I agree that a lot of people are cathecting their desires onto app.net. I'm probably guilty of that as well (and yes, I coughed up the $50). But what got me e

I agree that a lot of people are cathecting their desires onto app.net. I'm probably guilty of that as well (and yes, I coughed up the $50). But what got me excited was his basic insight -- not entirely novel, I'll grant -- that any giant social media company selling ads is going to be beholden to advertisers, and that a social media company that is beholden to their users might be a different thing. Lots of things are possible here. The product might suck. They might get totally overwhelmed. They might not be able to sell it. Their API might end up being worse than the others (though it doesn't look that way to me). But people kick in to kickstarter-style things because there's some idea they want to get behind (e.g. "sword fighting games should be better"), even if it doesn't pan out. And to be honest, even the OP -- in the throes of his cynicism -- is obviously experiencing the same sensation.