More than a few Meta employees showed up at FediForum earlier this week, doubling down on their commitment to open protocols and “being a good neighbor on the Fediverse”. While there were some demos and fruitful conversations, one public concern flew under the radar.
An eagle-eyed Threads user noticed that their status giving Pixelfed a positive mention was seemingly hidden from the tree of a public conversation. From there, coverage picked up across the network, and even made it back to Daniel Supernault, Pixelfed’s creator.
“Meta is free to do whatever they want on their platforms,” the developer mentioned, “and I hope this is a bug.”
For now, no one’s quite sure. Various people have tried to recreate the same situation with their Threads accounts, and their comments are still publicly available. We have yet to see a statement from the Threads team on the situation. Bug or not, a vocal part of the network is apprehensive about Meta’s true intentions with the platform, ranging from pessimism on how much effort Threads is really putting in to the Fediverse, to accusations of hostile behavior. Dropping the ball like this can hurt user confidence, especially when building community goodwill is so crucial.
Prior History
Pixelfed has something of an established history with being at odds with Meta. Some of that points to Pixelfed’s form factor, which bears more than a passing resemblance to Instagram. Left: my Pixelfed, Right: my Instagram In the past, the project was warned by a Meta employee about using the same filter names and styles for images, citing a potential violation of Meta’s intellectual property. Pixelfed complied, and changed their image filters and styles in hopes of sidestepping the issue. It never came up again.
Pixelfed filters
Additionally, there have been situations in the past where both Twitter and Facebook have censored posts linking to open source Fediverse alternatives. Even if Threads is an effort to right wrongs of the past, these situations don’t reflect well on Threads or its parent company.
When is a bug just a bug?
For all we know right now, this is very likely an unfortunate bug. However, it’s important for the Threads team to nip this in the bud, if they really want to establish good vibes about their efforts.
On the other hand, it’s important to acknowledge that there’s a segment of the network that won’t be satisfied with an explanation, no matter how much evidence is presented. Some people will block Meta no matter what, and that’s their choice.
Regardless, we’ll keep you posted if we learn anything more.
More than a few Meta employees showed up at FediForum earlier this week, doubling down on their commitment to open protocols and "being a good neighbor on the Fediverse". While there were some demos a
FediForum is a wonderful unconference intended for builders, designers, and thinkers to come together and have discussions about the Fediverse.
Don’t Forget: FediForum is Coming Soon! FediForum is the Fediverse’s recurring unconference where developers, community members, designers, and thinkers come together to share their ideas!
We’re trying something new this year: we’re live-blogging the event from on the page. It’s largely an experiment, but it’s an effort to provide deeper insight into the various events happening throughout the day. Keep an eye on the updates below!
When does it start?
FediForum starts at 8am Pacific Daylight Time, on Tuesday, March 19th, and again at the same time on Wednesday, March 20th.
What is the schedule?
A tentative schedule can be found on the site here. We’re going to do our best to cover the presentations, discussions, and demos as they come up.
Where can the readers hang out?
Regardless of whether you’re attending the conference, or just checking out updates from this page, you’re welcome to come hang out in our Matrix Space, under our Off-Topic Island channel.
FediForum is a wonderful unconference intended for builders, designers, and thinkers to come together and have discussions about the Fediverse. Don't Forget: FediForum is Coming Soon!FediForum is the
