I’m a longtime critic of Facebook/Meta for countless reasons.

I’ve fully deleted my Facebook account and use Instagram almost entirely to promote things that I’m doing elsewhere, as well as a way to keep at least some type of lifeline open to non-nerds in my life, for whom IG occupies the same “I don’t want to learn something new, I’ll just die here” spot that the main FB blue app does for their parents.

As Twitter/X went full fash over the last year, I’ve really enjoyed the rise of federated alternatives like Mastodon and Bluesky, but when the Zuck squad announced that they were rolling up to the Musk-sized hole at the table this summer with an ActivityPub-compatible entry of their own called Threads, I was intrigued but fairly wary.

After all, Meta isn’t historically known for championing the open web and data portability.

I made an account, chuckled a bit a month later as reports of Threads stagnating circulated, then mostly ignored it.

Dear readers, I’m here to say that things have changed a lot in the past month or so!

As (against all odds) things continue to get worse over on Truth Social Max, there’s a palpable sense of momentum building as more and more journalists, politicians, minor celebs and more finally give Elon the boot and move over.

Additionally, Meta leadership has made some initial “toe in the water” moves on the ActivityPub federation front. Am I 100% convinced that they’re going to fully support account portability and interoperability with other Mastodon servers? No. Am I willing to give credit where credit’s due on at least making some initial progress? Definitely.

There’s a contingent of Mastodon users that want their instances to immediately defederate with Threads on general principle, which I understand, but call me Charlie Brown, this time I’m willing to let Lucy hold the football. I’d personally love to be able to stay in touch with less tech-savvy friends and family using my server of choice, and (importantly) with everyone involved being able to pick up and easily move elsewhere at any time.

In other words, if Threads can deliver on its promises, I think it’ll be a totally reasonable set of training wheels, and for that Meta (can’t believe I’m saying this) deserves a nod of respect.

While the only people still desperately clinging to Twitter are LinkedIn Cinematic Universe business ghouls and actual Nazis, there’s real culture starting to happen over on Threads, and I encourage you to take another peek if it’s been a few months. I’m even going to start including Threads posts in my weekly newsletter, as I’m starting to see more and more stuff worth spotlighting!

While Mastodon will remain my main shortform hub (and 👀 on Bluesky for those prime shitposts), I very much look forward to a warm and fuzzy federated future. 🤝