Threads to the Fediverse
I came out of this event much more sanguine about the way this is unfolding, a bit more optimistic about the future of the decentralized or social web, and interested to see where things go from here.
I won’t question the good intentions of the folks working on Threads. But I do question the intentions of Meta executives now and in the future.
Think of a scenario once Threads and Mastodon can talk to each other. I can see posts from Threads on Mastodon, like them, I can reply. I can follow people on Threads. And vice versa. Now users have a choice. You can choose your server; not based on where most people are but which service has the best product.
So what happens if Threads objectively has the best app the best user experience, where it’s easiest to sign up and start posting? This is a real scenario because Meta has the funds and expertise to build a good user experience. And they have the ability to scale Threads to billions of users.
Now, Meta’s board decides it’s time to make money from all the content posted into the Metaverse via Threads. Will they be cool and say, well, we‘ve got all of these users, and we can show ads on our own app and we won’t worry about all the other clients that consume our content? Or will they start to close off Threads and make it hard for users to leave? Will they stay open initially but close off Threads once they notice that users are leaving to other instances because Thread’s user experience takes a hit with ads and algorithmically curated content?
All of Metas products were very enticing at first. I had Facebook and Instagram accounts very early on. But I deleted them because they became insufferable over the years. Why would it be different this time? Meta‘s board will, at some point, ask why the company spends all this money on Threads, but there is no revenue. What happens then?