Other comments here (so far) don't seem super happy with this, but I can't help think this is a good thing primarily because of this:
"The fediverse feed isn’t algorithmically ranked, or subject to any of Threads’ rules or moderation; it’s just a reverse-chronological feed of stuff you follow."
That's great! Any step we can take away from ultra-algorithimically-optimized feeds, the better, I think. Normalize reverse-chronological feeds again.
bix6 · 2h ago
Are you familiar with embrace, extend, extinguish?
qualeed · 2h ago
Sure.
I'm also familiar with positive reinforcement.
If/when they start touching the reverse-chronological feed with algorithms I'll call it out. Until that time, I'm happy that it's a non-algorithmic feed and will say so.
(It's also not clear to me what "extinguish" would look like here. If Threads starts messing with the feed, just go view it anywhere else you view you fediverse feeds)
jdenning · 2h ago
Extinguish comes after extend -- eg, the goal is to make their client the preferred client for fediverse feeds for a large number of people by adding some kind of feature that they can prevent fediverse projects from also adding. Then extinguish.
(Edit) Examples:
- Google and RSS
- Slack and IRC
- Google (chrome) and web standards
- Apple (iMessage) and SMS
qualeed · 2h ago
What type of feature, and how would they prevent other projects?
I'm happy that there's a non-algorithmic feed in a Meta app. I think that's good for society.
I'm not focused on how this means Meta will be the fediverse overlord in the future, once they release some fediverse-killing feature. When that time comes, I'll be sure to rally against it.
jdenning · 2h ago
I'm quite sure they'll think of something. I don't think most people could have predicted that apple using an "ugly" color to represent non-iOS messages would have such a strong effect. But apple knew, and they were right.
Edit:
To be fair - "extinguish" is not entirely accurate..RSS, IRC, etc still exist - they're just ghost towns.
jdenning · 2h ago
It just occurred to me - post your fediverse content via thread and get preferred placement in the "neutral" feed. Boom.
qualeed · 2h ago
Okay, if they do that, I'll be sure to say "that sucks".
Until then, I'll be happy that millions of people can get non-algoirthmic feeds.
bix6 · 2h ago
How is this positive reinforcement? It’s fostering threads lock in.
I don’t really understand why you’re so excited about getting something you already get but now packaged by a monopoly platform?
Extinguish here means they start siphoning users off the fediverse. We’ve seen this many times before.
qualeed · 2h ago
>How is this positive reinforcement
They are doing what I think is a good thing so I said "good".
>you’re so excited
I'm not "so excited". I'm offering a not negative opinion. Weird, on an HN topic about Meta, I understand.
Having a non-algorithmic feed in a Meta app is good. When Meta overtakes the fediverse or whatever because of it, somehow, let's chat again.
bix6 · 2h ago
!remindme 3 years
foogazi · 1h ago
> I'll call it out
What’s the point if the algorithm buries it
Barrin92 · 2h ago
can people stop bringing up this thought terminating cliche every five minutes, it's like the HN version of that quip about Rudy Guliani, "everything he says is a verb a noun and 9/11."
Any open protocol will always be subject to competition, that's the point of it being open. If someone adopts that protocol and supercedes it because they add stuff that people want, that's how it goes. If people don't want that to happen, they need to stay on their toes and extend protocols quickly driven by user demand. That's really why a lot of protocol based ecosystems get absorbed, they stagnate.
bix6 · 2h ago
It’s not a cliche if it’s the truth homie. We all know Meta’s intentions.
jdenning · 2h ago
This ^. Gravity isn't a cliche, it's just how the world works.
Barrin92 · 2h ago
but you don't blame gravity when someone pushes you off your bike. The point isn't that it's not real, it is that you decided the rules of the game when you built a protocol. It's like publishing something under a permissive license and then complaining if someone clones your code and does something with it you don't like. if you didn't want it, you should have built a proprietary platform.
If you create something under conditions that by definition must be robust enough to repel adversial use and it doesn't, what's the point in blaming the bad actor
jdenning · 1h ago
That's fair, and I'm not "blaming" meta for anything here. They're well within their rights to EEE ActivityPub, but I think it's naive to complain about people calling it out. This new is only really relevant to people who care about Fediverse content, and I see two potential responses from that group:
1) Yay! That's great that meta is helping popularize Fediverse!
2) It's a trap.
I'm in camp (2) - just trying to show people the trap before they step in it. It doesn't matter anyway, these kind of warnings have never, ever worked. Just let the old man shake his fist at the clouds FFS :) Where else am I supposed to do it? Threads?
username223 · 2h ago
They're welcome to try. RSS is still going strong, and I use it daily. Spotify and ClearChannel are trying to kill it for podcasts, and that seems to be failing.
ActivityPub in the form of Mastodon will probably never be as big as Twitter was, or as Threads could become if Facebook pushes it hard enough, but I'm fine with that. That's not really a place I would like to hang out, and I like my Masto instance.
fsflover · 3h ago
Meta can still choose in which order they show those posts...
qualeed · 2h ago
As stated in the article, for now at least, they wont be.
9dev · 2h ago
They also promised there’ll never be ads on WhatsApp. Whatever statement Meta makes isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.
qualeed · 2h ago
Non-algorithmic feeds are a good thing. That sums up my feelings.
When that changes, or it gets plastered in ads, my feelings will be "well that was good while it lasted". Until then, I'm choosing not to doom say about it.
bachmeier · 2h ago
> Starting today, if you’ve turned on fediverse sharing in Threads, there will be a new section at the top of your Following feed that takes you to a list of posts from folks you follow on Mastodon, Flipboard, or wherever else you’ve connected your Threads account.
Oh, so not real important. I follow some Threads accounts on Mastodon, but very few have clicked the button to enable that. I've even asked professional organizations to do that and they refused. Mark Cuban complains on Bluesky about their dwindling user base, but he refuses to bridge his account.
ofcrpls · 3h ago
Explains the mastodon.social T&C agreement update this morning.
bix6 · 2h ago
Embrace, extend, extinguish. No doubt.
add-sub-mul-div · 3h ago
It brings into question, does the concept of a Fediverse subvert having a variety of communities with different cultures?
Imagine putting the Meta/Twitter/Reddit world behind you, posting on Bluesky/Mastodon, and then your content is showing up on Threads next to influencer garbage, AI slop, culture wars, crypto spam, pillow ads.
And just as bad or worse, content from those places flooding your parachute community. Those sites function best now as quarantine.
lurk2 · 2h ago
This already happens. 4chan is mostly screenshots from Reddit, Reddit is mostly screenshots from Twitter, and all of the short form video platforms (Instagram, YouTube) copy trends that originate on TikTok.
add-sub-mul-div · 17m ago
It's good when specific content goes viral across platforms. I've seen many good tiktoks but I never want to have the app installed or scroll through it, subject to their algorithm.
It just won't be good when some high quality small or mid sized community absorbs everything posted to Threads or Tiktok, for example. That's when it loses its identity.
NicuCalcea · 1h ago
Both instance admins and individual users can block other instances (at least in Mastodon), so if you don't want to show up on Threads or see content from there, you can do that.
zdragnar · 2h ago
> then your content is showing up on Threads next to influencer garbage, AI slop, culture wars, crypto spam, pillow ads.
Isn't that the whole point of the fediverse? You're distributing your content to other people and lose control of the context it is displayed in.
josteink · 3h ago
I honestly thought it was talking about the IoT-standard Thread and was seriously confused about how this was supposed to make sense.
I had completely forgotten Facebook’s Threads even existed. I can’t see this being enough to resurrect any momentum?
phyrex · 3h ago
There's over 350M monthly active users. Seems like plenty of momentum?
lurk2 · 2h ago
I saw these numbers recently too and I honestly think they are fraudulent. Are they counting all the people who accidentally click on Threads as they are scrolling through their Instagram feed? I have literally never heard anyone bring up Threads in conversation, I never see it referenced on other platforms, I never see screenshots of the content there; why is this the case if so many people are using it?
bowsamic · 2h ago
My mum sends me stuff from threads constantly
officeplant · 2h ago
IIRC Having an Instagram account automatically creates a thread account whether you choose to use it or not.
criddell · 2h ago
Unused accounts won’t show up in the active users number.
Peacefulz · 1h ago
Bots, OF Adverts, and Scammers all the way down.
sneak · 3h ago
…so does this mean Meta is receiving my own copyrighted data from my server and storing it on their own servers for the benefit of their platform and apps?
Sounds like redistribution and perhaps public performance of copyrighted content without a license.
tuckerman · 3h ago
This is a fundamental part of the fediverse, or at least mastodon, right? There can't be an federation without doing exactly this between mastodon instances.
johnklos · 3h ago
I, and I'm sure others, are suspicious that F**book will train AI on it, will keep copies and apply their own licenses, et cetera, until someone calls them out on it (ie, sues them).
rustc · 2h ago
All AI companies are already training on any data they can get (by scraping or torrenting). At this point I don't think anyone will be stopping them, see [1] for the latest UK update.
That's fair but the comment I'm responding to seems to take offense at just storing and distributing it on threads, which is exactly what every single fediverse instance has to do. There are also tools for dealing with this, namely you can configure a mastodon instance to not federate with a server.
If someone is more concerned about training models on the data and whether that is legal or not, I assume Meta could easily be doing that already if they wanted to via scraping.
qualeed · 2h ago
>F**book
Out of curiosity, why did you self-censor facebook? Does it keep the AI away, or something?
SiempreViernes · 2h ago
presumably they self-censored some derogatory alternative spelling, perhaps fuckbook?
emaro · 3h ago
Me too. However you're free to join or move to an instance that doesn't federate with Threads.
JCattheATM · 3h ago
> Sounds like redistribution and perhaps public performance of copyrighted content without a license.
Unless they take from a server with a more permissive license that had the right to distribute it...
Kind of hard to stop it since stuff being federated and re-distributed is kind of the point.
I guess you could refuse permission to corporations operating something like threads specifically.
guywithahat · 3h ago
I would be surprised if any server tried to withhold the rights of the data themselves. The point is to federate, and I can't imagine how you could say Meta can't federate but other companies can
JCattheATM · 3h ago
I don't see why you couldn't have a usage agreement or terms of service that said exactly that.
matt3210 · 3h ago
Put a license that charges for the content when taken by a commercial platform with over 1000 employees. Send them a bill at the end if the year.
"The fediverse feed isn’t algorithmically ranked, or subject to any of Threads’ rules or moderation; it’s just a reverse-chronological feed of stuff you follow."
That's great! Any step we can take away from ultra-algorithimically-optimized feeds, the better, I think. Normalize reverse-chronological feeds again.
I'm also familiar with positive reinforcement.
If/when they start touching the reverse-chronological feed with algorithms I'll call it out. Until that time, I'm happy that it's a non-algorithmic feed and will say so.
(It's also not clear to me what "extinguish" would look like here. If Threads starts messing with the feed, just go view it anywhere else you view you fediverse feeds)
(Edit) Examples:
- Google and RSS
- Slack and IRC
- Google (chrome) and web standards
- Apple (iMessage) and SMS
I'm happy that there's a non-algorithmic feed in a Meta app. I think that's good for society.
I'm not focused on how this means Meta will be the fediverse overlord in the future, once they release some fediverse-killing feature. When that time comes, I'll be sure to rally against it.
Edit:
To be fair - "extinguish" is not entirely accurate..RSS, IRC, etc still exist - they're just ghost towns.
Until then, I'll be happy that millions of people can get non-algoirthmic feeds.
I don’t really understand why you’re so excited about getting something you already get but now packaged by a monopoly platform?
Extinguish here means they start siphoning users off the fediverse. We’ve seen this many times before.
They are doing what I think is a good thing so I said "good".
>you’re so excited
I'm not "so excited". I'm offering a not negative opinion. Weird, on an HN topic about Meta, I understand.
Having a non-algorithmic feed in a Meta app is good. When Meta overtakes the fediverse or whatever because of it, somehow, let's chat again.
What’s the point if the algorithm buries it
Any open protocol will always be subject to competition, that's the point of it being open. If someone adopts that protocol and supercedes it because they add stuff that people want, that's how it goes. If people don't want that to happen, they need to stay on their toes and extend protocols quickly driven by user demand. That's really why a lot of protocol based ecosystems get absorbed, they stagnate.
If you create something under conditions that by definition must be robust enough to repel adversial use and it doesn't, what's the point in blaming the bad actor
1) Yay! That's great that meta is helping popularize Fediverse!
2) It's a trap.
I'm in camp (2) - just trying to show people the trap before they step in it. It doesn't matter anyway, these kind of warnings have never, ever worked. Just let the old man shake his fist at the clouds FFS :) Where else am I supposed to do it? Threads?
ActivityPub in the form of Mastodon will probably never be as big as Twitter was, or as Threads could become if Facebook pushes it hard enough, but I'm fine with that. That's not really a place I would like to hang out, and I like my Masto instance.
When that changes, or it gets plastered in ads, my feelings will be "well that was good while it lasted". Until then, I'm choosing not to doom say about it.
Oh, so not real important. I follow some Threads accounts on Mastodon, but very few have clicked the button to enable that. I've even asked professional organizations to do that and they refused. Mark Cuban complains on Bluesky about their dwindling user base, but he refuses to bridge his account.
Imagine putting the Meta/Twitter/Reddit world behind you, posting on Bluesky/Mastodon, and then your content is showing up on Threads next to influencer garbage, AI slop, culture wars, crypto spam, pillow ads.
And just as bad or worse, content from those places flooding your parachute community. Those sites function best now as quarantine.
It just won't be good when some high quality small or mid sized community absorbs everything posted to Threads or Tiktok, for example. That's when it loses its identity.
Isn't that the whole point of the fediverse? You're distributing your content to other people and lose control of the context it is displayed in.
I had completely forgotten Facebook’s Threads even existed. I can’t see this being enough to resurrect any momentum?
Sounds like redistribution and perhaps public performance of copyrighted content without a license.
[1]: https://www.theguardian.com/law/2025/jun/06/uk-government-si...
If someone is more concerned about training models on the data and whether that is legal or not, I assume Meta could easily be doing that already if they wanted to via scraping.
Out of curiosity, why did you self-censor facebook? Does it keep the AI away, or something?
Unless they take from a server with a more permissive license that had the right to distribute it...
Kind of hard to stop it since stuff being federated and re-distributed is kind of the point.
I guess you could refuse permission to corporations operating something like threads specifically.