There’s a common false dichotomy about #Threads: cut them off, or leave it to user choice.
I can’t speak to other software, but Mastodon offers a third option: limiting Threads. This can be done for all users of a server.
- You can follow Threads accounts after clicking through a warning.
- People who don’t follow those same people won’t see their posts.
- You have to manually approve followers _from_ Threads.
Basically, it puts Threads in quarantine, without cutting off all connections.
I like that option for our server, social.coop, and it’s the one we voted to implement earlier this year.
We know that Threads already hosts bad actors (e.g., LibsOfTikTok). We know some reasonable folks have set up shop there and will continue to flee there from X.
This option makes it clear that Threads is not a safe space, while allowing limited connections.
Every instance will implement the option that makes sense to them, of course.
It actually isn’t that big. It grew a lot initially because people on Instagram were practically forced to join (or so I’ve heard), but then activity died down very quickly (www.cnn.com/2023/08/03/tech/th…).
I’d say the ability to interact with the high-profile accounts on threads via Masto makes it a much more attractive alternative for many, although I personally have no interest in doing so.
I’d rather we deliberately boycott high-profile accounts until they come to their senses and move to Mastodon.
Yeah, say that to Biden…
They ought to set up a mastodon.gov server for federal officials like Biden to post on.
… do you actually get your news from social media?
No, why? I’m just pointing out that there are a lot of accounts that a lot of people want to follow who are very unlikely to ever move to non-corporate social media.