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App.net funded with $500,000.
- acoyfellow 14y agoIs this going to inspire more companies / startups to go the crowdfunding route? (I think so). How many companies are going to now cite: "App.net style" of pre-launch efforts? Is this a good or a bad thing? This is a whole new era, either way. Congrats to the App.net team!
- andrewcross 14y agoI think we'll definitely see a lot of attempts, but I don't know if many will have much success. It's very similar to Louis C.K.'s online video. While his video was successful, it only worked because he'd already established a name for himself. Other, lesser known, comedians will have a hard time replicating that because they don't have the brand already. If first-time entrepreneurs try and use crowd-funding, I just don't see catching unless the product is truly awesome (think Pebble).
- icebraining 14y agoThat's true for every type of funding, though.
- andrewcross 14y agoBut the big difference is the traditional investment model requires fewer backers. While by no means is raising investment an easy process, first time entrepreneurs have a better chance since they have to sell fewer people on it.
- terhechte 14y agoI've been using the alpha for the past days and it's really refreshing. Interesting discussions, and the API that is shaping up, looks really good. Congratulations and thanks Dalton.
- Leynos 14y agoHow many characters does it allow per message? From the screenshots, it looks like 256. Is this correct? Thanks.
- anu_gupta 14y agoYes, it's 256 chars.
- mechanical_fish 14y agoThis is quite the subtle design decision: It makes it more difficult to write an elegant version of the obvious App.net -> Twitter bridge. (Such a thing might be difficult anyway - my casual reading suggests that anything beyond the most basic one-way bridge would be a Twitter TOS violation: https://dev.twitter.com/terms/api-terms https://dev.twitter.com/terms/api-terms 1. All use of the Twitter API and content, [emphasis mine - ed.] documentation, code, and related materials made available to you on or through Twitter ("Twitter Content") is subject to and must comply with these Rules 5A. Your Client must use the Twitter API as the sole source for features that are substantially similar to functionality offered by Twitter. Some examples include trending topics, who to follow, and suggested user lists. 5E. You may not use Twitter Content or other data collected from end users of your Client to create or maintain a separate status update or social network database or service. 6. You do not have a license to Twitter Content submitted through your Service other than the rights granted in the Rules. What a legal minefield. So it's probably a good idea to have an obvious guardrail to prevent people from straying too close to the minefield, and this 256-character limit is a cute way to implement the guardrail.)
- terhechte 14y agoThere've actually been discussion about that. Some even think it's too much, but I guess people will get accustomed to it quickly. The upside, as I found, is that it's possible to write slightly better arguments while still keeping brevity. On Twitter I almost always hit the limit (or very close) on app.net, so far not really.
- aculver 14y agoI love this. In years past, Dalton and his team were able to raise millions in funding from a top-tier venture capital firm. But raising $500,000 in revenue from his target customers, that's a whole different ball game! Super excited to see where this goes. Congratulations to Dalton and the whole team!
- guscost 14y agoThis is awesome, it even looks like the "funding bar" graphic breaks when it gets to 100%... Brilliant.
- graiz 14y agoNot sure that's on purpose. The inner DIV is set to 106.08% width. Seems they are 106% funded.
- guscost 14y agoI'm saying he probably didn't care that it would break in that case.
- stfu 14y agoIs there actually any 3rd party ala kickstarter verifying the donations? Or is this number similar to those of political campaigns and their online fundraising self-reporting?
- icebraining 14y agoWe are using Stripe to host/power the billing aspects of join.app.net. In the very near future I will ask an impartial 3rd party take a look at our data (while preserving all privacy of our backers) and publicly verify that the join.app.net was operated in an honest manner. http://daltoncaldwell.com/we-did-it http://daltoncaldwell.com/we-did-it
- pdog 14y agoOne interesting difference is that the $500,000 comes with nearly 8,000 paying customers. Venture funding doesn't usually come with a few thousand users!
- smbwrs 14y agoI was a huge doubter on day one - the initial video and manifesto seemed confusing and too abstract to fly - but seeing Dalton handle intensive negativity (even some from me, I'm a bit ashamed to admit) with such aplomb won me over. Seeing his frequent updates with progress, even before the $500k mark, was a great confidence booster. Every cent well deserved. I was a supporter, and I look forward to helping build app.net in to something amazing.
- acoyfellow 14y agoThis is very much how my experience with App.net has been. I was a non-believer, but seeing how Dalton handled things has turned me into a major fan of his.
- citricsquid 14y agoI'm genuinely surprised, I didn't believe it would make it this far. I've backed it and I really hope it delivers, it's going to be very interesting to see how this turns out. I feel sceptical (because the value in Twitter is the people, not the platform) but I was also sceptical that this would ever reach $100,000, let alone $500,000, so clearly any assumptions previously made are wrong.
- loceng 14y agoIt could be a lot of curiosity that drove it. Now I can see a problem arising if they take outside investment.
- EwanToo 14y agoThey already have, $5 million from Andreessen Horowitz http://www.crunchbase.com/company/mixed-media-labs http://www.crunchbase.com/company/mixed-media-labs
- loceng 14y agoInteresting. So immediately there's a large stake holder that withdraws value disproportional to their value of the network; Whether it's a problem or not would have to be thought through..
- kmfrk 14y agoIt's had a big upswing the last few days. Don't know what caused it, but maybe Dalton's blog posts fanned the fire.
- jamiecurle 14y agoTo have funded something in which users are going to be first class citizens feels remarkably refreshing.
- jtokoph 14y agoNot that I'm accusing Dalton of doing this, but when croudfunding without using a platform like kickstarter, it might be too easy to fake backer numbers in order to meet the goal or inflate popularity. What this means for the future: Companies will announce croudfunding and then fake amazing numbers in order to appear popular and gain lots of press. I can see the headline now: "ACME Software raises $3 million in first 24 hours!" Actual funds raised: $250.
- sdqali 14y agoA number of people have raised this point to Dalton and he has promised that he will do a third party verification of all funding promises. For example, see this: https://twitter.com/daltonc/status/234698066245074945 https://twitter.com/daltonc/status/234698066245074945 and https://twitter.com/daltonc/status/234399350275571714 https://twitter.com/daltonc/status/234399350275571714 EDIT: Added a link to Twitter conversation showing more context.
- J-H 14y agoDalton also says this on app.net: https://alpha.app.net/dalton/post/32618 https://alpha.app.net/dalton/post/32618
- unimpressive 14y agohttps://alpha.app.net/dalton/post/32618 https://alpha.app.net/dalton/post/32618 "We are using Stripe, so it's easy to audit." - Dalton Caldwell
- nikunjk 14y agoThis is legit. Dalton's model of funding might spur interest in startups to get money from actual users, rather than venture capital
- runako 14y agoNot to be too snarky, but this is likely much easier for startups that already have funding from Andreesen Horowitz. This campaign was more about gauging interest than getting money.
- arunoda 14y agoThis is awesome. But the real question is how they got funded more than 50% in just 4 days? It's amazing. I hope this is not a manual increase of the counter.
- J-H 14y agoDalton's covering this: https://alpha.app.net/dalton/post/32618 https://alpha.app.net/dalton/post/32618. In a recent blog post, he also talks about how crowdfunding campaigns usually pick up steam in the last 48 hours
- sdqali 14y agoDalton continuously put out updates for people and I think updates like this(http://daltoncaldwell.com/appnet-is-not-vaporware http://daltoncaldwell.com/appnet-is-not-vaporware) would have pushed people who were mildly skeptic to contribute.
- rumblestrut 14y agoMost Kickstarter-like campaigns start out strong, dip down, then get a lot of traction right before the close of the project (for the ones that are going to be successful).
- jmandzik 14y agoI think a large part of the strong finish is a feedback loop. As it gets closer to achieving the goal, the belief that this concept could take off strengthens, which leads to more signups. That and the press blitz, of course.
- sdqali 14y agoAnd celebrity users endorsing it would have helped as well. For example - Robert Scoble, Stephen Fry (https://twitter.com/stephenfry/status/234695539357257728 https://twitter.com/stephenfry/status/234695539357257728) etc.
- arunoda 14y agoCool. Honestly I haven't thought he would manage to raise this amount. I just checked at on 8 and it was 43%. After that I didn't look into the count. Now, wow I'm impressed. I think this is the best crowdfunding effort I've ever seen. I'm not a backer of app.net. But would love to hear about the roadmap and future development. Still twitter, FB is OK for me. I'm waiting for what app.net can offer something I wanted. BTW I'm not a hater :) Good Luck! App.net team.
- gaving 14y ago...bootstrap? :/
- sdqali 14y agoAre you referring to App.net's use of Twitter bootstrap to build their UI or to the way Dalton funded the execution of this idea?
- gaving 14y agoThe former, just hell of a bland way to build things these days (even though it is great). Even if it was skinned or something it would go a long way of making it stick out a bit.
- shantanubala 14y agoI think for now it's just for the efficiency of making a solid alpha. I have no doubt they'll get some solid designers working on some of the UI (and UX people as well).
- dave_sullivan 14y agoThat's pretty amazing. 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. I could see a similar model of aligning user/company interests rather than advertiser/company interests working for other services--email probably being the biggest that comes to mind. This is actually a good thing for revenue as even a small membership fee is going to VASTLY outweigh the per user revenue generated from advertising. 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. So... congrats app.net team, and good luck!
- icebraining 14y agoClearly 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.
- anu_gupta 14y agoYup, it's easy to get caught up in the euphoria of reaching an arbitrary target. Still, I'm hopeful.
- dave_sullivan 14y agoWe'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.
- stock_toaster 14y ago> 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?
- shell0x 14y agoI don't want to ask dumb questions and I also read the content on their site, but I'm still not sure if it's just a twitter alternative or more. And what about identica? Isn't it a similar service like app.net?
- J-H 14y agohttp://daltoncaldwell.com/an-audacious-proposal http://daltoncaldwell.com/an-audacious-proposal.
- chris24 14y agoMy understanding is that yes, identica and app.net are similar, except for their business models. Identica didn't have a clear business model (AFAIK), so they would likely resort to advertising. App.net is trying to avoid that by charging users directly.
- anu_gupta 14y agoYes, and yes (hopefully). It's a twitter alternative that will (hopefully) not treat users as product. It's also being thought about as a more open developer friendly platform (eg no constraints on clients because the service needs to show adverts).
- losvedir 14y agoCool! I backed it mostly to snag my first name (@gabe) in case it actually does take off, but it's a neat idea, too. Congrats to Dalton and the gang.
- dkrich 14y agoI'm not really sure what the purpose of this service is. Could somebody please explain? I'm not trying to be a dick. I myself wouldn't pay to use Facebook minus the ads. I barely use it as it is. I only pay for things that provide me with some utility. The description of "a paid, real-time social feed" is vague and ambiguous.
- achompas 14y agoI'm not really sure what the purpose of this service is. ... I myself wouldn't pay to use Facebook minus the ads. You answered your own question above, and also identified why app.net won't interest you. If you're okay with ads, then I think you'd get zero utility from app.net
- dkrich 14y agoI appreciate the response, but that doesn't really answer the question of what the service provides that Facebook or Twitter doesn't. Are ads in and of themselves really a huge problem? I don't find myself often annoyed by them. Now if there were a systemic change to the service because you didn't have to alter the experience for users to generate ad revenue, then I begin to understand. However if this is the idea, then in what ways the service would be different is exactly what I'm trying to figure out. Remember, there are two sides to the coin "we offer a better experience without the ads" method. First of all you are going to get a smaller user base. So how much are you going to charge? $5/month? $10/month? You would need to get a pretty massive user base to be able to pay the overhead and attract top engineering talent, so in the end I'm not sure you'd be a whole lot better off.
- chimi 14y agoIt's more fundamentally about this: Do you want to be the product (facebook, twitter) or the customer (app.net)? A lot of people don't want to be the product and believe when a company focuses on them as a customer rather than them as eyeballs to be sold to advertisers, who are the customer, then a better service is the outcome for the users of the service. With app.net the user is the customer. With Facebook and Twitter, the user is the product. With App.Net user interests and service provider interests are aligned. The provider wants the service to be better for the users. With Facebook and Twitter and other ad supported products the users who value their privacy have intentions which are constantly at odds with the service provider whose intention is to continually open up details about the individuals so that those details can be used to improve ad success rates and profitability.
- dj2stein9 14y agoA centralized social network is what's wrong. Despite their best intentions they're still going to have all their users and developers by the balls. This absolutely will not replace Facebook or Twitter, it'll be just another one of the dozens of copycats like Path. What really needs to happen is an open decentralized protocol needs to be agreed upon for newsfeeds + blog posts (wordpress) + microblog (twitter). Then everyone can write their own servers and clients and operate in a manner like Email currently works.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- unimpressive 14y ago> What really needs to happen is an open decentralized protocol needs to be agreed upon for newsfeeds + blog posts (wordpress) + microblog (twitter). Then everyone can write their own servers and clients and operate in a manner like Email currently works. Then do it. Make everyone look like idiots for not doing it sooner. Make it so cool I have to sign up.
- loceng 14y agoI'm guessing people are working on it. It's not an easy problem to solve though.
- dj2stein9 14y agoOh I've definitely been thinking about it. One big problem is it wouldn't be nearly as lucrative as other potential project ideas -- it simply won't be possible to build another $100B Facebook style corporation around a social network. Diaspora was kind of onto the right idea but I think they completely chose the wrong technology stack and are now stuck in the mud without any momentum.
- electic 14y agoI love the idea. I am totally rooting for them but I hate the name. I don't see someone in marketing, either girl or guy, who loves tech but does't know the internals of tech, singing up to this service. It's too narrow in it's focus.
- shortformblog 14y agoCredit Stephen Fry for probably at least $10k of that — he told his 4 million followers about the service, which pushed it over the edge: https://twitter.com/stephenfry/status/234695539357257728 https://twitter.com/stephenfry/status/234695539357257728 Seriously though, this is great. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next. Hoping to experiment on the journalism front there.
- guscost 14y agoCongrats, dude. Now to scrape together a seriously unexpected $100.
- sdqali 14y agoAn update from Dalton that deals with new features and third party verification of the funding - http://daltoncaldwell.com/we-did-it http://daltoncaldwell.com/we-did-it
- obilgic 14y agoBut Will it scale?
- popmentos 14y agoIf Groupon would reimplement its account system to adopt App.net, (i.e. paying the annual fee by a ratio of each bill), App.net might scale. What Groupon get is a new role that introducing customers to companies by letting customers inquire information of services in the long term. Especially, companies who sell massive online education can attract more shoppers through Groupon.
- cmod 14y ago1. Awesome to see this funded. 2. Curious to see all the post-funding pile-on. Looks like their subscribers are jumping quite quickly (for a Sunday!) now that funding has been met. Funding validation makes it feel like a safer 'bet' now? 3. Really curious to see if app.net can scale better than Twitter from the start. I'm talking full archives, proper search, robust conversation tracking. If app.net covers these areas sufficiently well, I could see this becoming a go-to feed for journalists / other people for whom proper archives and full-search would be invaluable.
- arunoda 14y agoApp.net will reach $1,000,000 mark when they will be funded (AUGUST 13 at 11:59PM PDT.)
- whunut 14y agoTo be honest, I was skeptical App.net would meet its $500,000 goal on time. Not because I thought it was a bad idea, but because raising that much money from customers just seemed an almost impossible feat. So congrats, Dalton, can't wait to see what happens next!
- katcaverly 14y agoCongratulations to Team App.net and a special shoutout to the Alpha App.netizens who brought da noise, and the passion to the last 10 days. Now it is up to the developers to show us!!
- maxbogue 14y agoWhile I'm in favor of the concept behind this, I have one deeply concerning question that I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone else ask here: Why is it called App.net? The first 4 or 5 articles I saw about it, I ignored completely because I assumed it was some sort of app (web/mobile/whatever) framework, not a social network. They talk about the users being the customers (versus advertisers), but the name of the service is clearly targeting developers, not the users...
- mmahemoff 14y agoIt was previously a site (from the same owner) for showcasing apps, e.g.: http://app.net/uberhype http://app.net/uberhype. I'm not sure what happens to those pages now, presumably they're grandfathered in as "new app.net" accounts.
- walkon 14y agoI agree. The chosen name of app.net is simultaneously generic and borderline misleading (I too thought it might be some framework or app development tool). This alone is enough to make me a bit skeptical of app.net's leadership. They might as well call it acloudservice.com and it would have a similarly worthless conveyance of meaning.
- eoghan 14y agoThe reason I think App.net is going to grow is NOT because it doesn't have ads or that the "users are not the product", etc. It's because the community it hosts will be so tightly grouped around a similar, passionate interest: tech startups. Requiring payment, being called "App.net" (they'll be tempted to change this), and being distributed via word of mouth amongst the segregated tech startup community, will prevent so many different types of people from using it. This is all a great thing and I bet there will be opportunities for other "Twitter for ________" ventures. Charging for a service like this that caters to a much smaller market makes it sustainable. Congrats to Dalton and all involved. This is one of the most interesting and courageous internet projects in recent time.
- natrius 14y agoI don't see how "Twitter for _______" is a good idea. I can make "Twitter for _______" by following the right people. The idea that Twitter's user base is too broad doesn't make any sense to me.
- eoghan 14y agoYou can only follow "the right people", but they'll still talk about things you're uninterested in. In addition, you'll also have people following you who have different interests, who will start irrelevant conversations with you. Why does Hacker News exist? And other special interest web forums, Facebook groups, mailing lists? Who do interest groups hold meetups? People with shared interests get MASSIVE value from highly focused gatherings and conversations. And Twitter right now is anything but focused.
- natrius 14y agoOkay, this is a great point. However, it doesn't sound like what App.net is building.
- karpathy 14y agoWhat's going to prevent people using app.net from talking about things you don't care about? There is nothing that forces you to only talk about tech and related, as far as I can tell. The reason this doesn't happen on HN is because the topics are agreed on and moderated.
- possibilistic 14y agoI know that this service may become valuable for a large number of the HN crowd. It might be up my alley for a price of $10/yr or so. But at $50/yr, I cannot justify its expense. That said, I wish Caldwell the best of luck. In the future hopefully he can provide tiered pricing plans.
- jschlesser 14y agoIts not about destroying or replacing twitter or fb. Thats unlikely and not the goal. Its about new uses. T and FB have defined their contexts and rules. The infrastructure may look very similar but the universe of contexts and possibilities for non T and FB contexts is the point. The space of uses outside of T and FB is vast when publicity and ad focused mining isnt the core driver of business. FB and T have decided to compete for belly fat ads, thats the real shame. However they are both still revolutionary in terms of societal impact, they are just going to coerce their usage to fit their business model. Egyptian protesters and new moms posting baby photos could care less about belly fat ads. I truly sincerely hope both services find a more relevant way so that all models flourish.
- jschlesser 14y agoAny reader of my comments should know im a supporter but not employed or beholden to app.net in any way and my opinions are solely based on my interpretation of publicly available info and informal interactions with people inside the app.net community. The actual apis and rules arent final but dalton has made many public commitments and has a history of doing what he says he will do. The work behind app.net didnt spring up overnight. I assume some vc money is in there somewhere so i wouldnt necessarily go vc bashing either. It looks a lot more like a pivot and if there are vcs involved, good on ya for backing it.
- briandear 14y agoI sue Tweetbot on my iPhone and can't remember ever seeing an ad. This idea that twitter is getting cluttered by advertising is just a myth.
- albedoa 14y agoCan you point to someone who is making that claim?
- Jaigus 14y agoThe idea of twitter/facebook not appealing to their users enough may be a bit exaggerated. Yes, facebook/twitter must please their advertisers, however they only have those advertisers paying them because they have many users/subscribers. To keep advertisers coming to them, surely they must keep users happy so they can stay and even hope to attract more? Now I'm sure having to cater to the advertisers certainly affects the decision making(even a bit adversely at times), however their massive following is essentially what makes them valuable. I also notice that whenever this idea is challenged, I only see people simply parroting his belabored battle-cry of "catering to the users" without actually giving any concrete examples. I'm not against app.net's idea, I just believe the true novelty of this project is creating a micro-twitter(which can also be created on twitter by simply following certain people) for affluent tech people, and _keeping_ it that way via the subscription fee. Besides that, I haven't read or heard of anything that they plan to do fundamentally different than twitter. Honestly, even if they do, and it actually proves to be a great feature that users love, I don't see why twitter can't simply copy it and perhaps even make it better.
- Jaigus 14y agoThe idea of twitter/facebook not appealing to their users enough may be a bit exaggerated. Yes, facebook/twitter must please their advertisers, however they only have those advertisers paying them because they have many users/subscribers. To keep advertisers coming to them, surely they must keep users happy so they can stay and even hope to attract more? Now I'm sure having to cater to the advertisers certainly affects the decision making(even a bit adversely at times), however their massive following is essentially what makes them valuable. I also notice that whenever this startup is challenged, I only see people simply parroting his belabored battle-cry of "catering to the users" without actually giving any concrete examples. I'm not against app.net's idea, I just believe the true novelty of this project is creating a micro-twitter(which can also be created on twitter by simply following certain people) for affluent tech people, and _keeping_ it that way via the subscription fee. Besides that, I haven't read or heard of anything that they plan to do fundamentally different than twitter. Honestly, even if they do, and it actually proves to be a great feature that users love, I don't see why twitter can't simply copy it and perhaps even make it better.
- sylvinus 14y agoI think the stats will clearly show that it wouldn't have been funded without the Gruber post. What puzzles me is that the HN crowd seems to be the target audience for whatever it is App.net wants to do but Dalton & friends totally failed to get them interested enough even after so much posts here. With Gruber they reached a different crowd and got the money, which may prove that they have something interesting on their hands but now they'll have do deal with different expectations from their users, and I'm highly skeptical it will make their strategy clearer.
- talleyrand 14y agoGreetings from way out here in Userland! Out here, there is no way that people are going to pay to be "social" online. Just FYI.
- comex 14y ago@jayneely: Free-for-students is a bad way to go. Most students can't contribute much value, and it leaves out all the young people that either can't afford or chose not to go to college. @christopher: I think there's value in some kind of tiered pricing model, especially when it comes to enabling students - in a managed, not free for all, manner - to contribute positively to the ecosystem. Perhaps that's the educator in me. @elliottpayne: I think there's a broader issue of elitism & the digital divide baked into @adn, but that's a bit out of scope of this topic. But it's a weird suggestion that students can't add value This is a thread from the site, but I'm quoting it here because it's relevant to the discussion about what kind of community app.net will become. The first two comments make me uneasy: even if there is value in excluding/discouraging people who don't contribute positively-- which is true for a site like Hacker News, but not so much, I think, for a Twitter-like site where you only see the activity of people you follow; the Global stream is an exception, but it'll only take a little more growth before it becomes unusable anyway-- trying to judge from a blank slate whether someone who might sign up for the site is likely to contribute value, especially based on such vague metrics as "ability to pay $50" and "student", runs the risk of being elitism for the sake of elitism. For some, $50 is enough of a barrier that they'll only sign up if they're especially interested (a sign that they'll contribute value); for others, it's little more than an impulse purchase. As for students, I agree that the site should avoid favoring students over people who don't go to college, but as a rather biased student (and backer), I contest the sentiment that students can't contribute value or need to be "managed" more than your average slightly older entrepreneur. ;p Even though age probably weakly correlates with quality, the goal of the site should not be to slightly increase average quality, but, if anything, to ensure that the highest quality users, the right edge of the bell curve, are there, which exclusionary principles will discourage. Of course, the $50 is not actually some kind of proof of relevance but actual funding for the operation of the site; it can't be avoided. But I think it should mostly be considered a necessary evil, and there should be a focus on letting people who are unwilling to pay it but are strongly interested in the community get in anyway, such as with a sponsorship system.
- bitsoda 14y agoAm I alone in thinking the ramp up in funding was a bit sketchy over the past three days? Did Dalton or a VC self-fund this to appear like it was gaining traction? I'm sure Gruber's post had an effect, but something seems off. I don't think the reason for hosting their own "Kickstarter-like campaign" was to save themselves the 5% cut. By controlling the funding, they are only accountable to themselves and control all visibility. Note: There's nothing wrong with using your own money to fund your product, but some more transparency would be nice.
- nathan_f77 14y agoI had the same thought, but that's not the case: https://alpha.app.net/dalton/post/32618 https://alpha.app.net/dalton/post/32618
- TorBoT 14y agoWhat do they mean "claim" twitter name? do they mean claim your app.net name?
- ChrisBanner 14y agoThe intent was that a twitter user could reserve the same username for App.net. In reality, you can reserve any username -- it doesn't have to be a twitter handle.
- hxf148 14y agoI've upgraded my account and am going to take a spin at a html5 app. It's an interesting group of people and even if it does not get massive scale it's fun. Also keep in mind that I don't think app.net wants to be Twitter, it wants to be the back end public messaging system for any and all kinds of apps that have a need for a messaging or notification network.
- dylanz 14y agoI feel like being "that guy", and saying that this is going to fail. It's not going to gain traction, and will not be profitable or popular in the future. The reason I want to be "that guy", is that me, Murphy, and his law... have a little thing going. I develop, but definitely don't use social applications (I find them distracting and mundane). I think the concept of a completely open and distributed system like dj2stein9 mentioned is what really needs to be implemented in order to leap frog this idea, and others out there, that might be trying to come up with alternatives to the current players. However, I can definitely see this gaining traction. I love the concept of an Ad free network as well as a nice API. Dalton and friends. I hope you're extremely successful with this endeavour, and, that you can all comment on this comment in the future with a big "I told you so".
- charlieok 14y ago"I feel like being "that guy", and saying that this is going to fail. It's not going to gain traction, and will not be profitable or popular in the future." ... "However, I can definitely see this gaining traction." eh?
- deepGem 14y agoThere's something really inspiring about the way Dalton Caldwell speaks in the video. His demeanor shows an air of confidence, but it also shows how pissed off he is with the existing ad supported free model. Here's wishing the very best for app.net's success.
- jasonhanley 14y agoHeh, so there's going to be just under 10,000 people on app.net.
- drharris 14y agoDoes anyone else see this and think, "It's like Twitter, except for people who want to complain about Twitter all the time"? That's the vibe I get. There's no way those high school friends I reconnected with are paying for this. There's no way my uncles or cousins are signing up for this. There's no way more than ~5% of my real-life social network will. It seems like yet another Silicon Valley niche product. Maybe I'm wrong, I just don't see it for the 95% of the world that doesn't care about T/FB monetization.
- dev1n 14y ago"If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done." A quote hanging above my Grandma's oven :-P Congrats Dalton
- axusgrad 14y agoI think most people signing up now are doing it for the land-rush of usernames.