[Fedi history clarification] The term “threadiverse” was never (intentionally) associated with Meta
[Fedi history clarification] The term “threadiverse” was never (intentionally) associated with Meta
I see this misconception a lot, so let's clear it up. The term "threadiverse" originally referred to the "threaded fediverse" — specifically platforms like Lemmy and kbin, which function similarly to Reddit with threaded discussions and link aggregation. Thus, Bluesky and Threads, on the other hand, are not part of the threadiverse because they follow the microblogging model, not the threaded link aggregation model.
It's also important to note that this usage predates Meta's "Threads.”
Timeline:
- June 4, 2023: First mention of "threadiverse" I can find on Lemmy (source)
- June 8, 2023: Meta announces upcoming codename “Project 92” (source)
- July 3-5, 2023: Meta launches Project 92 as "Threads," reusing the name of a previously discontinued non-fediverse product (source)
- March 21, 2024: Meta's Threads opens its integration to the fediverse (source)
I always throught fediverse was a god awful name. Like it sounds like a website for FBI agents. "You guys see that thread on the fediverse?" Who came up with this name? It sucks!
that’s also so true
I always just say Lemmy, it sounds much more appealing than the fediverse for the uninitiated. Also I don't really use any other fediverse platforms, so Lemmy is basically the entire fediverse for me.
But I still think the fediverse is a decent name/cool concept (federated universe), plus it's already got a decent amount of brand recognition so it would pretty rough to start over with something new. It's a fine name for people who are already familiar and have been using it for a while, it just sounds kinda weird when people first hear about it.
I want to give a shoutout to @maegul@lemmy.ml who invented the term here:
So, my lame contribution …
Threadiverse!: “Social media, but woven into threads, like Reddit or Forums, not like the chaos of Twitter, but all on the Fediverse so you can find anyone else doing anything else too.”
Sorry your cool name got immediately swamped by the Zucc 😅
I support Threadiverse for Lemmy/Piefed/Mbin
Twittoverse for Mastodon, Misskey and its dozens of forks
Misskey and its forks are a bit in between and already very different from Mastodon. And I don't think they bear any resemblance to Twitter (which I don't know from experience). There are 3000+ characters and the thread display is also a bit better there and not quite as jumbled as on Mastodon. In my opinion, the thread view is best in Friendica (apart from Lemmy).
June 4, 2023: First mention of "threadiverse" I can find on Lemmy
Yep, there had been zero discussions about it until that point that I had seen, which is why I posted that thread asking the question!
It’s insane how much we have grown! I think I literally have memories of being there, seeing your very post two years ago and thinking “yo it’s the gal from the shark instance!”
And that post only has 32 upvotes to date. :0 I’ve now switched to an instance that doesn’t even interoperate with .ml anymore and time keeps flying. XD
People have used the word “thread” on Twitter for at least a decade.
🧵(1/12) I’ll explain:
correct, and i do think that is history that led to the eventual degradation of the threadiverse term. but the original meaning as i showed above was intended to label fediverse platforms in contrast to mastodon and other microblogs.
(Edit: I think instead of "was never (intentionally)" you meant "was not originally"?)
Regardless of who was first, Threads exists now. If we tell people on Reddit to come join us here on the "Threadiverse (minus Threads itself, except some instances might actually choose to federate with it, while others do not...)", isn't that confusing?
I wrote a post about this a couple months ago but ironically PieFed.social had major federation issues for the next week so barely anyone saw it (except those I discussed it with in other conversations). Anyway db0 suggested a really cool name: the Forumverse. 😎
And as @blaze@feddit.org mentions here, I too just call it Lemmy+PieFed+Mbin (& maybe +Sublinks someday we hope?:-)
That said, atm >99.9% of communities are on an instance running Lemmy (for now), so whatever software you use to connect with it - perhaps an app like Voyager or Sync or Connect or Thunder, or Mbin connects with Lemmy (and presumably PieFed?), and PieFed connects with Lemmy too (here is the community !piefed_meta@piefed.social that I've already subscribed to from a Lemmy instance so you can immediately see it in action), the majority of the content across the Threadiverse (exclusive of that actually on Threads.net itself) is being funneled through Lemmy, like even if I on PieFed submit a post to !tenforward@lemmy.world, that's on "Lemmy" where it "lives" - right?
PieFed at least can have communities, as too can Mbin. Though one day Sublinks or some such could convert the existing database to something other than Lemmy... And also the Thunder app now has a fork that can nominally interact with PieFed, so the lines really are getting more blurry.
TLDR: Anyway, we need a cool new term!:-)
And for our accounts I keep using "Fedizen", to be more inclusive than just Lemming, despite how cool that is - bc Mbin and PieFed (& one day Sublinks) are part of "us" all too, right!?:-D
minus Threads itself
Meta's Threads is dead, it's irrelevant at this point 😄
Some people seem to REALLY dislike it, but possibly they are not numerically all that many? Which is why I initially wanted to write that post, and now there's this one also trying to correct the source of the misunderstanding.
Interesting comment from db0:
Ye it’s a problem term. I don’t know if it can be reclaimed, but listing all the software is also not great and most people think of microblogging when they hear “Fediverse”. Maybe “Nestedverse” or “Forumverse”? I don’t really have a good catchy term in mind.
That said, I keep using Threadiverse lately and nobody seems to be challenging it so perhaps its usage is not as problematic as I thought, or as you say here, as much as in the past? It might mainly be a consideration for someone promoting us to Reddit if they wanted to use the term.
I gotta get around to deleting it. The Instagram (mid-2025) is next then Facebook (2027) for me personally.