Reading up on Mastodon
6 deep · digging since dec 12, 25
- Threads, Meta’s ‘Twitter Killer,’ Finds Its People
Threads has grown to 500 million monthly users and shifted from a Twitter rival to more closely resemble Reddit.
- Anti-social: It's fads, not friends, which now dominate social media feeds
A Hacker News discussion argues that social media feeds, including HN, have shifted from connecting friends to delivering addictive content and fads.
- Loops is a federated, open-source TikTok
Loops launches as a federated, open-source short-form video platform, but Hacker News commenters broadly dismiss it, citing federation's niche appeal and the format's inherent harms.
- A Social Filesystem
Hacker News commenters debate the AT Protocol's social filesystem metaphor, praising its elegance but criticizing overengineering and centralization risks.
- How we lost communication to entertainment
Communication platforms have been co-opted by advertising and entertainment, as social media and ride-sharing alike prioritize profit over genuine human connection.
- Discovering the indieweb with calm tech
Browser extensions StreetPass and Blog Quest use calm tech to quietly discover Mastodon profiles and RSS feeds while browsing, enabling non-extractive indie web discovery.