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App.net is shutting down

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Re: App.net is shutting down

#121

Post by intoverflow2 »

akjainaj wrote: post #116
macspoofing wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also App.net charged money for use.

Did it? I remember registering lots of accounts just when it launched because I had a column in tweetdeck with a search that was something like "app.net/invite-code/" (all invite codes URLs started with the same pattern) so every time someone posted an invite URL I got a notification and I could register a new account ;^}

It was $50 per account when it first opened, you must have got in when they stopped charging (it was already dying out by this point) but used an invite system.

Re: App.net is shutting down

#122

Post by maccard »

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.

> It's only losing money because of stock grants.

That's like saying "We're only losing money because we have to pay our staff"

Re: App.net is shutting down

#123

Post by intoverflow2 »

tlrobinson wrote: post #16
kylec wrote: post #10

This is an unfortunate, but not unexpected, end of an era. App.net was created at a time when discontent was high with how Twitter was treating its users and 3rd party app developers. Even though App.net wasn't hugely successful, its existence provided a needed check against Twitter exercising user-hostile control over their platform. However, it has not been a viable platform (one that people actually used) for many…

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

It didn't need to. App.net was a "success" at first because the bigshots from the tech twitter-sphere all jumped over.

Problem was none of them actually stopped posting on Twitter, at best they just set app.net to mirror their Twitter never really engaging with the network because none of them were willing to give up their high follower counts they had from being early adopters of Twitter.

Too much ego to put up with the BS from twitter, yet also too much ego to give up their high follower counts.

Re: App.net is shutting down

#124

Post by intoverflow2 »

dgfgfdagasdfgfa wrote: post #9
hkmurakami wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

or put another way, "people don't want to pay for most things"

Or to put it another way, people care more about money than their own privacy.

Don't think it's really about privacy in this case. I mean how can anyone seriously be a Twitter user and caring about their privacy.

Would be like standing in the town square screaming your thoughts into a loud speaker then being upset that everyone knows what your thinking.

Re: App.net is shutting down

#126

Post by reitanqild »

sspiff wrote: post #112
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 consider "everyone can read everything" one of the most important parts of Twitter. I wouldn't use Twitter if it was limited to people I already know, for instance.

But every other platform has that as well.

It is just that twitter only has that option.

Re: App.net is shutting down

#127

Post by thanatropism »

akjainaj wrote: post #118
jelv wrote: post #92

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/ .

And there's also https://gab.ai if you're into free speech.

I remember trying to sign up for gab.ai back when Milo Yanopopopopoulos was advertising it, but getting entered on a wait list.

Re: App.net is shutting down

#128

Post by thanatropism »

mistersquid wrote: post #24
Esau wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I always wanted to see a site that has ads and is free to read, but charges a small fee to create an account - just to see if it would help reduce trolling and sock puppets.

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.

Or The WELL, which has the best interface hands down of any social network -- but it's filled with a homogeneous paste of same-aged, same-politics, same-favorite-Dead-live-bootleg Classic Nerd-Hippies.

Re: App.net is shutting down

#129

Post by nl »

nickbauman wrote: post #73
nl wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/twitte…

Who is in line for a buyout before other investors and at what multiplier? That information is usually not public and can be more important than what percentage of ownership a particular investor has.

They are a public company, with a single class of shareholder. They can all choose to buy or sell via the public market.

Your comments would make some sense if they were pre-IPO.

Re: App.net is shutting down

#130

Post by TeMPOraL »

2sk21 wrote: post #105
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.

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.

> My hope was that by having to pay money to get in, it would keep out the shills and noise.

Interesting. I'd expect something entirely opposite - with one platform, pay-for-entrance, shills / marketers can just write the entry costs off as a small marketing expense. OTOH I can easily imagine a lot of smart people with interesting things to say shying away from spending money on such a platform.

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