3+ unnamed messaging threads give me severe stream claustrophobia in a way open streams like twitter or hop-on/hop-off private streams like named slack channels don’t. Been experiencing this on a few telegram and FB messenger threads recently.
Made me think of a theory...
Conversation
I think it’s because 3+ DM threads violate a pick 2 of 3: unscoped context, individual voice distinguishability, thread integrity.
Basically they are streams that possess meaningful but unpredictable state, and you have to maintain state without interruption or you lose the plot
Replying to
Slack channels give up unstopped context
Large groups cause factions to form within which individuals can quickly clone states via sidebars and/or proxy for each other
Twitter @ threads give up thread integrity: people operate with short, 1-3 tweet buffers
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