As someone not using Threads this is a big surprise. I mean I'm surprised it didn't already have ads.
this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2025
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As another someone who doesn't use Threads, it is a big surprise to find out there's a website or something called Threads that looks like it's related to email and apparently is popular.
It's Facebook brand Twitter, and is or was planned to be compatible with Mastodon (Fediverse Twitter)
"is popular"
Im pretty sure they auto setup an account on threads for anyone on Instagram to artificially make it popular.
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Mastodon isn't.
Lemmy isn’t.
Pixelfed isn’t.
🤞🏻
@ThomasCrappersGhost @moseschrute tbh, any of the single instances can have them, but at least you can choose a diferent instance or in last resort run your own
Thank fuck.
Btw, I have this referral code for PAID: Shadow Workers. If you use my sign up code you’ll receive 10,000 SlutCoin and a free MegaSlurpJob, so sign up today with the code: LemonParty69
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That was quick. They better not federate those ads
Federating ads sounds like a very quick way to get everyone else to defederate with you.
Jokes on them, I have always defederated them
You’d think the trans hate and nazi love would be enough for everyone to defederate with them.
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How long before they introduce some sweet new fascism features?
"Our new GestureSupport("Gestapo") means you can now upvote by striking your arm up and to the right..."
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Enshitification step 3
I remember the heady days when I thought this was the final step of enshittification. Such simple and innocent times.
Last time I checked Threads was 95% brand and influencer posts anyway.
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To serve you relevant ads, Meta will use your activity on Threads and Instagram, the posts you interact with, your email address, and “your activity from off Meta technologies,” according to a support page.
Do I read it right in that they'll try to follow you around Fediverse, aside from monitoring you on every site they already have a nose on?
De-fe-de-rate.
Probably more about their general user tracking than that tbh. Meta has always had profiles for everyone because of Facebook/meta integrations on every website
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BlueSky is next
BlueSky has some novel monetization concepts but yes, I think they will eventually find that those are not sustainable and will introduce ads eventually.
How hard is it to run a platform charging a couple dollars a month so that you don't need to turn into a ghoulish capitalist nightmare? Like, really. If even one of them went the "no ads, ever, just a tiny monthly fee" wouldn't that be better? Wouldn't everyone flock there? Is everyone so dumb that they think these huge sites will run for free?? No.. wait I think I've answered my own question..
It would be better, yes, but you'd be sacrificing 90% of your userbase going that route. The vast majority aren't going to pay a monthly fee for a social media account. One or the other is inevitable, though. Server infra ain't free, after all.
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Surprisedpikachu
My instance preemptively defederated from Threads, but I'm assuming those ads are going to be served to Threads users via API, right, and not federated out?
My instance preemptively defederated from Threads, but I’m assuming those ads are going to be served to Threads users via API, right, and not federated out?
Things don't really federate out with ActivityPub, they federate in. To receive off-site content, you have to subscribe to it.
Who is going to subscribe to a Threads ad bot?
Right, and I'm assuming Threads works on the Mastodon-style user follow paradigm, which means, currently, anyway, Lemmy wouldn't be able to follow them directly.
But the ad-bot could, in theory, tag a Lemmy community and have that show up on Lemmy (at least, that seems to be how Mastodon content arrives here).
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If Meta threw up ads as ActivityPub objects they'd probably be blocked so fast by every instance.
They wouldn't need ads if they took a cut from all the porn and crypto ad bots littering the comment sections
~~When threads first saw its posts on Lemmy~~ [when Lemmy first started posting about threads], I was reading one and a coworker looked over my shoulder and gasped. I looked up at her, and she said, "what is that?? And why is the logo a pubic hair?!" Good times.
Edit. Clarification.
Threads is still around?
Yes this is so confusing to me. There was a blast of attention about it when it was launched that lasted like a week max and then everyone completely forgot about it. I thought it was a short-run experiment that got shut down. What reason is there to use threads? Are there any actual humans who still use it? I've never visited it but something tells me that it's just like reddit with at most 100 real users and the rest is just bots replying to bots.
That was quick.
I'm honestly amazed they didn't have ads out of the gate, Meta's whole schtick is advertising and data.
They thought they could EEE the fediverse first.
Turns out people on decentralised social media aren't totally fucking brain dead and could see it coming a mile away.
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Oh no. Anyway....
You've got ads. Eventually but full-blown ads.
Not just HV but full-blown ads.
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