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How's Threads doing from the POV of HN crowd? It seems to me like a clone of Instagram, with some celebreties double-posting their X or Instagram content to it.

How's Threads doing from the POV of HN crowd? It seems to me like a clone of Instagram, with some celebreties double-posting their X or Instagram content to it. After its first few weeks, I probably have visited once a month.

hn1986 3y ago
It's the number 1 app for iOS and Android in social category and even overall in some countries. The Tech Threads community is thriving, as is Photography threads, among others. It's not the toxic wasteland that is Twitter nowadays with Musk who spreads crazy qanon conspiracies
pityJuke 3y ago
Here's a comment I posted a few weeks ago about my experience with Threads: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38640884 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38640884
- TillE 3y ago
  In my various circles of diverse interests, I have literally only ever seen The Verge guys (as you mention) talk about Threads. They sure seem to love it, though I'm not entirely clear about why they chose it. Everyone else I care about is on Bluesky and/or still on Twitter, so I've never touched Threads.
davedx 3y ago
I don’t think I ever got a chance to use it because I’m not in the US and can’t say I’ll miss it. Insta is dull enough
izzydata 3y ago
I've never seen anyone ever post a link to Threads. As far as I can tell it doesn't even exist.
threeseed 3y ago
Overall it's doing incredibly well. There has been a mass exodus of journalists, celebrities, brands etc from X over the last month with their communities following. The platform has been stable and performant. And new features slowly being added but implemented well. The phase the platform is in now is dealing with OnlyFans account, engagement farmers etc. Which is very annoying as a user but tolerable for now. The next phase will likely come when the API they are working on is released. Then hopefully we will get all of the useful bots back. X just had their value written down by 75% by Fidelity so the company is on track to bankruptcy unless there are big changes. BlueSky is great but made the mistake of not opening up quick enough. So Threads for me is in the best position to capitalise.
slimsag 3y ago
I think the problem with Threads is they bootstrapped its user-base and content from Instagram. As a result, it feels a lot more like 'Instagram with a Twitter UI' than it does old-school Twitter, where yes there was a global platform (which HN notoriously hated) but there were also niche groups, programming communities, reverse engineering communities, etc. Bluesky seems to be doing much better, it's more quiet which is problematic but feels much more like a blank slate, there are individual users I am following and hearing interesting things from that are not just cookie-cutter instagram posts. I am beginning to find tech people on the platform, etc. Obligatory 'you can follow me there' I guess: https://bsky.app/profile/slimsag.com https://bsky.app/profile/slimsag.com
CM30 3y ago
I use it quite a bit, alongside Mastodon and BlueSky. It's not released Twitter entirely at the moment (and honestly, neither of any of the other services), but there are a decent few gaming and tech creators I follow there, and my own posts do seem to get more interactions than on Twitter too.

hn1986 3y ago

It's the number 1 app for iOS and Android in social category and even overall in some countries. The Tech Threads community is thriving, as is Photography threads, among others. It's not the toxic wasteland that is Twitter nowadays with Musk who spreads crazy qanon conspiracies

pityJuke 3y ago

Here's a comment I posted a few weeks ago about my experience with Threads: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38640884 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38640884

TillE 3y ago
In my various circles of diverse interests, I have literally only ever seen The Verge guys (as you mention) talk about Threads. They sure seem to love it, though I'm not entirely clear about why they chose it. Everyone else I care about is on Bluesky and/or still on Twitter, so I've never touched Threads.

davedx 3y ago

I don’t think I ever got a chance to use it because I’m not in the US and can’t say I’ll miss it. Insta is dull enough

izzydata 3y ago

I've never seen anyone ever post a link to Threads. As far as I can tell it doesn't even exist.

threeseed 3y ago

Overall it's doing incredibly well. There has been a mass exodus of journalists, celebrities, brands etc from X over the last month with their communities following. The platform has been stable and performant. And new features slowly being added but implemented well. The phase the platform is in now is dealing with OnlyFans account, engagement farmers etc. Which is very annoying as a user but tolerable for now. The next phase will likely come when the API they are working on is released. Then hopefully we will get all of the useful bots back. X just had their value written down by 75% by Fidelity so the company is on track to bankruptcy unless there are big changes. BlueSky is great but made the mistake of not opening up quick enough. So Threads for me is in the best position to capitalise.

slimsag 3y ago

I think the problem with Threads is they bootstrapped its user-base and content from Instagram. As a result, it feels a lot more like 'Instagram with a Twitter UI' than it does old-school Twitter, where yes there was a global platform (which HN notoriously hated) but there were also niche groups, programming communities, reverse engineering communities, etc. Bluesky seems to be doing much better, it's more quiet which is problematic but feels much more like a blank slate, there are individual users I am following and hearing interesting things from that are not just cookie-cutter instagram posts. I am beginning to find tech people on the platform, etc. Obligatory 'you can follow me there' I guess: https://bsky.app/profile/slimsag.com https://bsky.app/profile/slimsag.com

CM30 3y ago

I use it quite a bit, alongside Mastodon and BlueSky. It's not released Twitter entirely at the moment (and honestly, neither of any of the other services), but there are a decent few gaming and tech creators I follow there, and my own posts do seem to get more interactions than on Twitter too.