Max Boot on Threads writes, “I really want Threads to take over from X which is broken. But this is discouraging.” Setting aside the fact that he has 23,000 followers, I typed a hurried response because I just can’t hear it anymore. Why do so many smart, media-savvy people refuse to understand what has happened in the social media space over the past two years? Maybe it’s because they’ve always understood Twitter as just another broadcast medium?

Here is my reply as is, warts and all:

Maybe people accustomed to huge followings need to rethink how they do social media. The days of one platform are gone. A lot of us you will want to reach will never be reachable on twitter. And many of us will not stay on threads if it does not actually federate or stop playing around with its algorithm in such an unhelpful way. Try Bluesky, and try encouraging people to set up algorithms that will discover news. Try setting up such algorithms yourself and spreading the word about them. 1/2

Use tools that let you broadcast to multiple platforms. But also, stop thinking of such media as broadcast media. Go for quality interactions too. Doing so can have its own network effects. Besides, shouldn’t your media organizations be setting up tools too, such as their own Mastodon instances, Bluesky algorithms for your benefit, etc. There will never again be a pre-Musk Twitter. And we need to stop relying on the mega rich to build our tools. 2/2

[I’ve had to remove the links to my own comment because I’ve since deleted my account. –MS, 2/1/25]