zlacker

Clearly app.net is tapping into something that people are starting to feel pretty strongly about--the benefits of "free" aren't necessarily worth the consequences in the longterm.

Well, maybe. Let's remember that Twitter has more than a hundred million accounts, while App.net has ~7500; we have no evidence that the people feeling that are not just a small number of outliers, much like there always will be.

>>icebra+(OP)
Yup, it's easy to get caught up in the euphoria of reaching an arbitrary target. Still, I'm hopeful.

>>icebra+(OP)
We'll see if this idea is capable of jumping from internet nerdom to the mainstream, but mainstream users are also becoming more and more aware of the actual cost of 'free' products.

I agree. I'm not in the business of predicting the future, but it's worth noting that Twitter did not start with more than a hundred million accounts.

>>icebra+(OP)

  > Well, maybe. Let's remember that Twitter has more than a hundred million accounts, while App.net has ~7500; we have no evidence that the people feeling that are not just a small number of outliers, much like there always will be.

Does it matter if they don't get hundreds of millions of accounts, as long as the business is sustainable and users enjoy the service?

>>stock_+I2
Users are unlikely to enjoy the service if their messages don't have an audience. After a year is up I bet people will tire of having to use both Twitter and App.net, and stop paying for the latter. How many App.net users have stopped using Twitter? That's an important metric to pay attention to over the next year. I predict it will be near zero, and most people aren't willing to pay in money and inconvenience for an ad-free product. Especially when they could just install a couple of extensions and get the same result with products that actually have an audience.

>>stock_+I2
I don't know, and I don't particularly care. I was just replying to dave_sullivan's assertion, not making some broader point about App.net.

>>icebra+(OP)
Quality > Quantity.

>>natriu+r3
> How many App.net users have stopped using Twitter

Even before APp.Net I contemplated leaving Twitter because of the noise, the push towards ads and the general climate toward third-parties. I certainly would not use Twitter without TweetBot.