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App.net is shutting down

submitted by antina+(OP) on 2017-01-13 01:30:27 | 339 points 186 comments
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11. ceejay+c1[view] [source] [discussion] 2017-01-13 01:51:19
>>duiker+81
Twitter for the alt-right, it seems. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gab_(social_network)
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22. mister+m2[view] [source] [discussion] 2017-01-13 02:06:28
>>Esau+O1
Do you mean something like Metafilter? [0]

Anonymous users see ads. Authenticated users don't. It costs $5 for an account.

They have run funding drives but, to date, $5/user keeps the lights on and provides a small crew of moderators each a modest stipend.

[0] http://www.metafilter.com

Edit: spelling, grammar.

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24. kylec+G2[view] [source] [discussion] 2017-01-13 02:12:43
>>tlrobi+t1
App.net came out in 2012, and while I can't really remember the specific areas of discontent that I experienced with Twitter back then, here's an article I found:

http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2013/01/14/twitter-in-2012/

I think what everyone was worried about back then was that Twitter was changing the nature of what Twitter was. Twitter started placing limits on API tokens, introduced new UI in the form of cards, which could also be used for ads, etc. There was a sense that the freedom and openness of the Twitter platform was quickly diminishing.

Twitter's response was basically no response, but in a good way. They slowed down making those sorts of radical changes, and to this day you can still browse Twitter with a 3rd-party app like TweetBot and never see cards or ads.

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32. filmgi+E3[view] [source] 2017-01-13 02:26:30
>>antina+(OP)
I applaud Dalton and Bryan for keeping ADN running for nearly 3 years after it ceased development. In truth, I think most of the users left back in May 2014, but it's still admirable that they kept it running.

If you'll excuse the self-plug, I wrote about the death of ADN back in 2014 and re-reading my post, I think it holds up.

http://mashable.com/2014/05/08/app-net-potential/#P8.bAcE8NO...

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35. jorgem+g4[view] [source] 2017-01-13 02:35:22
>>antina+(OP)
less than 50000 downloads in Android and 60 reviews in AppStore in 5 years. I think you can get better numbers without marketing.

Seriously, whatever you do, you need to spend the same amount of time promoting it, otherwise no one will notice. 50000 downloads is nothing in 5 years, it is 2.7 users a day. If you are in SanFrancisco you can get more than 3 downloads a day just going to the street and talking with strangers.

And they got 2.5M in their series A. https://index.co/company/AppDotNet?utm_source=thenextweb.com

Where were their budget for marketing? At least I would have expected 500k in marketing and 1$ per install, them we can talk about the users not liking the product or whatever.

UPDATE: you can keep downvoting (I would appreciate a feedback comment to explain the downvote) but it doesn't change the fact that marketing is more important than the product and they didn't spend on it

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38. arielm+95[view] [source] 2017-01-13 02:53:27
>>antina+(OP)
App.net'S failures, IMO, were not a result of being too early as Dalton suggests. Instead, they failed at building a company. Confusing branding, wrong messaging, and ultimately a product without a need. That's why app.net failed.

https://arielmichaeli.com/where-did-app-net-go-wrong-bb4326a...

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53. akkart+u9[view] [source] [discussion] 2017-01-13 04:00:11
>>TazeTS+R1
I still think back periodically to https://github.com/buckket/twtxt. Fascinating project.
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66. nl+ve[view] [source] [discussion] 2017-01-13 05:23:59
>>nickba+Ec
How do you figure that?

1) VCs own hardly any shared of Twitter[1]

2) Stock grants are used as compensation for people working at Twitter, NOT something that benefits investors (except in the sense people are working at the company the investors invested in I guess).

It's easy to blame VCs for everything, but I don't see how this makes any sense at all in this case.

[1] http://www.recode.net/2016/8/11/12417064/twitter-stock-owner...

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69. chmars+ah[view] [source] 2017-01-13 06:07:07
>>antina+(OP)
Shutdown date according to https://alpha.app.net/: March 15, 2017.

Shutdown date according to http://blog.app.net/2017/01/12/app-net-is-shutting-down/: March 14, 2017.

Which date is correct?

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89. jelv+Xn[view] [source] 2017-01-13 08:06:13
>>antina+(OP)
Sad to see them go.

Mastodon, https://mastodon.social/, is a new and positive alternative. Mastodon is a free, open-source social network server. It's GNU Social-compatible and federated. https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon

Diaspora is also still going strong with 20k MAU but there is no interaction between the pods https://the-federation.info/.

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98. jessed+bq[view] [source] [discussion] 2017-01-13 08:37:26
>>fraser+ob
NYT story on the matter: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/27/business/dealbook/twitter...

TL;DR -- Twitter paid out about $680M in grants

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104. Master+Su[view] [source] 2017-01-13 09:47:05
>>antina+(OP)
https://app.net/

When a service shuts down, it'd be really nice of them to keep a mention of wth they were doing on their frontpage.

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107. daniel+Uv[view] [source] [discussion] 2017-01-13 10:02:41
>>Master+Su
https://alpha.app.net/ has info
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115. akjain+0x[view] [source] [discussion] 2017-01-13 10:16:57
>>jelv+Xn
And there's also https://gab.ai if you're into free speech.
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145. mxurib+cQ[view] [source] [discussion] 2017-01-13 14:24:20
>>unimpr+z2
The following are a little dated now, but still relevant:

* https://www.codeword.xyz/2015/09/27/self-hosting-gnu-social/

* https://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/revisiting-open-source-s...

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146. mxurib+vQ[view] [source] [discussion] 2017-01-13 14:26:43
>>TazeTS+Y2
I haven't tried mastodon, but gnu social is pretty easy. There aren't enough tutorials on installing it, but I've had luck with the following (which I'm quoting myself from having posted them to previous comments):

* https://www.codeword.xyz/2015/09/27/self-hosting-gnu-social/

* https://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/revisiting-open-source-s...

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148. erjjon+yR[view] [source] 2017-01-13 14:34:55
>>antina+(OP)
Building developer platforms is fun and exciting. Especially for the developers creating it, knowing that they are building a rockstar application for people just like them. Getting adoption and conversion to paying customers is so freaking hard and ultimately the end of the road.

I went down this road once (http://www.odatahq.com/) and loved every minute of it. I still look at what we made and find true joy in it. But the end game was typical of most developer platforms ...

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151. ourcat+US[view] [source] [discussion] 2017-01-13 14:47:37
>>mxurib+mR
They have said they will be open-sourcing the codebase. But it doesn't appear to up on their Github yet : https://github.com/appdotnet
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154. EGreg+jY[view] [source] [discussion] 2017-01-13 15:24:35
>>dalton+z1
I followed what you were doing at app.net with great interest when it launched. We were also building an app platform, but with a very different focus. https://qbix.com/platform . All our business models are NOT ad supported. Ads are "begging" the user to spend their time and maybe spend money. There are many ways to make money if you make apps for local communities.

We sort of took the tortoise approach to development, and this seems to have helped solve the chicken and egg problem with the userbase.

I will email you about it.

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