Best of Social Media — April 2025

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   Article

   ByteByteGo·50w

   How Meta Built Threads to Support 100 Million Signups in 5 Days

   Meta's Threads platform achieved a rapid growth of 100 million signups by leveraging existing, robust infrastructures like ZippyDB and Async. ZippyDB, a distributed key-value store, ensured scalability and strong consistency, while Async, a serverless computing engine, handled trillions of background tasks to support seamless user experiences. These systems, honed by Meta's experience with Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, allowed Threads to scale effortlessly without the need for bespoke solutions.

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   Article

   CSS-Tricks·51w

   The Lost CSS Tricks of Cohost.org

   Cohost.org, a niche social media site that went public in June 2022 and shut down in September 2024, had a devoted user base of creatives who leveraged its permissive HTML sanitizer to perform unique CSS tricks. Notable techniques included 'width-hacking' using the <details> and <summary> tags, and creative use of SVG animations. Despite its short lifespan, Cohost delivered a unique posting experience free from advertisements and follower counts.

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   Video

   ThePrimeTime·50w

   Discord CEO Steps Down

   Discord's CEO Jason Citron is stepping down amid rumors of an IPO, making way for Humam Sakini, former vice-chairman of Activision Blizzard, to take over. The company aims to refocus on gaming and explore monetization through advertisements and microtransactions. Citron will remain involved as an advisor, but the leadership change and potential IPO have raised concerns about Discord's future direction as it navigates profit-driven motivations.

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