So it’s time to make a decision on whether or not we De-federate from Threads.

What is Threads?

Threads is Facebook’s Fediverse platform - and soon folks on Threads can make posts and subscribe to our instance.

So what’s the problem?

Well, much of the current fediverse is filled with FOSS enthusiasts, Social Justice Warriors, Right Wing Grifters and other demographics that find privacy critically important. As such, the broad sentiment is that Facebook, being a big multinational corporation intends to “Embrace, Extend, Extinguish” the Fediverse by becoming the largest instance - and thereby setting the future standards - with or without the larger Fediverse’s approval.

This hesitancy is understandable for these people - but Tucson.social is not for these people. Tucson.social is for Tucsonans, and in my talking to a few average folks around town I’ve come to the conclusion that most people do not care or actually like the idea of being able to continue to talk to “Mom” or “Crazy Uncle Bob” on the Meta based platforms.

People use social media primarily to connect with who they know, not to carve out an exclusive domain for themselves.

Our Goals

To re-iterate, our goal is to be a social media hub for Tucson and by Tucson - and while we CAN go it alone and de-federate from Meta, it makes our goals that much harder to achieve. It requires additional investments to advertise and educate to grow the platform when we shut ourselves off from what is now a good chunk of the fediverse.

It’s not a social media hub for ONLY the high minded fediverse enthusiasts of Tucson, but ALL of Tucson, and that goal requires an entirely different approach. One that understands that most people aren’t technical, most people begrudgingly use Meta products so they can keep in touch with family, not because they want to.

In conclusion:

Tucson.social will remain federated with Threads.

It’s the pragmatic decision that best allows us to achieve our goals in the world we actually exist in.

If this decision angers anyone, they are more than welcome to close their account and move onto something more ideologically in line with their values. I hope, however, they’ll tolerate this difference and attempt to build a bigger, better Tucson.social with us.