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App.net is shutting down

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Re: App.net is shutting down

#91

Post by puranjay »

reitanqild wrote: post #86
sangnoir wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And after all this, Twitter still does not have a viable business model. ...more pertinently, App.net didn't have one either - and they had an open API, charged real money and did all the things HNers' idealized version of Twitter would.

Maybe because the reason people use twitter isn't because it is useful but rather because Either: It is cool. So we must use it. Or: Everyone else is using it so we must use it too. Seriously: 140 characters? Feature? Everyone can read everything? Feature? The two biggest technical "features" of twitter can be arrived at by dumbing down either google+ or facebook 98%.

I have no idea why anyone even likes Twitter. Beyond broadcasting, there is nothing of value on it. Every tweet has absolutely inane replies. You can at least find some half-decent commentary in Facebook post comments, but Twitter is just insane babble

Re: App.net is shutting down

#92

Post by jelv »

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/.

Re: App.net is shutting down

#93

Post by kwood »

Illniyar wrote: post #72
myhf wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter for $50/year

So a social network? weird name for a social network.

The original idea was to focus a lot on the API part of the site, so that developers can build all kinds of apps around the service, hence the name.

Re: App.net is shutting down

#94

Post by transitorykris »

Illniyar wrote: post #72
myhf wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter for $50/year

So a social network? weird name for a social network.

It wasn't meant to be just a stand alone social network/twitter clone. The idea was to allow developers to build apps on it (even their own twitter clone, why not?) and skip having to build a social graph themselves.

Re: App.net is shutting down

#96

Post by ocdtrekkie »

Stratoscope wrote: post #39
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also it's pretty awesome to see a shutdown accompanied with an open sourcing. If every startup did this, we'd have a ton more open source code out there to play with.

> If every startup did this... But then every startup would have to shut down!

Isn't the failure rate of startups like 99% already?

Re: App.net is shutting down

#97

Post by nhangen »

puranjay wrote: post #91
reitanqild wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe because the reason people use twitter isn't because it is useful but rather because Either: It is cool. So we must use it. Or: Everyone else is using it so we must use it too. Seriously: 140 characters? Feature? Everyone can read everything? Feature? The two biggest technical "features" of twitter can be arrived at by dumbing down either google+ or facebook 98%.

I have no idea why anyone even likes Twitter. Beyond broadcasting, there is nothing of value on it. Every tweet has absolutely inane replies. You can at least find some half-decent commentary in Facebook post comments, but Twitter is just insane babble

Two reasons:

1. It's where the people are. I don't think anyone is 100% loyal to it, but you have to respect its reach.

2. Instant answers. I can get insight on news via Twitter well before I can get it anywhere else. On top of that, I can get it from the people I want, many of whom are Tweeting hours before they are able to get an article published. This is great for sports, politics, etc.

I personally don't use Twitter nearly as often as I once did, and I rarely find reason to Tweet, but I do enjoy browsing it from time to time.

Re: App.net is shutting down

#99

Post by Swizec »

puranjay wrote: post #91
reitanqild wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe because the reason people use twitter isn't because it is useful but rather because Either: It is cool. So we must use it. Or: Everyone else is using it so we must use it too. Seriously: 140 characters? Feature? Everyone can read everything? Feature? The two biggest technical "features" of twitter can be arrived at by dumbing down either google+ or facebook 98%.

I have no idea why anyone even likes Twitter. Beyond broadcasting, there is nothing of value on it. Every tweet has absolutely inane replies. You can at least find some half-decent commentary in Facebook post comments, but Twitter is just insane babble

See, that's the funny thing. For me Facebook is full of inane babble and people being superficially nice to each other and incredibly ... provincial? It's like a bad sitcom.

Twitter on the other hand is full of interesting conversation, people speaking their mind, and great interaction and interesting insight. The amount of tech things I've learned from cool people on twitter is far far greater than Facebook.

Experience of both mediums prob depends on who you're interacting with. For me, Twitter is where the interesting people are.

Or as someone put it once: Facebook is for people you used to know, Twitter is for people you want to know.

Re: App.net is shutting down

#100

Post by Mithaldu »

puranjay wrote: post #91
reitanqild wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe because the reason people use twitter isn't because it is useful but rather because Either: It is cool. So we must use it. Or: Everyone else is using it so we must use it too. Seriously: 140 characters? Feature? Everyone can read everything? Feature? The two biggest technical "features" of twitter can be arrived at by dumbing down either google+ or facebook 98%.

I have no idea why anyone even likes Twitter. Beyond broadcasting, there is nothing of value on it. Every tweet has absolutely inane replies. You can at least find some half-decent commentary in Facebook post comments, but Twitter is just insane babble

How a social platform looks like to any given person depends on the people that person associates with. If twitter is inane babble to you that says more about what you did with twitter than about twitter itself.
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