at Elon. When that wanes it will be back to twitter
• hospitalJail 3y ago
  Saw this from a mile away. My wife owns a company. I told her to get on Threads early so she can get ahead of the algorithm. I had 0 interest. That is the demographic. Influencers and marketers.
• whywhywhywhy 3y ago
  It’s shocking to me how bad the algorithm is in it, especially when they already have your interests from IG, maybe there are some data rules preventing that? But even so it’s quite pitiful when you compare how fast TikTok can figure you out from a bare account. Really think they dropped the ball not offering followers only feed when shipping with the algorithm in this state. According to screen time I’ve spent 45 minutes in it but have no desire to look at it again.
• dboreham 3y ago
  Oh, not "mutexes".
• esafak 3y ago
  So people don't want an unfiltered, chronological list after all...
• godelski 3y ago
  This is what happens to slack channels to me. The big reason is lack of actual control over how often my devices ping me and user abuse. I'm curious if others face this because people in my lab do too. == Slack Bugs == Constantly I will get pings despite having had my settings to be "Direct messages, mentions & keywords". Including pings for threads that I never even participated in or were tagged in. Slack will also notify me for channels that are muted and grayed out! So my only real choice is to just kill notifications all together and it fixes most of these problems. But then I don't see any messages unless I see the icon in my dock. == False Positives/User Abuse == Lots of users abuse the @channel (almost never using the @here). My advisor sends tons of irrelevant papers in the main group channel, so I have to ignore or be spammed, but then miss "important" messages. There's something I don't get, it is that people don't seem to understand that you can't send spam and junk from the same location as you send critical information. Spam and junk is more common and you're just teaching users to ignore everything. My Uni does this too and it is infuriating. I know they might think that this gets people to see more of the spam, but it just makes people not see important things. Slack people: can you fix notifications. Admin/manager people: can you please for the love of god stop spamming channels and chastise anyone who abuses tags everyone unnecessarily? I just want to do my work without getting distracted every 5 minutes. It's akin to someone knocking on my door: I don't know if they just want to chat or need something. This kills productivity.
• mvkel 3y ago
  The social web today is entirely about the attention economy.
• mvkel 3y ago
  What amazes me is how consistently people are celebrating the lack of ads on Threads, when I've seen countless posts from brands like Wendy's saying "so what's ur favorite burger lol"