This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Honestly surprised there are no ads yet. I thought that was the whole point of the website...
They need to make it nice first, to reel people in. Once they are in and invested, that's when ads start.
Hey, I've seen that one!
It's a classic (enshittification tactic)
Well that sounds enshitty.
wait till you see the -ification.
that's when they start filtering out the genuine content and show you mostly promoted stuff
Yep. that's the classic shitty business model
Make a site that's attractive to use for a lot of people
Once you have enough people, lock in the users with network effect, walled garden, etc
Use the users to draw in businesses
Lock in the businesses and squeeze them for profit.
Squeeze users and businesses for money, abandon any maintenance and improvement on the site except for monetization.
It's the 3 D's.
You don't raise temperature while the frog is in the pond.
I don't understand this metaphor. Is it about frog breeding for later eating? Why else would you want to heat your pond, irrespective of the frog. And why is there a greater incentive to heat the pond when there's no frog, and vice versa? So many questions!
I interpreted it as you don't heat the pot while the frog is still in the pond. You only apply heat slowly once the front is already in the pot.
Don't load up the ads until the users are already on Threads. Wait until they are active on Threads, then crank up the ads when it's more difficult for the users to leave.
They have to build social inertia first. This is something Facebook figured out a long time ago and is well-documented. They were begging for money from investors to keep the site running and Zuck refused to run ads because the site was still growing like crazy.
It might be years yet before they start running ads but rest assured they will eventually.
And this is why it’s not a good idea to federate with Threads.
On the contrary, that's how you get an ad-free access to Threads content.
Interesting that you think that I may be interested in Threads content.
Interesting that you think that I may be interested in Threads content.
I'm not interested in what content you are interested in. You (Edit: Not even you, gravitas_deficiency. Why even interject as if you were the person I replied to?) made a comment regarding blocking Threads content for everyone. Let everyone decide for themselves which accounts to follow, don't promote not to federate at all just because you personally don't want to follow accounts there. Just don't click the follow button, duh.
Go to some junk instance that's willing to federate if you want.
Federating with Threads makes an instance unacceptable as far as most of us are concerned. Their mere existence is malignant.
Go to some junk instance that’s willing to federate if you want.
The Mastodon instance I use already does and absolutely nothing negatively happened to it. Mastodon users can just block entire instances on their own if they happen to not like any content from there.
Federating with Threads makes an instance unacceptable as far as most of us are concerned. Their mere existence is malignant.
That's based on conspiracy theories and not an actually informed decision based on how the Fediverse works. Most of you don't even understand that Threads content wouldn't even show up on Lemmy in the first place. Threads doesn't even have communities.
Because Facebook hasn't done anything yet.
Blocking Facebook as a user is not good enough. Any server that connects to them legitimizes them and is not acceptable behavior.
It absolute is not a conspiracy, and most people unwilling to participate in any server that interacts with Facebook in any way are doing so exactly because they understand the technology and Facebook's history. Literally everything Facebook has ever touched turned to dogshit. "I won't participate in a platform that doesn't completely block Facebook" is not the naive, uninformed position. (That's using Facebook and their other platforms.) It's the people who recognize how pure fucking evil Facebook is.
Because Facebook hasn’t done anything yet.
And they cannot circumvent to ActivityPub protocol to display ads to users who don't want so see them. Claiming otherwise is conspiracy theories.
Blocking Facebook as a user is not good enough
Yes, it is.
Any server that connects to them legitimizes them and is not acceptable behavior.
That's not for you to decide.
It absolute is not a conspiracy
It absolutely is.
and most people unwilling to participate in any server that interacts with Facebook in any way
First: That's untrue.
Second: Such an opinion is based on conspiracy theories and therefore not valid.
are doing so exactly because they understand the technology
No, they and you don't.
“I won’t participate in a platform that doesn’t completely block Facebook” is not the naive, uninformed position.
Yes, it is and you don't even realize that you are participatin in a platform that doesn’t completely block ~~Facebook~~ Threads right now. That's proof enough that you don't understand the technology.
It’s the people who recognize how pure fucking evil Facebook is.
Then allowing ad-free access to accounts hosted there should be your agenda. That's how they don't get money, not by pushing people to sign up for their platform, just because they want to follow their favorite movie franchise or sports team.
Yes, it is and you don’t even realize that you are participatin in a platform that doesn’t completely block Facebook Threads right now. That’s proof enough that you don’t understand the technology.
https://sh.itjust.works/instances lists threads.net under the blocked instances list, not everyone is using lemmy.world. Inform yourself before accusing others of making uninformed statements.
https://sh.itjust.works/instances lists threads.net under the blocked instances list, not everyone is using lemmy.world. Inform yourself before accusing others of making uninformed statements.
But you're in an lemmy.word-hosted community right now, interacting with me who has a LW account, so you're participating on a platform that's federating with Threads. That's like claiming not to participate with anything Google while mailing these claims to GMail addresses. You're participating. You just don't know how ActivityPub works and that's why you think that being on any Fediverse server that didn't explicitly block Threads would result in sposored posts from Threads magically showing up. You're a conspiracy theorist.
You very obviously do not understand how the blocklist works so here's a very practical example:
ani.social is blocked by lemmy.ml.
Here is a post on lemmy.world containing comments by users from ani.social: https://lemmy.world/post/18538115
Here is that same post on lemmy.ml, which has blocked ani.social: https://lemmy.ml/post/19043133
Note the absence of any comment made by a user on ani.social. As far as users on lemmy.ml are concerned ani.social does not exist (as of 10 months ago, some existing content before then can still be viewed). I think you don't know how ActivityPub works and calling me a conspiracy theorist won't change that.
yes, it is
It absolutely is
No, they and you don't
What great arguments you have. Really gonna convince people with that.
What great arguments you have.
Yes, I have, you just chose not to quote any of them. Threads cannot push ads to Mastodon users who don't want to see them. Mastoton users can subscribe to brand accounts who then may make promotional posts but again: Threads cannot push any of those to users as ads. That's simply not how ActivityPub works. I explained this countless times already. Certain people just aren't interested in facts and choose to quote selectively as if those arguments were never made. That's dishonest.
I'm not interested in what content you are interested in.
Yes, this is the kind of thing a terminally boring person says.
Pardon my generalization, but literally no one is interested in threads
I follow many Threads accounts.
/literally one more than no one
9/10 of the most followed accounts on Fedi are on Threads, so you may not, but clearly many many people do.
Ads don't federate.
bold of you to assume that ads won't just be disguised as regular posts (and therefore federate)
Edit: after reading the article I heavily suspect ads will federate. As is they are just specially marked posts so I see no reason to think they won't federate.
My instance is defederated from threads. At the time I mildly disagreed with that decision. Federated ads would vindicate that decision. I don't need threads content that badly.
I don’t need threads content that badly.
You can block entire servers yourself. No need for an instance to defederate.
Yes and this was my reasoning for saying it would be fine to federate. But I'll point out that federating ads would mean using my server's infrastructure to serve ads on behalf of someone else. That would cost the admin more money and would require more user donations to keep it going. So just being able to block isn't the necessary solution. Not sure that was even your point but I wanted to bring it up.
But I’ll point out that federating ads would mean using my server’s infrastructure to serve ads on behalf of someone else.
Marvel Comics could make an account on any Mastodon server and make posts to promote an upcoming movie. That's a regular post, containing promotional material. What makes it an ad (or a sponsored post) in IG/Threads terms is to push such posts to users via targeting algorithms who didn't subscribe to Marvel Comics. Threads cannot do that via ActivityPub, so your Mastodon server cannot serve Threads ads.
Okay. Well I'm not that worried until I see where things are headed. I can see a lot of ways for things to go badly, but no point in borrowing trouble over it.
No, not bold. You don't get posts from accounts you don't follow.
Creating ads as if they are from a person would get Threads instabanned in the EU.
The example shown literally is a regular post simply marked "Sponsored" so it can be assumed that post would federate just like any other post. The only difference being the Sponsor marker likely being a Threads exclusive ActivityPub extension so unless other platforms implement that the post would show up as a regular post on e.g. Mastodon.
Them being in compliance with EU regulations while simultaneously blasting their ads into the Fediverse are not mutually exclusive. There are ways for them to do both. And to be fair here if the ads get federated they will likely be marked as such in some way so other Fediverse platforms should be able to filter the ads out easily.
The example shown literally is a regular post simply marked “Sponsored” so it can be assumed that post would federate just like any other post.
Instagram shows its users sponsored posts from accounts you don't follow. Threads will do the same for users of its website and apps. These posts will not magically show up on Mastodon from accounts one doesn't follow. If a Mastodon user would follow the profile of a brand, they'd get the posts from that account that would obviously contain promotion (just as any brand is free to join Mastodon right now and promote products there) but as @troed 100% correctly wrote: You don’t get posts from accounts you don’t follow.
That's why they have stealth enshittification techniques to disguise them.
That’s why they have stealth enshittification techniques to disguise them.
Promotional posts don't magically show up on Mastodon for users who don't follow the brand account that posted them. That's not how Mastodon works.
If I were to follow Marvel Comics via Mastodon, boosted a post, then my followers would see the post, just as they would see the post if I made a screenshot from a Marvel tweet and posted that to Mastodon but Marvel posts would not just show up for random Mastodon users just because Marvel paid Meta to promote a post on Threads. Only Threads website and app users would see such posts.
It's amazing how uninformed Fediverse users are of the basics of how the Fediverse works.
Tomorrow.
That’s when.
Stop using meta services.
Don't worry, Threads Pro will have you covered for an ad reduction for 3.99/mo.! And Threads Pro Plus for 5.99/mo. will get rid of them all by 2030!
‘no immediate timeline’ toward monetization
Soo, starting tomorrow
We know what enshittification looks like now. Just because you restart it doesn’t mean it’s not obvious where it ends up.
Lmao, called it
Tried Threads briefly. It’s full of the same people who comment on or create Facebook reels. Insta-political trolling, deliberately wrong info just to get people to comment and correct it, “I’m stupidly out of the loop on this ridiculously popular topic, can someone tell me why [thing] is?” Just to get every know-it-all to reply. Like every low-effort post on Reddit ever.
Couple that with the inability to sort, and the inability for notifications to take you to the post you were having a discussion on, and I gave up after about 3-4 days.
The platform sucks and so do the participants.
