“Threads is deepening its ties to the fediverse, also known as the open social web, which powers services like X alternative Mastodon, Pixelfed, PeerTube, Flipboard and other apps. On Wednesday, Meta announced that users on Threads will be able to see fediverse replies on other posts besides their own. In addition, posts that originated through the Threads API, like those created via third-party apps and scheduling services, will now be syndicated to the fediverse. The latter had previously been announced via an in-app message informing users that API posts would be shared to the fediverse starting on August 28.”
Unpopular opinion: Threads deepening ties to the fediverse is actually a really good thing for the fediverse as a whole.
I feel like realistically the fediverse will never gain mainstream adoption on its own. People like to believe in this beautiful future where the fediverse “wins out” and beats all the major social media networks, but I just don’t see this happening. This is why I think Threads is actually really important for the growth of the fediverse and realistically one of the only paths to broad adoption.
Beyond this, I also separately really like the idea of being able to use a platform like Threads with my irl friends while still having access to open source clients etc. (ie. preventing situations like the Twitter API debacle which fucked over 3rd party clients)
“on its own” is an empty qualifier. Nothing is on its own.
Sure, to be pedantic, I could clarify: “I think the fediverse will realistically never gain mainstream adoption without a large organization with either a massive existing userbase or the ability to invest in large organized marketing efforts.”
This could be technically through some Fediverse collective that receives a large amount of donations, but I don’t see this as very likely to happen and even with organized marketing efforts there’s no guarantee of effectively converting this into adoption.