Will Threads be good about public conversation?

Hi frens,

Are you using Meta’s Threads? I’m in as @denken.i.

It was a tremendous product launch. Threads is so well received.

Threads on public conversation

Twitter has long been regarded as an effective platform for public conversations.

Threads has that vision:

@threadsapp: You found us! If you’ve used Instagram, parts of this app probably feel familiar. 🫶 We’re here to foster a positive and creative space for you to express your ideas. This time, it’s all about conversation.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Meta (aka Facebook), has that vision:

@zuck: It'll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it. Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn't nailed it. Hopefully we will.

Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram (after co-founders resigned), had a interview with The Verge “Why Instagram is taking on Twitter with Threads”, mentioned “public conversation” 6 times, and “public discourse” 2 times.

And Mosseri also suggest that,

@mosseri: For those of you trying to think about what to post here on Threads versus on Instagram, my take is it's less about text versus photos and videos and more about what public conversations you want to have. Do you want to engage in more of a back and forth, Threads make sense. If not, great, probably Instagram...

However, time has shown that unrestricted free speech does not necessarily foster meaningful conversation.

Social networks are no longer social, and social media are dead.

Worst of all, Threads has no intention to resolve the biggest issue ever in human history, and may turn itself into a entertainment center, again (source):

@mosseri: The goal isn't to replace Twitter. The goal is to create a public square for communities on Instagram that never really embraced Twitter and for communities on Twitter (and other platforms) that are interested in a less angry place for conversations, but not all of Twitter.

Politics and hard news are inevitably going to show up on Threads - they have on Instagram as well to some extent - but we're not going to do anything to encourage those verticals.

Is it truly a public square or public conversation without discussions on politics or journalism? I don't think so.

However, Twitter has failed to make meaningful improvements to address these issues, too.

So, let’s amuse ourselves to death! 🥳

(Btw I can’t even have a nice conversation with Meta, since the community publication @web3matters_zh I have contributed to, has been banned forever and literally dead.)

What’s the future for public conversation?

Fediverse, like the early blog era, has loosely coupled everyone‘s voice on the web. So even Meta has no intention of dealing with *real* public conversation, we could still do that on other servers.

Learned from history, both serious and entertainment topics *could* and *should* coexist on the same platform. That’s how newspaper works, how social network works, and totally fine. Even the algorithm could continue to help us on that.

But how could we have a great conversation online, systematically? That remains an open question. Here are my philosophical takes to begin with:

1. Encourage admitting “wrong”. People make mistakes. There’s no perfect human beings. The only important thing is moving the conversation forward.

2. Judge the message, not the messenger. We have put too much emphasis on a person’s identity in the social network era.

What’s your take?

Your friend,

Denken