Just recently, Threads initiated phase two of their federation with the fediverse. Now, users on Threads can finally see posts from those replying to them from, say, a Mastodon account. For the longest time, you were simply sending your Threads posts to the Fediverse, and never seeing much info about who was interacting with you. Like firing a gun at a wall and hoping you hit your targets.
Post by @threadsView on Threads
Those who use Threads, who are actually interested in the fediverse, are still waiting to simply just see posts from the aforementioned on their Threads timeline. The problem? There may not be much to see once that time comes.
Why?
There are a lot of people across Mastodon and other pieces of fediverse connected software, that completely block out any and all federation with Threads, and within good reason. Meta runs Facebook, and Instagram, alongside Threads. They’re very much a mega corporation that absolutely sells your data, and absolutely have ulterior motives in regard to what content they want to have shared on their platforms. Which, honestly, isn’t much different than the motives of individual Mastodon instance admins. Save for the part where data is sold (that doesn’t happen on Mastodon, at least not to my knowledge).
As for the instance I’ve been running all year, I’ve chosen not to block Threads. Why?
Threads has decent people, funny people, people that are actually worth following. Sure, there is a lot of riff-raff, and garbage, but, back in the day when Twitter was actually okay, it was the same deal. And with Bluesky, it’s no different. With individual fediverse instances, topics and themes are usually much more concentrated, or extremely specific.
So, if a nazi launches an instance, there probably isn’t anyone worth following on there.
Maybe now you’re starting to see my reasoning. And maybe also why, I both run a Mastodon instance, and an active Threads account.
With how specific things on Mastodon can be, it’s really hard sometimes to find people I actually want to follow, topics I actually want to see, content I actually want to consume. But, on Threads? It’s right there. And that’s my major conundrum, to why I find it hard to decide whether I should just post on my Mastodon account, or not. And the second reason why I’m not really on-board with the “#fedipact” (check out this list where they color code anyone federating with Threads in red, which obviously means bad and evil and not good) and blocking out its influence entirely.
I feel like, if I don’t block Threads, and if other instances don’t block Threads, it’ll be easier to bring those people we actually want to see from Threads, to a better, healthier Mastodon instance.
If Facebook is anything to go by, I don’t know for sure that I trust Meta not to throw the steering wheel out the window and let the site run wild with whatever the loudest users dictate.
But, this whole thing, at least in my own eyes, and with my own experience, and situation, has a lot to do with the fact that I’m a content creator. A very unconventional content creator, but I am one, regardless! I’ve been writing since 2008. I’ve been making music since 2017, and I also make little videos, I run a store in Second Life, I try to be interesting on social media, and sometime in the near future, I’d like to find some kind of tech related remote job.
Blocking myself, or my entire instance from the mainstream internet would do me more harm than good. Part of that, is because it’s so hard to find, and sometimes even reach people on Mastodon.
I’ve been dabbling in the fediverse since 2017, and I’ve never had more than 200-some followers on Mastodon (maybe partially because I’ve had to switch accounts so much). But, on Threads, I’ve been there since day one, which is under a year, and I’ve nearly reached 1000 follows, and about half of my posts actually go viral. Sometimes, for no discernible reason.
This is something that’s really good for someone who is actively trying to reach people on social media. This is something that could lead me to having the career I’ve always wanted.
I’m not saying Mastodon is bad, and you shouldn’t use it, you should! But I’ve yet to crack the code on how there are people on Mastodon that have over 500, or over 1000 follows. How’d you do that? Why don’t my posting habits on Mastodon get me to the audience I’m trying to build, but the same habits do get me there, on Threads.
Some people go online to post, and forget. I go online to post, and try to build a future. And that’s the biggest reason I can’t block Threads, and it’s why it took me a considerable amount of time to finally swear off using Twitter (for the most part).
A lot of people on Mastodon aren’t really online trying to reach people with financial and career building goals. They’re just there to share and have friends (not that there’s anything wrong wit that, I would love to have a bunch of regular online friends again) so, to a lot of them, it’s really no big deal if they’re only reaching 1% of the potential social internet. But to me, it is kind of a big deal.
These are my thoughts, as of right now, though. They could change. Tomorrow I could let my Threads account go dormant and continue with my efforts to build only on Mastodon. Who knows! I don’t, at least not yet. What are your thoughts though? Do you think I’m making a bad decision? Should I swallow my worries as as content creator and just focus on Mastodon?
I would love to know what your opinions are!
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