One of ACES’ most popular offerings has been ACESChat, the hour-long Q&A session on Twitter featuring an expert in areas relevant to editors.
Up until last fall, the chats were hosted there every other week. They’ve been on hiatus since late 2023.
Now, ACES is in the process of bringing ACESChat back. We've been looking at other platforms besides X, and the question has been, which one?
After much deliberation, we've decided to host ACESChat on Threads. Threads isn't exactly structured like Twitter was — nothing is, truly — so maybe let's call it ACESChat 2.0.
In the shifting social media landscape, ACES considered several factors, including usability, longevity, and where our audience is today.
1. What platform has the appropriate usability for an ACESChat?
This is the most important factor.
Threads.
Threads is designed specifically for posting, well, threads. Bluesky is also a possibility — but read on.
2. What has longevity?
What social media platforms will be around in a year or two — and beyond?
More than Bluesky, our money is on Threads.
Threads, which launched in July 2023, is a part of Meta, a vast company that doesn’t appear to be going anywhere. Meta announced in late April that Threads had grown to 150 million active monthly users — now including Taylor Swift. (Bluesky has about six million.)
Threads is also being incorporated into social media management platforms such as Hootsuite and Sprout Social. All are excellent indications of its resilience.
Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg has his sights set on one billion users, and while hitting that goal may take a few years, it appears that Meta is putting the resources behind it, as it continues to add users and roll out new features. It recently added a hashtag capability, which is important to ACESChat.
"Threads will become the leading text-based social media network in 2024," predicted tech writer Casey Newton at the end of 2023.
That tracks so far. Recent data "suggests that Threads is seeing more daily users in the U.S. than X," reported Social Media Today in April.
3. Where are editors today?
What social media platforms are editors — and the broader community of anyone interested in language — using today?
This question has two parts:
The answer isn't entirely clear, partly because today's social media environment is very diffuse. Plus, for whatever reasons, "the internet has gotten much quieter," as the Garbage Day newsletter notes.
But we do know that in the ACES social media landscape and elsewhere, most people are on Instagram, Threads' older sibling. We will of course advertise ACESChat on our other channels, urging our followers to join us on Threads.
4. If we build it, will they come?
Will editors join us if we set up shop on a particular platform, even if they don't have an account?
If it's Threads, we're betting yes, in part because it's so easy for Instagrammers to join — and most people are on Instagram. Since Threads was created as the text version of Instagram, those users can set up an account in moments.
5. How do I join Threads?
If you're in Instagram, you're already there. ZDNET's "How to join and use Meta's Threads" is a good introduction to using Threads.
Well, when can you present?
Next steps are to gather chat presenters and start the process of them developing their topics, with help from ACES. Once we have about a dozen on the schedule — so we can build some momentum in the first three or four months — we'll launch ACESChat. The goal is the end of June.
In other words, please consider signing up to present an ACESChat 2.0.
What do you think editors might need and want to learn? You can look at past chats to get inspiration. All you need is a topic and a free hour on the first or third Wednesday at 4 p.m. Eastern time.
Read more about ACESChat and the proposal process.
Why should someone volunteer to present an ACESChat? So many reasons:
Join us.
ACES: The Society for Editing
ACES: The Society for Editing is the nation’s leading organization of editing professionals, educators, and students. Founded in 1997 by copy editors, ACES is dedicated to improving the quality of the written word and the working lives of editors. It sets standards of excellence and gives a voice to editors in journalism, government, business, publishing, and beyond through top-notch training, networking, and career opportunities. ACES hosts an annual in-person conference and, since 2022, an annual virtual conference. ACES Academy hosts monthly webinars. ACES also offers certificates in editing, which it co-hosts with The Poynter Institute, a global leader in journalism.
