On the other hand, think of it as a never ending conference of a very specific type of crowd, a lot of the crowd from hackernews for example, who are connected

On the other hand, think of it as a never ending conference of a very specific type of crowd, a lot of the crowd from hackernews for example, who are connected to an extremely focused network, without having to deal with as much noise as they do right now on twitter/facebook. You could stretch it to sound like a million dollar membership country club you want to be a part of because of all the potential investors who are hanging out there, and you want your idea heard. The $50 entry barrier will not eliminate this problem, but reduce it a lot. Also, didn't Dalton himself mention that this does not intent to be a twitter/facebook killer? Those channels will always exist and you can always check out trending topics if need be. Just thinking out loud.