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Can I ask this ONE question? How the heck did Zuckerberg completely MISS the utter total 100% importance of the user handle in trying to lift Twitter's user ba
by andrewstuart 3y ago
Can I ask this ONE question?
How the heck did Zuckerberg completely MISS the utter total 100% importance of the user handle in trying to lift Twitter's user base from Musk?
Let me tell you this - Twitter users ARE their handles - handles matter.
But in Zuckerbergs's world, to join Threads, you have to get an Instagram account - and apart from all the handles already being gone there, you certainly can't get your Twitter handle on threads.
People love to get a good handle - it's a personalised number plate. So Threads should have played on this - people who are engaging, posting, building audience on Threads, well they get their choice of handle.
There should have been the biggest handle rush of all time - in return for usage and engagement. Instead - Threads got the opposite - no good handles available at all, disincentive to join. Ugh.
Why - why does Threads use Instagram for its user management system? That's a mistake that has to be fixed pronto.
If I was running that project I would have said you get to have the same Threads handle as your Twitter handle if you can prove you own it by posting a code to Twitter. Of course Musk would do his best to make that not possible, but playing that game is part of the publicity of getting people to move over. Coming up with encrypted codes, obfuscated codes to prove your identity. The newspapers would write about it, you could build talk about Threads, build the perception that there was a real movement towards Threads. But did facebook do anything like that? No, they just dumped you in the Instagram user account system and said "no good handle for you". Really, whoever it is at facebook running the Threads project lacks the imagination to be taking on the job of stealing Twitter from Musk.
- threeseed 3y ago> why does Threads use Instagram for its user management system a) Because it allows most people to join instantly without having to signup. b) It leverages your existing Instagram interests, connections etc. for the feed. c) Enhances your Instagram advertising profile with additional data. d) It means that Threads has a robust, scalable, secure and proven auth system.
- andrewstuart 3y agoThat explains it exactly - technical reasons. That's why it's failing. It's a fight with Musk, not development of a banking ledger system designed with UML.
- threeseed 3y agoGrowing a social network to 100m MAU in such a short period is the opposite of failing. And it's not just technical reasons but business ones. Feeding additional data into Instagram ads is going to improve the quality of their targeting engine. Which means Threads is contributing to Meta's bottom line without them having to run ads.
- saltwatercowboy 3y agoa) is not just technical - it's also about barrier to entry. A more user-friendly solution might have allowed custom handles. That's not the point. Meta want to gobble up other forms of personal data with Threads and retain its value through a link to an ostensibly real person on Instagram. They want you to stay in the bullshit garden and avoid the legwork of linking anonymised data to individuals.
- thiht 3y ago> 100M monthly active users > it's failing. I'm sorry, what?