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App.net is shutting down

blog.app.net

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Re: App.net is shutting down

#101

Post by jessedhillon »

fraserharris wrote: post #59
milesf wrote: post #54

So to recap, Twitter exploded onto the scene in 2007, the "fail whale" appeared a lot, developers made all sorts of wonderful programs hooked into Twitter, the fail whale disappeared, Twitter started to destroy the app ecosystem, App.net launched to great fanfare in response to Twitter's knuckleheaded anti-developer stance, Britney Spears and Justin Bieber arrived and knocked all the nerds out of the top spots on Twi…

Twitter finances (TTM): revenue: $2.52B gross profit: $1.49B It's only losing money because of stock grants.

NYT story on the matter: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/27/business/dealbook/twitter...

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

Re: App.net is shutting down

#102

Post by hacker_9 »

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

Don't think of it in terms of technology, think of it in terms of people. We live in the future where not only can you watch your role models on TV, but you can also follow them on Twitter and read their daily thoughts and opinions in real time.

Re: App.net is shutting down

#103

Post by groovy2shoes »

kylec wrote: post #26
tlrobinson wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did Twitter actually do anything in response to App.net?

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, w…

This is my first time hearing of App.net.

(This is something that happens for me regularly -- I "discover" something only by its shutdown notice making the HN front page...).

Re: App.net is shutting down

#105

Post by 2sk21 »

sangnoir wrote: post #82
milesf wrote: post #54

So to recap, Twitter exploded onto the scene in 2007, the "fail whale" appeared a lot, developers made all sorts of wonderful programs hooked into Twitter, the fail whale disappeared, Twitter started to destroy the app ecosystem, App.net launched to great fanfare in response to Twitter's knuckleheaded anti-developer stance, Britney Spears and Justin Bieber arrived and knocked all the nerds out of the top spots on Twi…

> 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.

Right - it seemed at the time it might become e an idealized version of Twitter. My hope was that by having to pay money to get in, it would keep out the shills and noise. I was a paid member for several years but it became clear that none of the people I followed moved so it became a ghost town.

Re: App.net is shutting down

#106

Post by 2sk21 »

dalton wrote: post #17
ChuckMcM wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My sentiment exactly. And I agree with Dalton it was worth trying to see if it could fly. It raises a lot of interesting questions about the sustainability of the "app economy" for me.

I appreciate both of your sentiments, thank you. I continue to be at least somewhat optimistic that non ad-supported models are worth trying. It seems like Patreon is doing really well and is perhaps something we can all learn from.

Let me also add - I'm really thankful that you tried so hard to make it work. I really had hopes for it but I guess, the environment was not right.

Re: App.net is shutting down

#108

Post by mcintyre1994 »

kylec wrote: post #26
tlrobinson wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did Twitter actually do anything in response to App.net?

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, w…

> 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.

TweetBot is older than the API cap, so did they roll that back? It was 100,000 users (or 2x current users if that was >100,000 which TweetBot probably was). So if they didn't roll it back I guess TweetBot would have stopped adding clients.

Re: App.net is shutting down

#109

Post by jyriand »

bitmapbrother wrote: post #49

I wonder how many people thought app.net was a Microsoft product.

I thought it's some kind of app store for android phones. Not sure why I made this association. But I guess their name might be one of the reasons of failure. It's simple and short, but doesn't really tell anything about the product.
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