Mastodon vs. Threads

I really like Mastodon, but I'm also coming around to Threads.

Mastodon was where I went after Elon took over Twitter (now X). I don't like the man, his ideas nor his plans for X and I found a nice place over at Mastodon where a lot of the people I tended to follow went.

When Threads launched, I was there from the first moments. My "ticket" shows that I made my account literally at 7:00 P.M. EDT -- the moment it launched. Initially it was a bit of a mess. The posts were all about Threads and the people all about self-promotion.

I walked away from Threads for a few months but recently re-engaged with it to see what the current state of mind was. I found a vibrant community and a pretty decent algorithm that fills the "For You" feed.

I'll be posting more to Threads for a while to see what the community is like. They are still adding new features, but what is there so far (mutes, filters, polls, gifs, etc.) is enough to make it useful for me. The mobile app and web experiences are solid.

I've followed 45 people and have 17 followers so far. That's about what I started with on Mastodon too, but the crowd is a bit different on Threads. I'm looking forward to a few more features being added, and hopefully an API that will attract a few more people to the service. I don't think I want to see all the news and brands there, but those accounts will play a role in attracting the kind of people I'd like to see. Specifically, that's people I know.

I don't know if Threads can beat X and I don't think it matters. Mastodon didn't have to beat X to be successful, and it seems X is going to be more than capable of destroying itself. If Threads is there as a viable alternative that people are attracted too? Great.