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Instagram’s Threads is compelling, but kind of creepy
Look, I'm not one to constantly post selfies. I'd rather just take pictures of random buildings or my sneakers. But, when I do take a selfie, it's mostly just so I can share a goofy face with my family or best friends. I've mentioned this before in previous stories about Facebook, Instagram has become one of my main messaging apps -- right up there with iMessage and WhatsApp. That's why the idea of Instagram's new Threads app, which is designed specifically for private messages between you and your closest friends, sounds so intriguing.
Instagram's Threads is a camera app for sharing with your closest friends
If you want to get a glimpse of Mark Zuckerberg's "privacy-focused" vision for Facebook, then look no further than Instagram's new social app: Threads. This new standalone, camera-first messaging app is an extension of Instagram's Close Friends feature on Stories, which lets you share pictures, videos and more only with groups of people you've carefully selected. As the Facebook CEO has said in recent months, his plan is to take Facebook into an era of "simple, intimate places," where individuals can have a dedicated space for private interactions on its family of apps. And with Threads from Instagram, which launches today on iOS and Android, the company is taking a step in that direction.
Instagram tests 'Threads' app with automatic updates for close friends
Facebook is reportedly working on a standalone companion messaging app for Instagram. The Verge reported today that the app, which will be called Threads, appears to mimic many of Snapchat's most popular features. The new app is designed to be used with your "close friends list" on Instagram and would allow users to share details like location, speed and battery life. Users will also have Instagram's full suite of creative tools at their disposal, including text, photo and video messages.
A week with Twitter's attempt at a more civil internet
Over the past few months, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has been adamant that one of his goals is to "increase the health of public conversation" on the site. Because it's no secret that, as great as Twitter is at connecting you with people across the world, it's also great at connecting you with bots, trolls and spam. Unsurprisingly, Twitter wants to change that. And it's hoping to find a solution by publicly testing new conversation features, through an experimental program that users can apply to participate in. This launched last week as an app called Twttr, which I've been using as my main tool for reading and writing tweets for the past week.
Twitter now ranks your conversations based on who replies
Threaded conversations are some of the best interactions you can have on Twitter -- with dozens of users chattering away 140 characters at a time. Unless you're already in a conversation, however, it can be hard to tell if a tweet is getting a lot of social interaction. Now, it's a little easier: Twitter has added a reply counter and a 'conversation ranking' to its mobile apps designed to push the most relevant discussions to the top of a tweet thread.
Breakfast Topic: What threads from the old WoW forums will you miss?
Blizzard announced on Monday that the official forums we've been using the past six years will become read-only on Wednesday, Nov. 17. The forums will be replaced by the new World of Warcraft community site, which offers new and improved forums, as well as a bunch of other features. That's all good and fine, but Blizzard also said in half a month's time, it will delete the old forums and all the threads in it will be lost forever! Eek! Wait a second ... What am I worrying about? Google Cache will likely allow us continued access to the old forum content for years to come, even after it's wiped off of Blizzard's servers. Still, in that moment of concern that all those years of information would suddenly be lost, I wondered: "What will I miss from the old forums?" My mind immediately went to "I think my tank is seeing another healer," a thread about an healer suspicious that her tank is being unfaithful. The thread was so epic, WoW Insider actually already wrote about it. Just check out this excerpt from page 21: She really ruined me. I was depressed about going solo. I was spending all my time in the Underbelly, knocking back Noggenfogger and bandaging myself to mailbox dancers. -- Grokthul Also, as a PvP priest, how could I miss the comedic gold of "Disc priest/Shadow priest 2v2"? The OP had me at, "When the hunter comes to save giraffes, just darkness priest licorice beam his paladin to slow him," but by the time I read "ice tent," I couldn't breathe anymore because I was laughing and crying at the same time. Are there any threads that stand out in your mind that you'll miss?
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: We are gathered here today
As suggested in the title, we are gathered here today for a purpose: To celebrate the community of City of Heroes and all of the discussions that they've been taking part in over the past several weeks. (What, you thought it was for Terry? You clearly haven't been following along.) After several weeks with almost non-stop activity, the past couple have been fairly silent, with only a few tidbits off of the official Facebook page to discuss in any depth. But that hasn't stopped anyone before, and it's not likely to stop anyone now. After all, we've got chatter about when you've played far too much City of Heroes, the day that Mystic Fortune killed someone, and Santa as a crossdresser. No, really. So as long as you don't mind a somewhat more irreverent week of community discussions, click on past the break. (If you do mind it, well, we had a very serious illustration back around here. That's almost as good.)
EpicAdvice.com lets you ask and answer Warcraft questions
Reader Jesta sent us a note about his new website. He's a big fan of Stack Overflow, which is a big Q&A/advice site for programmers -- you show up, ask your question, and then other folks who might or might not be working on the same problem post their answers, in moderated and organized threads for everyone to read. Jesta decided this same type of thing could work for our little game, so he put together EpicAdvice.com -- the idea is that you go there, leave a question about anything in the game, and then wait for your answer from other people browsing the site.Stack Overflow actually has a little "badge" system where answerers can earn reputation points for answering questions correctly, and Jesta says that they're working on doing something similar for Epic Advice (though they'll probably have Achievements, as that's more Warcraft-y). But as of this writing, the site definitely needs more questions and answers, so if there's something bugging you about WoW (that our own Queue hasn't answered yet), or you consider yourself an expert and want to clear some things up, head over and give the site a look.
Guildwatch: Beware of tourists
This Guildwatch is running a bit late, and apologies for that -- your narrator is slightly out of pocket lately, and clamboring as quickly as possible to get back in. But the guilds featured in today's GW have no such problems -- they are rolling through content like nobody's business. From Yoggy (above) to all the modes of ToC, it's a downstravaganza in Azeroth lately.Drama and recruiting notices after the break as well. If you want to see your guild (or a sweet forum thread full of drama -- please make sure it's guild-related, no random ninja whining) right here next week, send us an email at guildwatch@wow.com. Hit the link below to read on.
Guildwatch: Topping meters on every character, every night
It is a kind of poetry, really: the lament of the shunned looter. Bullgrim was clearly unhappy that after all of his hard work, his strat sharing, his walking of the guild through old raids, his bringing of 110% every night, and his passing up of "numerous offers from better guilds," the RNG decided to keep him from getting the piece of loot he really wanted. A shame. But great art comes from great suffering, and this is definitely great -- well, it's kind of art. Kind of.Lots more art (depending, once again, on your definition of "art") in this week's GW -- we've got guild drama, downs, and recruiting notices from all across the realms. We're almost cleared through the backlog of guild notices (sorry if we had a delay on yours there -- we got a ton of them all at once), so we'll give out the email once again: to see your guild here, drop us a note (and please keep it short, sweet, and clear) at wowguildwatch@gmail.com. Click on to read on!
Apple TV and iPhone forums open at Apple Discussions
Did your brand new iTV just go on the iFritz? Or possibly your iPhone took a cue from Mr. Jobs and prank called Japa- Wait, they aren't out yet?Well, maybe these two shiny new pre-release Apple Discussion forums, one for the Apple TV and another for the iPhone, will still come in handy for chatting about everything you need before you lay down your credit card(s). Topics are already flying in these forums, such as whether the iPhone's EDGE data speed is really all that bad, how much the data plan will cost in the first place and how to get your DVD movies into iTunes for transmission to the Apple TV. With all this chatter going on already, you should be well-prepared once these products actually land.
