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Comment by strict9 | Hacker News Reader

Instagram remains enormously popular because it's not exclusively 1:1 mutual relationships, has a minimal interface/feature set, and most importantly isn't easily susceptible to outrage and anger gawking like twitter/FB are.

They can keep adding hamburgers and FB thirst traps but as long as they don't mess with central idea (big photos only with captions) they won't cede share any time soon.

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I use Instagram much less than I used to because of mainly three things:

1) The feed is no longer reverse-chronological.

2) I see way too many ads in my feed.

3) Feed clutter: I don't want to see suggested hashtags or follows in the feed. I don't need the feed to randomly remind me about a few people's Stories. I just want the photo posts, and nothing else.

I expect all of those things were driven by the FB side of the house. If so, for me, FB definitely has ruined IG. I no longer consider it to have the "minimal interface/feature set" you rightly cite as being so important.

I do appreciate that IG isn't as susceptible to inflammatory outrage posts like FB is (one of the reasons why I'm effectively off FB with the exception of event invites), but it's just not enough.

You can't put links in natural Instagram posts which probably drives many to advertisements. It'd benice to show a link to just your followers who are interested in an upcoming event but currently you are allowed a single link in your profile and nowhere else. So you need to say something like "Go to my profile, follow the link to my linktree page, and click on 'Easter promotion'". So everyone is left running ads which clutters our feeds.

There are a lot of ads in your feed because that's the number Instagram has decided. Companies buy ads because it's an effective platform for advertising. I don't think links would stop any of this but it would contribute to a much noisier feed.

The app design makes it harder to repost something and nudges you to post your original content about your daily life. Casual, low-key, not polished every day life stories from friends and even people I don't know that well are the main reason I open Instagram, and unlike the main feed (where everything is polished and photoshopped), it feels authentic.

Well, there's also Instagram Stories, which is Snapchat with better UX and not resorting to stupid technical workarounds like doing screenshots of camera apps

since at least 2018 snapchat hasn't used the "screenshot the viewfinder" thing on most/all devices afaik

> FB thirst traps

What is this referring to?

I assume ways to get you to shovel your data to FB via IG.

They've given more and more nudges over the years to funnel people from IG back to FB. I have no idea but doubtful it's working, just smells of desperation.

>badged notifications inside Instagram begging people to open Facebook being maybe the most prominent example.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/25/17903556/instagram-founde...

Facebook designs its dark patterns to have the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the face.

On some level it's actually a minor blessing because they're all so grating and obvious. If they had any sense of tact they'd probably do a better of job of lulling people into indifference about them the way Amazon and Google do.

https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/thirst-trap/

"A thirst trap is a sexy photo posted on social media to attract attention."

"thirsty" is a slang term that refers to someone who is desperately sexually frustrated to the point of engaging in activities (like browsing and commenting on Instagram, posting lewd comments in forums, paying erotic personalities on Twitch to acknowledge you) whose motivation is sexual gratification yet have an infinitesimal likelihood of success.

The big question is... What can replace fb groups. For any non-tech topic they seem to be the goto replacement for good old discussion boards.

Reddit of works as a good alternative. However, the steep-ish learning curve of it seems to keep the average person away (for the better?)

FB now only serves the following uses for me:

1. Finding housing in a new city (FB groups are still king here)

2. Checking friends Birthdays, and to get in touch with them when I don't have their contact info

3. Checking events happening in my area / generating interest for an event I'm attending

That's it, and I can't wait to find alternatives for each.

Have you used Marketplace? I was wary but had a better experience than the previous de facto local option Gumtree. I suppose having a real name and face for accountability works on some people.

No. I use craigslist.

For rentals I use the cityname-housing groups that have 50k or so users each.

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