Usability-wise, the thing that keeps me from using any Fb things, Threads.net included, is they break the bloody Back button!
Root paths route to usernames:
- https://twitter.com/username
- https://www.instagram.com/username
Sigil-scoped paths for usernames (these also use www-prefix):
- https://www.threads.net/@username
- https://www.youtube.com/@username
Path-scoped usernames:
- https://www.reddit.com/user/username
- https://www.reddit.com/u/username (redirect)
- https://bsky.app/profile/username.bsky.social
There's obviously an engineering cost to having usernames at the root, but does that make sharing easier?
Which would you use if you were starting a new app?
Is the first option strictly better for growth? Are the technical caveats not worth it?
It was an earnest question. I'm trying to figure it out for my own startup.
Perhaps a tangent too far?