15 ms·

BBC gives up on Threads, sticks with Mastodon

484 points by cmrdporcupine 3y ago

samcat116 3y ago
In theory this won’t matter in a couple months when Threads gets ActivityPub support. Makes sense from a branding perspective
- greesil 3y ago
  Embrace, extend, enshitten
  - TaylorAlexander 3y ago
    I guess I don't know the ins and outs of this but I imagine if there is any issue, mastodon server administrators will ban the threads servers from federating to their server, and then users can live happily in ignorance of whatever Threads is doing, unless they elect to join or migrate to a server which does federate it.
    - ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
      And thus we see the sham of Mastodon, where people are supposed to be able to go for freedom from censorship and jagoff moderators... but where swaths of content or users are banned.
      - greesil 3y ago
        Jagoff moderators are as old, or older, than the internet my friend.
        ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
        Hahaha, true!
      - simbolit 3y ago
        Once you understand the subtlety, it is no longer "the sham of mastodon": ActivityPub, the protocol, is the freedom you describe. But individual servers, using the mastodon software and activitypub protocol, they may or may not, depending on server admins. If you don't like content bans or user bans, you have three options: (1) find a mastodon server with the same values re freedom/censorship as you have. (2) set up such a server yourself (3) don't use mastodon/ap
        dmix 3y ago
        Maybe you have those options but anyone outside of the technically savvy (aka the mom test) is not engaging in a system where they are forced into that situation as a rule of using the platform. I'm not recommending a site to my mom where I have to explain why she needs to sign up for a 2nd or 3rd time with a user/pw to access the content she already invested time/energy in finding/following because it got delisted. The early popular services on Mastodon 100% eagerly enforce hyper moderation...so yeah, basically the only large active community there is going to be a very in-group subset of technical users, with some niche services offering broader access. Despite the best possible opportunity coming about with Twitter nothing in the year since then has indicated otherwise.
        kstrauser 3y ago
        Stop getting your mom signed up on awful, unmoderated servers, then. I manage a Mastodon instance. When I disconnect from another server, I explain the reason to the users on my instance. I've never once disconnected because I disagreed with another server's politics. I have cut off servers that post literal Nazi content (like swastika flags, extreme antisemitism, etc.), content that's illegal in the USA where I live, and other reasons that go far beyond "things I disagree with". I'll continue to do so. And I get new users signing up because they appreciate that I disconnect from that filth. And from what my other admin friends say, that seems to be the standard practice. Sure, there are some instances that disconnect much more quickly, as is their right. Most don't. The only servers that regularly get cut off from the rest of the fediverse are the ones hosting truly vile content, and by that, I don't mean "this person has people in a political party I don't like", but like their public timeline is full of people making 'kill all the black people' "jokes". Darned if I'll tell someone they're wrong for cutting the link to some of the truly, genuinely abhorrent instances out there.
    - greesil 3y ago
      And I'm sure Usenet is just fine for the people who are still on it. For the mass market, it might be a different story. It's not like the masses are piling onto mastodon atm so maybe it'll always be niche unless someone finds a way to make a buck with it.
      - dmix 3y ago
        And maybe Signal will win the chat wars considering how much morally / intellectually better everyone feels using it
        toastal 3y ago
        I hope not. Signal accounts require a phone number and an Android or iOS primary device or you can’t use the service. There are already good, decentralized options that don’t require a phone at all. The time-tested XMPP+OMEMO has the characteristics I need while having the hardware requirements of a toaster compared to other options.
        Moldoteck 3y ago
        Yeah suuure... They have problems with transfering backups from one platfor to another(you can't officially transfer history from say android to desktop/ios) and this issue is from at least 2015...
        ikt 3y ago
        I think he means it's not an issue even if Mastodon does remain niche, we're quite happy here how it is, Fosstodon went invite only recently because it felt like the server was becoming too generalised
  - zmmmmm 3y ago
    if the alternative is moving straight to enshitten ..... i guess i'll take it? Seems to be basically how technology progresses these days. We just have to keep forking from the point before enshitten to build the next thing each time.
  - spookie 3y ago
    Eh, don't worry, there are plenty of instances that won't federate with Threads or other select instances. You have the choice to remain among the people you want. And before someone mentions "that defeats its purpose", it does not. The purpose is for the user to act on its own agency and be wherever it feels right. Federation also enables that.
- sp332 3y ago
  Is there an actual timeline for that?
  - monetus 3y ago
    The developers are taking it seriously but there are no dates as far as I know.
copeseethe11 3y ago
[flagged]
copeseethe19 3y ago
[flagged]
nocoiner 3y ago
I get an involuntary shudder of PTSD at seeing “Threads” and “BBC” in the same sentence.
- dmbche 3y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads_(1984_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads_(1984_film) Because of this?
  - firecall 3y ago
    Because of that!
  - O_nlogn 3y ago
    As someone born after the Cold War, that film opened my eyes to the fear of nuclear winter in a way I didn't grasp learning history. Fantastic piece of cinema, highly recommended.
- firecall 3y ago
  I'm there with you man. Every time this comes up I point out that Cold War, and specifically Threads related PTSD, is a very real thing for UK Gen X!
  - seoulmetro 3y ago
    Equating watching a scary drama in 1984 with something as severe as PTSD and saying it's a very real thing for an entire generation is over the top. Baby boomers, sure they dealt with the cold war pretty realistically.
    - sundvor 3y ago
      Not quite "boomer" but vividly recall air alert sirens being played for evacuation exercises to seek shelters in Norway when I was a child of I guess 6 or 7 in the late 70s. "Better dead than red." That's another one I vividly remember circulating, a bit later (early 80s). The threat of nuclear war was very real. I guess we got lucky in the end.
marban 3y ago
Last time I checked Threads was still not available in Europe so that'd be another curtailment.
- threeseed 3y ago
  EU has already read the riot act to X on disinformation. So we could see Threads approved at the same time X is banned.
  - troupo 3y ago
    No one banned Threads in the EU. The way Threads is implemented and is working is illegal in the EU, so Meta decided not to launch it in the EU until they figure out how to circumvent the laws.
    - Moldoteck 3y ago
      They just should provide login with own mail
      - troupo 3y ago
        It's more than that: Meta is also in hot water because of handling of user data, behavior advertising, and using data from its seemingly separate apps across Facebook for tracking and advertising. Threads runs afoul of many provisions in Digital Markets Act and possibly GDPR, too.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - jillesvangurp 3y ago
      I think the history of that is that Meta at the last minute decided that they couldn't launch Threads in the EU and that that sealed the faith of Threads leading to its now increasingly obvious failure in the market. It looks like a poorly planned and executed rush job by Meta that is now failing. The reason the BBC is ditching Threads is because it has no traction worth talking about and because they are a European company and a European launch of Threads seems to be not happening. Mastodon is apparently good enough that they are not giving up on that one for now. Probably also really cheap for them to support it as they can self-host it. And given how critical they are of Musk, they need an alternative to X even if they still have to use it.
pmarreck 3y ago
I can't stand that Instagram doesn't let you copy and paste (or save) content out of it, and I also can't stand when Threads also doesn't let you do the same thing. In the Threads app, you literally can't just select the text of a thread to paste elsewhere. To hell with that.
- donatj 3y ago
  I don't know what you're using, but modern Android will let you copy text and images out of basically anything from the "Select" button on the bottom of the app switcher
  - lazycouchpotato 3y ago
    If you don't happen to have that on your Android phone, Copy [1] works well. [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.weberdo.apps.copy https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.weberdo.ap...
  - pmarreck 3y ago
    iOS. I guess that explains it. Apple apparently lets app devs cancel text selection
- threeseed 3y ago
  On iOS at least you can copy text from Threads. Just long press and select Copy.
  - pmarreck 3y ago
    Tried that, couldn't get it to work, weird
- theonlybutlet 3y ago
  And the lack of direct url access or video control, drives me up the wall.
nirui 3y ago
> What makes this news more interesting is the fact that the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has abandoned its Threads account but is still maintaining its self-hosted Mastodon accounts online. The title made it sound like BBC have picked a side, but the reality could be that they still got a few more months left in their experiment with Mastodon. Maybe it's still too early to tell anything concrete at this time.
- hgrtegwerh 3y ago
  threads supposedly intends to eventually federate with activitypub, so it's entirely possible the bbc is just betting on the one with the more active users, assuming eventually threads will pull in their feeds anyway.
  - dmix 3y ago
    I highly doubt BBC's social media managers are making long term bets on smaller social media networks eventually investing in activitypub. IRL they probably got little engagement vs the time they were investing so decided to just keep at least one Twitter style feed around so they don't completely abandon the concept of "microblogging"... as the vast, vast bulk of the journalism industry continues to use Twitter and that idea isn't dying any time soon. Having a backup comms platform is deemed valuable enough even if it doesn't drive high business value. Edit: others have pointed out they still use X so I guess the whole point is moot
    - shapefrog 3y ago
      At the scale of BBC's social media managers I hope they are not on the x.com website typing in updates and clicking post. They should be using custom software and be able to redirect / duplicate the distribution of their news to different or multiple outlets with little more effort than a few lines of code.
      - mrguyorama 3y ago
        >I hope they are not on the x.com website typing in updates and clicking post. Is there any form of API access exposed to third parties anymore on notTwitter?
mellosouls 3y ago
This seems also intended to be read as the BBC deprecating its presence on X, which alternative-universe situation is implied by the wording of the title and anti-X stance of the writer generally; obviously that's not the case, however much it might be wished here.
- mvdtnz 3y ago
  X is not mentioned in the title and the very first sentence of the article says that the BBC accounts are still on X/Twitter. What gives you the impression that the intention was for this to be read as the contrary?
  - mellosouls 3y ago
    Because "X is not mentioned in the title" and the "anti-X stance of the writer generally".
    - mvdtnz 3y ago
      How could you possibly know the stance of the writer generally without even having read the first sentence?
      - spiderice 3y ago
        Possibly because they are familiar with the writer
      - mellosouls 3y ago
        I read the entire article, including the dismissal of X, the implied misleading message discussed, and the links at the bottom to the authors missives which have practically every platform except X. Less of the bumptious tone please.
        davisoneee 3y ago
        They MAY have an X bias, but I think a much more generous interpretation is simply that they are highlighting which _alternative_ platforms BBC have given up on. Threads and Mastodon are both _alternative_ choices, with Twitter being the main real-time shortform source. TFA highlights that BBC is giving up on threads, but not on alternatives in general.
scythe 3y ago
I'm not terribly familiar with these ecosystems, but for a news broadcaster it seems like a massive advantage that Mastodon is highly accessible to a non-logged-in user.
andsoitis 3y ago
The BBC is very much active on X, such as https://twitter.com/BBCWorld https://twitter.com/BBCWorld
- rvz 3y ago
  The BBC is also actively using more of their accounts on X with the last time they posted is less than an hour ago on https://twitter.com/BBCSport https://twitter.com/BBCSport, https://twitter.com/BBCWorld https://twitter.com/BBCWorld and https://twitter.com/BBCBreaking https://twitter.com/BBCBreaking. On threads their last post on BBC Sports was 12 hours ago: https://www.threads.net/@bbcsport https://www.threads.net/@bbcsport So in fact, they are more active on Twitter / X than on the rest of the social networks. But surely that somehow means 'X is dying' /s
  - iudqnolq 3y ago
    Can you see many replies by the BBC? Genuine question, I just get a Twitter frontend error when I open the replies tab. (In Musk's defense, I got this sort of error frequently pre-acquisition). If it's mostly top-level posts that could just be the same script pumping out content on all their platforms.
  - AshamedCaptain 3y ago
    Why is this being downvoted? TFA is literally lying. Since the article has been posted, they have posted more to Twitter than to either of Threads or Mastodon. This is like the fluffers who set a mastodon URL in their Twitter profile to threaten Twitter but have never even considered actually posting to Mastodon. Soon: BBC gives up on Mastodon, sticks with BlueSky. And my remark will still be as valid: they will have posted more on Twitter than on Threads, Mastodon, or BlueSky. It's just ridiculous games at this point. If you wanted any more proof of the network effect and how much you can ruin an Internet service* and still keep all of its users captive, look no further. (*Twitter literally shows the replies out of order for me right now. It is a technical disaster and yet my government still uses it almost exclusively.)
darkclouds 3y ago
[dead]
perfectstorm 3y ago
I lost interest in Threads once their product guy said news is not a priority for them. One of the main reasons I use Twitter to catch up on world events from trustworthy sources. Also earthquakes. Living in the California, I'm actually very impressed with Twitter's trending searches. I can always find few people tweeting about earthquake within 10seconds of an earthquake.
- threeseed 3y ago
  If you listen to Zuckerberg's interview with Alex Heath it's clear what they meant. They are interested in breaking news, sports etc. They are just trying to avoid the platform turning into the polarising mess that Twitter is right now. And so they've been trying to position the app as more holistic than just politics and news. Hashtags and trending searches are next on their roadmap. And I suspect that there is some technical work on their part to upgrade the underlying Instagram platform to support more real-time updates to the feed. Once that happens news will inevitably become a bigger part of Threads.
  - DoesntMatter22 3y ago
    Threads is dead at this point realistically
    - threeseed 3y ago
      Not according to Zuckerberg [1]. He was happy with DAU numbers and planned to commit to the app long-term. Threads is contributing a huge amount of behavioural data to Instagram ad profiles so it may never need to run ads in order to provide significant value to the company. That's going to place X at a disadvantage over the long term. [1] https://www.theverge.com/23889057/mark-zuckerberg-meta-ai-elon-musk-threads-quest-interview-decoder https://www.theverge.com/23889057/mark-zuckerberg-meta-ai-el...
      - TheAceOfHearts 3y ago
        Instagram is also embedding Threads posts directly, with a link to open them in the app. I've gotten a few prompts while using Instagram to remind me to open Threads. However, every time I open the app it's basically a ghost town. I personally don't know anyone using it, so I just see a bunch of brand and celebrity posts. Threads feels more like a platform for brands than for regular people.
arpowers 3y ago
X dying? It seems like it gets better every day
- fortyseven 3y ago
  [flagged]
- timeon 3y ago
  Better maybe for logged-in users. Without account it is hit or miss. In my case, I do not have account and it still shows just error page.
  - usr1106 3y ago
    I have an account, but have not been logged in for a long time. I don't fear missing a lot. Or maybe I don't have an account anymore. Didn't Musk announce that inactive accounts will be deleted?
spartanatreyu 3y ago
Unfortunately, BBC doesn't seem to have world news on their own mastodon instance. Without that, I don't think they're going to get worthwhile numbers from mastodon...
- robga 3y ago
  I imagine it is only a matter of time before they do have a world news account. Meanwhile, there are plenty of mirror accounts (rss posters) of their headlines on Mastodon. And summarisers like https://mastodon.bot/@bbcnews https://mastodon.bot/@bbcnews
- shapefrog 3y ago
  Why haven't they at least taken the twitter feeds and cross posted? Or spit the beeb rss feed out via mastodon? The "experiment" seems to be little more than spinning up a server.
ThinkBeat 3y ago
I do fully agree that there are philosophical and ethical problems with TwitterX, and I would like to see it fail however the rumors of the demise of Twitter / X are exaggerated. It is a massive and difficult job to pull regular users away from what they are comfortable with X / Twitter to a completely new platform without any real end user benefit. In fact, it lacks a lot of features users may like on TwitterX
- exodust 3y ago
  > "I do fully agree that there are philosophical and ethical problems with TwitterX, and I would like to see it fail..." Agree with who? The article mentions nothing of the sort. It seems you have your own philosophical and ethical problems. Agreeing with ghosts, and wishing failure on others.
- CM30 3y ago
  I think Twitter/X charging money might be what kills it off. If you need to pay to post/view anything, then about 95% of the population will say "sod this, I'm out of here". I'll be very surprised if Musk actually does go through with that promise/idea (even someone like this knows how network effects work, right?), but if he does, I'd say that would be the tipping point.
  - lolc 3y ago
    As somebody with only second-hand exposure to Twitter, it feels like they're actively driving it to irrelevance. All I hear for a year now is that they turn off interfaces that enabled people to integrate with them. Just last week a customer called because the Twitter embed on their site didn't work anymore. When we said we'd investigate, they said not to bother and just replace it with a link.
    - joenot443 3y ago
      As somebody who’s been on Twitter since 2008, you couldn’t be more wrong. The site has never felt more alive, anyone vaguely tangential to TPOT or other Twitter subcultures could tell you the same. The difference now is that more of the conversation is happening amongst actual users and less so amongst corporations as I assume is the case for your client. Personally, I’m totally happy if Burger King and Tom’s Plumbing leave Twitter and head to Mastodon, they weren’t the ones making it a good platform in the first place.
senectus1 3y ago
I still feel that the barrier to entry for mastodon is way too high. it needs to be made simpler.
jkaljundi 3y ago
Since Threads is still available only in selected countries - most importantly blocking Europe - it can't be taken seriously.
- peanuty1 3y ago
  It's not even popular in the US.
raverbashing 3y ago
Zuck tried to create the Disneyland of short updates But guess what, nobody cares about the bland and corporatized stuff for too long
fragmede 3y ago
One problem is the lack of desktop client. Instagram gets away with not really having a website, but for Threads, that's paramount.
- CM30 3y ago
  They do actually have a desktop client/website now.
- notatoad 3y ago
  threads has had a webapp with pretty much feature parity to the mobile app for about a month now. instagram has also had a webapp with pretty much feature parity to the mobile app for many years, so saying they don't really have a website is pretty weird.
  - fragmede 3y ago
    Oh hey I guess they do. I was mislead by a search for threads only bringing up the app, and threads.com not being it. it's http://threads.net http://threads.net, and lets me write posts. Man, Facebook really needs to up their SEO game.
- helsinkiandrew 3y ago
  Instagram's website is fairly good and just about fully featured isn't it?
  - oliv5900 3y ago
    If watching a reel in a 3" box on a 27" monitor is fully featured, then ya sure.
  - Theodores 3y ago
    Not at all. It might as well be written in 1999 with tables. They could make the web version use big monitors to show beautiful photos in a responsive way, but they cannot be bothered. They know who their customers are and their customers do not have time for computers.
CM30 3y ago
Given that Threads seems to suppress posts linking to other websites, and the audience there isn't particularly interested in news, I'm not surprised the BBC has given up on it. The fact the algorithm recommends you everything but what you're interested in and engagement is questionable even for larger accounts is just the icing on the cake. But I'm honestly not sure any of these alternative platforms is going to replace Twitter for news anytime soon. BlueSky feels a lot like Threads activity wise; decent to mediocre engagement for popular accounts and barely any for regular folks/new users, and Mastodon has high engagement, but a far more technical, niche audience. And neither really care much more about news than Threads does. Probably because of all the toxicity that news posts tend to bring over on Twitter/X, and these services acting as an escape from that...
- monetus 3y ago
  Given that Threads seems to suppress posts linking to other websites, Source? I know X was introducing delays on links to threads, blue sky, and mastodon; is that what you meant?
  - NewJazz 3y ago
    I think the commenter was claiming that Threads does not show posts with links in people's feeds as often as it shows other posts.
    - monetus 3y ago
      So I've been searching for a few minutes on threads and duckduckgo, but I can't find mention of this anywhere. Keeping people from clicking through to another site is a dark pattern - accepted maybe, but not cool. This is the first I've heard about it, so I am not convinced yet. I wonder.
dusted 3y ago
> (ironically, most of them are still using X, formally known as Twitter). Dunno, feels like the only people leaving X was the people who didn't use X anyway.. I've been using it with the same frequency as before Musik took over, and to be honest, I've not noticed anything different in the stuff I see/find/interact.
- __alexs 3y ago
  I followed 3000 people and read and posted most days. Haven't even opened the app since the logo changed. Most of the people I interacted with are now on Mastodon. I guess we just have different circles.
  - dusted 3y ago
    I was banned on the mastodon instance I was on for saying that people should have the same rights regardless on the color of their skin, so I decided that probably the people who leave for Mastodon are not the ones I should spend any time with anyhow.
    - pferde 3y ago
      "It rained the day I visited a particular city, I can't believe why people would live in cities if it rains all the time in them!" Dude, you merely chose an instance with racists in charge. My guess is, it is probably isolated from the rest of the instances already anyway. Shop around for a better instance, most of them are very pleasant. But I do not blame you for giving up - people in the past twenty or so years have been conditioned to centralized services each acting as huge singular meeting square, so this experience of having to choose a community seems unnatural to many. I don't know, maybe think of it as finding a decent subreddit on Reddit?
      - redox99 3y ago
        Mastodon has a very heavy moderation against anything that isn't the "SF mentality". And servers that don't moderate like this get defederated. I prefer the more lenient X moderation.
jwmoz 3y ago
I immediately stopped using it after they spammed random accounts to the timeline, even after following steps to stop it. Not a good look.
vr46 3y ago
I wish more social media companies would give up on the EU, it's so peaceful here. I've boxed myself into will-follow-back corner on Twitter so every time I open it I feel like one of the chimps at the beginning of 28 Days Later with the rage virus. goes off to have a nice cup of tea and waits for all this to blow over
a1o 3y ago
Anyone here in BlueSky? Still trying to figure that one out.
- elektor 3y ago
  > BlueSky I've been on it since June and quite like it. It's really picked up in the last month and has hit mainstream with the AcademicTwitter crowd.
pxoe 3y ago
>relatively active on mastodon ah yes, with a whopping 2 to 4 posts for the last week (about a dozen or two for a whole month), and a grand total of 50-100 posts. while some other accounts on that server haven't posted anything since august. "it's not even nearly as abandoned as the other thing". sure. meanwhile, twitter gets a bunch of posts daily, and for radio 5, even their facebook page is more active (while 4's page is kinda abandoned since last year). "well what does this tell us about the state of platforms?" honestly, literally nothing. it just shows some strange gaps in bbc's social efforts and lack of automated posting in some places (even where they do seemingly have that figured out, like fb).
- spinningslate 3y ago
  Fair. Without doubt, there's some bias/aspiration in OP's post. There is, though, a kernel of interest in the confluence of Mastodon/ActivityPub and mainstream media outlets. The latter have become subservient to the social media platforms and it has, at best, been an uneasy alliance for them. Twitter/X has probably been the most successful; Meta's disagreement in Canada [0] is towards the other end. Mastodon/ActivityPub presents a chink of opportunity for mainstream media. Rather than being subservient to 3rd party platforms, they can run their own - e.g. social.bbc. Users can sign up and follow who they like, see what they like, and not be subjected to the commercial drivers of a 3rd party platform and its selection algorithms. Of course, that's a huge risk for extant platforms. Meta's intention to federate Threads is pretty clearly an effort to counter that potential threat. It would also need a significant level of investment, commitment and coordination among the broadcasters. So it's definitely in the "possible" rather than "probable" bucket. Which brings us back to the OP. It can justly be seen as hope over evidence, at least at the moment. But there is at least an opportunity underpinning it. [0] https://gizmodo.com/canada-news-facebook-meta-instagram-1850416499 https://gizmodo.com/canada-news-facebook-meta-instagram-1850...
  - Zak 3y ago
    > Meta's intention to federate Threads is pretty clearly an effort to counter that potential threat. I'm starting to get the impression they aren't very serious about that. I expected if they were going to do it, they would have done it by now. I don't expect the same of other products that have announced intent to federate such as Flickr and Tumblr, as they're much older codebases and the companies don't have Meta's resources.
glimshe 3y ago
You will have a really hard time finding a person outside tech circles who knows of, much less actively uses, Threads or Mastodon.
- krapp 3y ago
  I've see authors, actors, scientists, artists, musicians, journalists and people of all stripes (and not all from "tech circles") on Mastodon. Ironically, most complaining I've seen about the technical hurdles of joining Mastodon have come from techies on HN. Meanwhile Stephen King, a nearly 80 year old author who probably still uses a rotary phone and manual typewriter, managed to figure it out. Or more likely find someone to figure it out for him but still.
  - yborg 3y ago
    [flagged]
  - glimshe 3y ago
    Some content producers/personalities are certainly using these services, but the content consumers aren't common outside the tech circles.
- theonlybutlet 3y ago
  Think I've come across two links to mastodon in my life (probably here on HN), and have never encountered threads (I do live in Europe).
- alfanick 3y ago
  Agreed. I've never been on Mastodon, because there is no reason for me to bother (I did hear about it). Threads? I DID hear about it and I'm actively refusing, because if I need Threads account, it's bound to my Instagram account and if I don't like it and resign my IG is gone. Meh, no need for that. But same applies with Discord for me. Why would I be there? Why companies expect me to contact them via Discord? Yo, gimme wiki, or answer email. I don't need some chat-thingy/Slack/Discord. Edit: Why don't we have email, nntp and IRC anymore? Just build stuff on it, don't reinvent.
throwaw1yyy 3y ago
X is still good and very usable. I’m a heavy user, and I would love to be critical but the service HAS improved despite all the criticisms. It’s getting better - I see improvements weekly to things. All the huff and fuss is from people I’m constantly wondering if they were even users prior to the Elon takeover. There was a large vocal contingent that hated twitter even prior to Elon on here, who again complained and often would note they didn’t have accounts but the service was still terrible. The BBC and the rest should realize the service is still worthy, and Elon will allow people he disagrees with on the platform.
- la_oveja 3y ago
  im an user since 2010 its def been worse. translation service works half of the time since the takeover, i see a shitton of useless tick marked content in my feed, the "Following" tab goes worse, the new ads on the responses are awful, and random position-jumping feed updates still happen. service has not gone better in any way
  - throwaw1yyy 3y ago
    It’s loads wayyy faster. I cannot understand how you haven’t experienced that. What about the fact the service hasn’t gone down practically once? Don’t you remember twitter going down for 9-10 hour stretches every 2-3 months before under new ownership? what about begging for new features and never getting anything except a new font? Elon’s twitter ships constantly (not all improvements per say) but aren’t you happy at least their shipping something? I have been on since 2010 - you need to constantly (and always had too be) pruning your followings to remove the duds. The ‘following’ tab is only as good as your personal filter. That counts for before or after Elon
- tomalpha 3y ago
  > Elon will allow people he disagrees with on the platform I’m not comfortable relying on a single “benevolent” dictator decided what is and isn’t allowed on the platform. Particularly because the benevolence or lack thereof is, at best, hotly debated in this context.
diamondfist25 3y ago
I almost don’t open Instagram anymore these days All my friends who are on it are girls who are hopelessly hooked to it and posts thirst trap pix. I now am piping all the dms to my own matrix server, and found ways to pull data from it via private api proxies, I find myself never needing to step into Marks predatory algos I’m very happy this setup
_ph_ 3y ago
I think that recent history clearly shows, that any larger organization and especially any public organization should at minimum also have a Mastodon representation. One can argue a lot on how a certain social network is superior to Mastodon. And often enough, that is indeed true. But all social networks that are run by a single entity are at the mercy of that entity. They might completely change their policies at a whim. With Mastodon though, you can run your own instance. No one can take that from you and you can guarantee that your content is reachable for anyone interested. That should be reason enough to support it, even if you also have a presence on other networks. In a sense, this reminds me of the old competition between the web and more centralized services like bulletin boards. The web is not as integrated, but its winning power was, that everyone can set up a web page, you are not dependent on any organization to do so, which could prevent you doing it.
stallmanwasrigh 3y ago
Yet another app to install is not particularly enticing. Threads should embrace web first.. twitter/mastodon treat web as first class.
jscipione 3y ago
I’ve given up on the BBC: they blackwash history and pass on Whites for promotions. The BBC is clearly an anti-white hate institution posing as a broadcaster.
0x38B 3y ago
The title doesn’t reflect reality; “gives up on” rings of finality, but more accurate would be “hasn’t posted in a long time”. For the former I would expect a statement from BBC to support such a policy change. But the title as-is has certainly gotten people to click on it.

484 points by cmrdporcupine 3y ago

In theory this won’t matter in a couple months when Threads gets ActivityPub support. Makes sense from a branding perspective

greesil 3y ago
Embrace, extend, enshitten
- TaylorAlexander 3y ago
  I guess I don't know the ins and outs of this but I imagine if there is any issue, mastodon server administrators will ban the threads servers from federating to their server, and then users can live happily in ignorance of whatever Threads is doing, unless they elect to join or migrate to a server which does federate it.
  - ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
    And thus we see the sham of Mastodon, where people are supposed to be able to go for freedom from censorship and jagoff moderators... but where swaths of content or users are banned.
    - greesil 3y ago
      Jagoff moderators are as old, or older, than the internet my friend.
      - ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
        Hahaha, true!
    - simbolit 3y ago
      Once you understand the subtlety, it is no longer "the sham of mastodon": ActivityPub, the protocol, is the freedom you describe. But individual servers, using the mastodon software and activitypub protocol, they may or may not, depending on server admins. If you don't like content bans or user bans, you have three options: (1) find a mastodon server with the same values re freedom/censorship as you have. (2) set up such a server yourself (3) don't use mastodon/ap
      - dmix 3y ago
        Maybe you have those options but anyone outside of the technically savvy (aka the mom test) is not engaging in a system where they are forced into that situation as a rule of using the platform. I'm not recommending a site to my mom where I have to explain why she needs to sign up for a 2nd or 3rd time with a user/pw to access the content she already invested time/energy in finding/following because it got delisted. The early popular services on Mastodon 100% eagerly enforce hyper moderation...so yeah, basically the only large active community there is going to be a very in-group subset of technical users, with some niche services offering broader access. Despite the best possible opportunity coming about with Twitter nothing in the year since then has indicated otherwise.
        kstrauser 3y ago
        Stop getting your mom signed up on awful, unmoderated servers, then. I manage a Mastodon instance. When I disconnect from another server, I explain the reason to the users on my instance. I've never once disconnected because I disagreed with another server's politics. I have cut off servers that post literal Nazi content (like swastika flags, extreme antisemitism, etc.), content that's illegal in the USA where I live, and other reasons that go far beyond "things I disagree with". I'll continue to do so. And I get new users signing up because they appreciate that I disconnect from that filth. And from what my other admin friends say, that seems to be the standard practice. Sure, there are some instances that disconnect much more quickly, as is their right. Most don't. The only servers that regularly get cut off from the rest of the fediverse are the ones hosting truly vile content, and by that, I don't mean "this person has people in a political party I don't like", but like their public timeline is full of people making 'kill all the black people' "jokes". Darned if I'll tell someone they're wrong for cutting the link to some of the truly, genuinely abhorrent instances out there.
  - greesil 3y ago
    And I'm sure Usenet is just fine for the people who are still on it. For the mass market, it might be a different story. It's not like the masses are piling onto mastodon atm so maybe it'll always be niche unless someone finds a way to make a buck with it.
    - dmix 3y ago
      And maybe Signal will win the chat wars considering how much morally / intellectually better everyone feels using it
      - toastal 3y ago
        I hope not. Signal accounts require a phone number and an Android or iOS primary device or you can’t use the service. There are already good, decentralized options that don’t require a phone at all. The time-tested XMPP+OMEMO has the characteristics I need while having the hardware requirements of a toaster compared to other options.
      - Moldoteck 3y ago
        Yeah suuure... They have problems with transfering backups from one platfor to another(you can't officially transfer history from say android to desktop/ios) and this issue is from at least 2015...
      - ikt 3y ago
        I think he means it's not an issue even if Mastodon does remain niche, we're quite happy here how it is, Fosstodon went invite only recently because it felt like the server was becoming too generalised
- zmmmmm 3y ago
  if the alternative is moving straight to enshitten ..... i guess i'll take it? Seems to be basically how technology progresses these days. We just have to keep forking from the point before enshitten to build the next thing each time.
- spookie 3y ago
  Eh, don't worry, there are plenty of instances that won't federate with Threads or other select instances. You have the choice to remain among the people you want. And before someone mentions "that defeats its purpose", it does not. The purpose is for the user to act on its own agency and be wherever it feels right. Federation also enables that.
sp332 3y ago
Is there an actual timeline for that?
- monetus 3y ago
  The developers are taking it seriously but there are no dates as far as I know.

copeseethe11 3y ago

[flagged]

copeseethe19 3y ago

[flagged]

nocoiner 3y ago

I get an involuntary shudder of PTSD at seeing “Threads” and “BBC” in the same sentence.

dmbche 3y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads_(1984_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads_(1984_film) Because of this?
- firecall 3y ago
  Because of that!
- O_nlogn 3y ago
  As someone born after the Cold War, that film opened my eyes to the fear of nuclear winter in a way I didn't grasp learning history. Fantastic piece of cinema, highly recommended.
firecall 3y ago
I'm there with you man. Every time this comes up I point out that Cold War, and specifically Threads related PTSD, is a very real thing for UK Gen X!
- seoulmetro 3y ago
  Equating watching a scary drama in 1984 with something as severe as PTSD and saying it's a very real thing for an entire generation is over the top. Baby boomers, sure they dealt with the cold war pretty realistically.
  - sundvor 3y ago
    Not quite "boomer" but vividly recall air alert sirens being played for evacuation exercises to seek shelters in Norway when I was a child of I guess 6 or 7 in the late 70s. "Better dead than red." That's another one I vividly remember circulating, a bit later (early 80s). The threat of nuclear war was very real. I guess we got lucky in the end.

marban 3y ago

Last time I checked Threads was still not available in Europe so that'd be another curtailment.

threeseed 3y ago
EU has already read the riot act to X on disinformation. So we could see Threads approved at the same time X is banned.
- troupo 3y ago
  No one banned Threads in the EU. The way Threads is implemented and is working is illegal in the EU, so Meta decided not to launch it in the EU until they figure out how to circumvent the laws.
  - Moldoteck 3y ago
    They just should provide login with own mail
    - troupo 3y ago
      It's more than that: Meta is also in hot water because of handling of user data, behavior advertising, and using data from its seemingly separate apps across Facebook for tracking and advertising. Threads runs afoul of many provisions in Digital Markets Act and possibly GDPR, too.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - jillesvangurp 3y ago
    I think the history of that is that Meta at the last minute decided that they couldn't launch Threads in the EU and that that sealed the faith of Threads leading to its now increasingly obvious failure in the market. It looks like a poorly planned and executed rush job by Meta that is now failing. The reason the BBC is ditching Threads is because it has no traction worth talking about and because they are a European company and a European launch of Threads seems to be not happening. Mastodon is apparently good enough that they are not giving up on that one for now. Probably also really cheap for them to support it as they can self-host it. And given how critical they are of Musk, they need an alternative to X even if they still have to use it.

pmarreck 3y ago

I can't stand that Instagram doesn't let you copy and paste (or save) content out of it, and I also can't stand when Threads also doesn't let you do the same thing. In the Threads app, you literally can't just select the text of a thread to paste elsewhere. To hell with that.

donatj 3y ago
I don't know what you're using, but modern Android will let you copy text and images out of basically anything from the "Select" button on the bottom of the app switcher
- lazycouchpotato 3y ago
  If you don't happen to have that on your Android phone, Copy [1] works well. [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.weberdo.apps.copy https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.weberdo.ap...
- pmarreck 3y ago
  iOS. I guess that explains it. Apple apparently lets app devs cancel text selection
threeseed 3y ago
On iOS at least you can copy text from Threads. Just long press and select Copy.
- pmarreck 3y ago
  Tried that, couldn't get it to work, weird
theonlybutlet 3y ago
And the lack of direct url access or video control, drives me up the wall.

nirui 3y ago

> What makes this news more interesting is the fact that the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has abandoned its Threads account but is still maintaining its self-hosted Mastodon accounts online. The title made it sound like BBC have picked a side, but the reality could be that they still got a few more months left in their experiment with Mastodon. Maybe it's still too early to tell anything concrete at this time.

hgrtegwerh 3y ago
threads supposedly intends to eventually federate with activitypub, so it's entirely possible the bbc is just betting on the one with the more active users, assuming eventually threads will pull in their feeds anyway.
- dmix 3y ago
  I highly doubt BBC's social media managers are making long term bets on smaller social media networks eventually investing in activitypub. IRL they probably got little engagement vs the time they were investing so decided to just keep at least one Twitter style feed around so they don't completely abandon the concept of "microblogging"... as the vast, vast bulk of the journalism industry continues to use Twitter and that idea isn't dying any time soon. Having a backup comms platform is deemed valuable enough even if it doesn't drive high business value. Edit: others have pointed out they still use X so I guess the whole point is moot
  - shapefrog 3y ago
    At the scale of BBC's social media managers I hope they are not on the x.com website typing in updates and clicking post. They should be using custom software and be able to redirect / duplicate the distribution of their news to different or multiple outlets with little more effort than a few lines of code.
    - mrguyorama 3y ago
      >I hope they are not on the x.com website typing in updates and clicking post. Is there any form of API access exposed to third parties anymore on notTwitter?

mellosouls 3y ago

This seems also intended to be read as the BBC deprecating its presence on X, which alternative-universe situation is implied by the wording of the title and anti-X stance of the writer generally; obviously that's not the case, however much it might be wished here.

mvdtnz 3y ago
X is not mentioned in the title and the very first sentence of the article says that the BBC accounts are still on X/Twitter. What gives you the impression that the intention was for this to be read as the contrary?
- mellosouls 3y ago
  Because "X is not mentioned in the title" and the "anti-X stance of the writer generally".
  - mvdtnz 3y ago
    How could you possibly know the stance of the writer generally without even having read the first sentence?
    - spiderice 3y ago
      Possibly because they are familiar with the writer
    - mellosouls 3y ago
      I read the entire article, including the dismissal of X, the implied misleading message discussed, and the links at the bottom to the authors missives which have practically every platform except X. Less of the bumptious tone please.
      - davisoneee 3y ago
        They MAY have an X bias, but I think a much more generous interpretation is simply that they are highlighting which _alternative_ platforms BBC have given up on. Threads and Mastodon are both _alternative_ choices, with Twitter being the main real-time shortform source. TFA highlights that BBC is giving up on threads, but not on alternatives in general.

scythe 3y ago

I'm not terribly familiar with these ecosystems, but for a news broadcaster it seems like a massive advantage that Mastodon is highly accessible to a non-logged-in user.

andsoitis 3y ago

The BBC is very much active on X, such as https://twitter.com/BBCWorld https://twitter.com/BBCWorld

rvz 3y ago
The BBC is also actively using more of their accounts on X with the last time they posted is less than an hour ago on https://twitter.com/BBCSport https://twitter.com/BBCSport, https://twitter.com/BBCWorld https://twitter.com/BBCWorld and https://twitter.com/BBCBreaking https://twitter.com/BBCBreaking. On threads their last post on BBC Sports was 12 hours ago: https://www.threads.net/@bbcsport https://www.threads.net/@bbcsport So in fact, they are more active on Twitter / X than on the rest of the social networks. But surely that somehow means 'X is dying' /s
- iudqnolq 3y ago
  Can you see many replies by the BBC? Genuine question, I just get a Twitter frontend error when I open the replies tab. (In Musk's defense, I got this sort of error frequently pre-acquisition). If it's mostly top-level posts that could just be the same script pumping out content on all their platforms.
- AshamedCaptain 3y ago
  Why is this being downvoted? TFA is literally lying. Since the article has been posted, they have posted more to Twitter than to either of Threads or Mastodon. This is like the fluffers who set a mastodon URL in their Twitter profile to threaten Twitter but have never even considered actually posting to Mastodon. Soon: BBC gives up on Mastodon, sticks with BlueSky. And my remark will still be as valid: they will have posted more on Twitter than on Threads, Mastodon, or BlueSky. It's just ridiculous games at this point. If you wanted any more proof of the network effect and how much you can ruin an Internet service* and still keep all of its users captive, look no further. (*Twitter literally shows the replies out of order for me right now. It is a technical disaster and yet my government still uses it almost exclusively.)

darkclouds 3y ago

[dead]

perfectstorm 3y ago

I lost interest in Threads once their product guy said news is not a priority for them. One of the main reasons I use Twitter to catch up on world events from trustworthy sources. Also earthquakes. Living in the California, I'm actually very impressed with Twitter's trending searches. I can always find few people tweeting about earthquake within 10seconds of an earthquake.

threeseed 3y ago
If you listen to Zuckerberg's interview with Alex Heath it's clear what they meant. They are interested in breaking news, sports etc. They are just trying to avoid the platform turning into the polarising mess that Twitter is right now. And so they've been trying to position the app as more holistic than just politics and news. Hashtags and trending searches are next on their roadmap. And I suspect that there is some technical work on their part to upgrade the underlying Instagram platform to support more real-time updates to the feed. Once that happens news will inevitably become a bigger part of Threads.
- DoesntMatter22 3y ago
  Threads is dead at this point realistically
  - threeseed 3y ago
    Not according to Zuckerberg [1]. He was happy with DAU numbers and planned to commit to the app long-term. Threads is contributing a huge amount of behavioural data to Instagram ad profiles so it may never need to run ads in order to provide significant value to the company. That's going to place X at a disadvantage over the long term. [1] https://www.theverge.com/23889057/mark-zuckerberg-meta-ai-elon-musk-threads-quest-interview-decoder https://www.theverge.com/23889057/mark-zuckerberg-meta-ai-el...
    - TheAceOfHearts 3y ago
      Instagram is also embedding Threads posts directly, with a link to open them in the app. I've gotten a few prompts while using Instagram to remind me to open Threads. However, every time I open the app it's basically a ghost town. I personally don't know anyone using it, so I just see a bunch of brand and celebrity posts. Threads feels more like a platform for brands than for regular people.

arpowers 3y ago

X dying? It seems like it gets better every day

fortyseven 3y ago
[flagged]
timeon 3y ago
Better maybe for logged-in users. Without account it is hit or miss. In my case, I do not have account and it still shows just error page.
- usr1106 3y ago
  I have an account, but have not been logged in for a long time. I don't fear missing a lot. Or maybe I don't have an account anymore. Didn't Musk announce that inactive accounts will be deleted?

spartanatreyu 3y ago

Unfortunately, BBC doesn't seem to have world news on their own mastodon instance. Without that, I don't think they're going to get worthwhile numbers from mastodon...

robga 3y ago
I imagine it is only a matter of time before they do have a world news account. Meanwhile, there are plenty of mirror accounts (rss posters) of their headlines on Mastodon. And summarisers like https://mastodon.bot/@bbcnews https://mastodon.bot/@bbcnews
shapefrog 3y ago
Why haven't they at least taken the twitter feeds and cross posted? Or spit the beeb rss feed out via mastodon? The "experiment" seems to be little more than spinning up a server.

ThinkBeat 3y ago

I do fully agree that there are philosophical and ethical problems with TwitterX, and I would like to see it fail however the rumors of the demise of Twitter / X are exaggerated. It is a massive and difficult job to pull regular users away from what they are comfortable with X / Twitter to a completely new platform without any real end user benefit. In fact, it lacks a lot of features users may like on TwitterX

exodust 3y ago
> "I do fully agree that there are philosophical and ethical problems with TwitterX, and I would like to see it fail..." Agree with who? The article mentions nothing of the sort. It seems you have your own philosophical and ethical problems. Agreeing with ghosts, and wishing failure on others.
CM30 3y ago
I think Twitter/X charging money might be what kills it off. If you need to pay to post/view anything, then about 95% of the population will say "sod this, I'm out of here". I'll be very surprised if Musk actually does go through with that promise/idea (even someone like this knows how network effects work, right?), but if he does, I'd say that would be the tipping point.
- lolc 3y ago
  As somebody with only second-hand exposure to Twitter, it feels like they're actively driving it to irrelevance. All I hear for a year now is that they turn off interfaces that enabled people to integrate with them. Just last week a customer called because the Twitter embed on their site didn't work anymore. When we said we'd investigate, they said not to bother and just replace it with a link.
  - joenot443 3y ago
    As somebody who’s been on Twitter since 2008, you couldn’t be more wrong. The site has never felt more alive, anyone vaguely tangential to TPOT or other Twitter subcultures could tell you the same. The difference now is that more of the conversation is happening amongst actual users and less so amongst corporations as I assume is the case for your client. Personally, I’m totally happy if Burger King and Tom’s Plumbing leave Twitter and head to Mastodon, they weren’t the ones making it a good platform in the first place.

senectus1 3y ago

I still feel that the barrier to entry for mastodon is way too high. it needs to be made simpler.

jkaljundi 3y ago

Since Threads is still available only in selected countries - most importantly blocking Europe - it can't be taken seriously.

peanuty1 3y ago
It's not even popular in the US.

raverbashing 3y ago

Zuck tried to create the Disneyland of short updates But guess what, nobody cares about the bland and corporatized stuff for too long

fragmede 3y ago

One problem is the lack of desktop client. Instagram gets away with not really having a website, but for Threads, that's paramount.

CM30 3y ago
They do actually have a desktop client/website now.
notatoad 3y ago
threads has had a webapp with pretty much feature parity to the mobile app for about a month now. instagram has also had a webapp with pretty much feature parity to the mobile app for many years, so saying they don't really have a website is pretty weird.
- fragmede 3y ago
  Oh hey I guess they do. I was mislead by a search for threads only bringing up the app, and threads.com not being it. it's http://threads.net http://threads.net, and lets me write posts. Man, Facebook really needs to up their SEO game.
helsinkiandrew 3y ago
Instagram's website is fairly good and just about fully featured isn't it?
- oliv5900 3y ago
  If watching a reel in a 3" box on a 27" monitor is fully featured, then ya sure.
- Theodores 3y ago
  Not at all. It might as well be written in 1999 with tables. They could make the web version use big monitors to show beautiful photos in a responsive way, but they cannot be bothered. They know who their customers are and their customers do not have time for computers.

CM30 3y ago

Given that Threads seems to suppress posts linking to other websites, and the audience there isn't particularly interested in news, I'm not surprised the BBC has given up on it. The fact the algorithm recommends you everything but what you're interested in and engagement is questionable even for larger accounts is just the icing on the cake. But I'm honestly not sure any of these alternative platforms is going to replace Twitter for news anytime soon. BlueSky feels a lot like Threads activity wise; decent to mediocre engagement for popular accounts and barely any for regular folks/new users, and Mastodon has high engagement, but a far more technical, niche audience. And neither really care much more about news than Threads does. Probably because of all the toxicity that news posts tend to bring over on Twitter/X, and these services acting as an escape from that...

monetus 3y ago
Given that Threads seems to suppress posts linking to other websites, Source? I know X was introducing delays on links to threads, blue sky, and mastodon; is that what you meant?
- NewJazz 3y ago
  I think the commenter was claiming that Threads does not show posts with links in people's feeds as often as it shows other posts.
  - monetus 3y ago
    So I've been searching for a few minutes on threads and duckduckgo, but I can't find mention of this anywhere. Keeping people from clicking through to another site is a dark pattern - accepted maybe, but not cool. This is the first I've heard about it, so I am not convinced yet. I wonder.

dusted 3y ago

> (ironically, most of them are still using X, formally known as Twitter). Dunno, feels like the only people leaving X was the people who didn't use X anyway.. I've been using it with the same frequency as before Musik took over, and to be honest, I've not noticed anything different in the stuff I see/find/interact.

__alexs 3y ago
I followed 3000 people and read and posted most days. Haven't even opened the app since the logo changed. Most of the people I interacted with are now on Mastodon. I guess we just have different circles.
- dusted 3y ago
  I was banned on the mastodon instance I was on for saying that people should have the same rights regardless on the color of their skin, so I decided that probably the people who leave for Mastodon are not the ones I should spend any time with anyhow.
  - pferde 3y ago
    "It rained the day I visited a particular city, I can't believe why people would live in cities if it rains all the time in them!" Dude, you merely chose an instance with racists in charge. My guess is, it is probably isolated from the rest of the instances already anyway. Shop around for a better instance, most of them are very pleasant. But I do not blame you for giving up - people in the past twenty or so years have been conditioned to centralized services each acting as huge singular meeting square, so this experience of having to choose a community seems unnatural to many. I don't know, maybe think of it as finding a decent subreddit on Reddit?
    - redox99 3y ago
      Mastodon has a very heavy moderation against anything that isn't the "SF mentality". And servers that don't moderate like this get defederated. I prefer the more lenient X moderation.

jwmoz 3y ago

I immediately stopped using it after they spammed random accounts to the timeline, even after following steps to stop it. Not a good look.

vr46 3y ago

I wish more social media companies would give up on the EU, it's so peaceful here. I've boxed myself into will-follow-back corner on Twitter so every time I open it I feel like one of the chimps at the beginning of 28 Days Later with the rage virus. goes off to have a nice cup of tea and waits for all this to blow over

a1o 3y ago

Anyone here in BlueSky? Still trying to figure that one out.

elektor 3y ago
> BlueSky I've been on it since June and quite like it. It's really picked up in the last month and has hit mainstream with the AcademicTwitter crowd.

pxoe 3y ago

>relatively active on mastodon ah yes, with a whopping 2 to 4 posts for the last week (about a dozen or two for a whole month), and a grand total of 50-100 posts. while some other accounts on that server haven't posted anything since august. "it's not even nearly as abandoned as the other thing". sure. meanwhile, twitter gets a bunch of posts daily, and for radio 5, even their facebook page is more active (while 4's page is kinda abandoned since last year). "well what does this tell us about the state of platforms?" honestly, literally nothing. it just shows some strange gaps in bbc's social efforts and lack of automated posting in some places (even where they do seemingly have that figured out, like fb).

spinningslate 3y ago
Fair. Without doubt, there's some bias/aspiration in OP's post. There is, though, a kernel of interest in the confluence of Mastodon/ActivityPub and mainstream media outlets. The latter have become subservient to the social media platforms and it has, at best, been an uneasy alliance for them. Twitter/X has probably been the most successful; Meta's disagreement in Canada [0] is towards the other end. Mastodon/ActivityPub presents a chink of opportunity for mainstream media. Rather than being subservient to 3rd party platforms, they can run their own - e.g. social.bbc. Users can sign up and follow who they like, see what they like, and not be subjected to the commercial drivers of a 3rd party platform and its selection algorithms. Of course, that's a huge risk for extant platforms. Meta's intention to federate Threads is pretty clearly an effort to counter that potential threat. It would also need a significant level of investment, commitment and coordination among the broadcasters. So it's definitely in the "possible" rather than "probable" bucket. Which brings us back to the OP. It can justly be seen as hope over evidence, at least at the moment. But there is at least an opportunity underpinning it. [0] https://gizmodo.com/canada-news-facebook-meta-instagram-1850416499 https://gizmodo.com/canada-news-facebook-meta-instagram-1850...
- Zak 3y ago
  > Meta's intention to federate Threads is pretty clearly an effort to counter that potential threat. I'm starting to get the impression they aren't very serious about that. I expected if they were going to do it, they would have done it by now. I don't expect the same of other products that have announced intent to federate such as Flickr and Tumblr, as they're much older codebases and the companies don't have Meta's resources.

glimshe 3y ago

You will have a really hard time finding a person outside tech circles who knows of, much less actively uses, Threads or Mastodon.

krapp 3y ago
I've see authors, actors, scientists, artists, musicians, journalists and people of all stripes (and not all from "tech circles") on Mastodon. Ironically, most complaining I've seen about the technical hurdles of joining Mastodon have come from techies on HN. Meanwhile Stephen King, a nearly 80 year old author who probably still uses a rotary phone and manual typewriter, managed to figure it out. Or more likely find someone to figure it out for him but still.
- yborg 3y ago
  [flagged]
- glimshe 3y ago
  Some content producers/personalities are certainly using these services, but the content consumers aren't common outside the tech circles.
theonlybutlet 3y ago
Think I've come across two links to mastodon in my life (probably here on HN), and have never encountered threads (I do live in Europe).
alfanick 3y ago
Agreed. I've never been on Mastodon, because there is no reason for me to bother (I did hear about it). Threads? I DID hear about it and I'm actively refusing, because if I need Threads account, it's bound to my Instagram account and if I don't like it and resign my IG is gone. Meh, no need for that. But same applies with Discord for me. Why would I be there? Why companies expect me to contact them via Discord? Yo, gimme wiki, or answer email. I don't need some chat-thingy/Slack/Discord. Edit: Why don't we have email, nntp and IRC anymore? Just build stuff on it, don't reinvent.

throwaw1yyy 3y ago

X is still good and very usable. I’m a heavy user, and I would love to be critical but the service HAS improved despite all the criticisms. It’s getting better - I see improvements weekly to things. All the huff and fuss is from people I’m constantly wondering if they were even users prior to the Elon takeover. There was a large vocal contingent that hated twitter even prior to Elon on here, who again complained and often would note they didn’t have accounts but the service was still terrible. The BBC and the rest should realize the service is still worthy, and Elon will allow people he disagrees with on the platform.

la_oveja 3y ago
im an user since 2010 its def been worse. translation service works half of the time since the takeover, i see a shitton of useless tick marked content in my feed, the "Following" tab goes worse, the new ads on the responses are awful, and random position-jumping feed updates still happen. service has not gone better in any way
- throwaw1yyy 3y ago
  It’s loads wayyy faster. I cannot understand how you haven’t experienced that. What about the fact the service hasn’t gone down practically once? Don’t you remember twitter going down for 9-10 hour stretches every 2-3 months before under new ownership? what about begging for new features and never getting anything except a new font? Elon’s twitter ships constantly (not all improvements per say) but aren’t you happy at least their shipping something? I have been on since 2010 - you need to constantly (and always had too be) pruning your followings to remove the duds. The ‘following’ tab is only as good as your personal filter. That counts for before or after Elon
tomalpha 3y ago
> Elon will allow people he disagrees with on the platform I’m not comfortable relying on a single “benevolent” dictator decided what is and isn’t allowed on the platform. Particularly because the benevolence or lack thereof is, at best, hotly debated in this context.

diamondfist25 3y ago

I almost don’t open Instagram anymore these days All my friends who are on it are girls who are hopelessly hooked to it and posts thirst trap pix. I now am piping all the dms to my own matrix server, and found ways to pull data from it via private api proxies, I find myself never needing to step into Marks predatory algos I’m very happy this setup

_ph_ 3y ago

I think that recent history clearly shows, that any larger organization and especially any public organization should at minimum also have a Mastodon representation. One can argue a lot on how a certain social network is superior to Mastodon. And often enough, that is indeed true. But all social networks that are run by a single entity are at the mercy of that entity. They might completely change their policies at a whim. With Mastodon though, you can run your own instance. No one can take that from you and you can guarantee that your content is reachable for anyone interested. That should be reason enough to support it, even if you also have a presence on other networks. In a sense, this reminds me of the old competition between the web and more centralized services like bulletin boards. The web is not as integrated, but its winning power was, that everyone can set up a web page, you are not dependent on any organization to do so, which could prevent you doing it.

stallmanwasrigh 3y ago

Yet another app to install is not particularly enticing. Threads should embrace web first.. twitter/mastodon treat web as first class.

jscipione 3y ago

I’ve given up on the BBC: they blackwash history and pass on Whites for promotions. The BBC is clearly an anti-white hate institution posing as a broadcaster.

0x38B 3y ago

The title doesn’t reflect reality; “gives up on” rings of finality, but more accurate would be “hasn’t posted in a long time”. For the former I would expect a statement from BBC to support such a policy change. But the title as-is has certainly gotten people to click on it.