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I Have 50 Dollars
- tudorizer 14y agoDid anybody notice the background behind this? https://heello.com/live https://heello.com/live, from the founder of Twitpic, which actually has a very close goal as App.net.
- rrbrambley 14y agoI just noticed this. Um. Sad. Really sad.
- tudorizer 14y agoWhy sad?
- stevencorona 14y agonot made by Heello / Twitpic
- alphang 14y agoYikes. That's confusing (malicious?). It left me with a sense of distaste for heello. You guys may want to clarify.
- gexla 14y agoI'm going to be the first developer to build an app on the ihave50dollars API. It's going to be a dating app, because what chick wants to hook up with a guy who doesn't even have $50?
- pavel_lishin 14y ago"We're going to Taco Bell for our first date, I spent my dining budget on a social app."
- gexla 14y agoI spent my last $50 to join ihave50dollars.com. I no longer have $50. I hope nobody finds out, it will ruin my reputation within the network.
- stefantalpalaru 14y agoDon't worry. After login you'll be automatically redirected to ihad50dollars.com .
- tzaman 14y agoWhere can I sign up if I don't have 50 dollars?
- smacktoward 14y agoIWishIHad50Dollars.com
- lololz 14y agoI only have 49.99 :(
- paul-woolcock 14y agoYou should make ialmosthave50dollars.com
- mootothemax 14y agoCommenters seem to be missing the point of this. Go visit the signup page, and right at the bottom you'll see this tagline: If you can spare $50 for a social network I'm guessing you can spare $50 to help put an end to slavery. Yeah, it's 2012 and it's still a pretty big problem. That shit is unacceptable. Really. </whiteguilt> Personally, I'm not the fan of the "don't spend money on anything until the world's problems have been cured" style of thinking, but it's certainly a novel idea. Now all they have to do is fix the title of the signup page. Right now it says Signup For App.net. EDIT: Interestingly, the domain name of freetheslaves.net belongs to "Superhuman Ventures, LLC." I don't know enough about how people taking donations work, but I find it pretty strange that Free The Slaves have a long list of directors and staff (https://www.freetheslaves.net/SSLPage.aspx?pid=285 https://www.freetheslaves.net/SSLPage.aspx?pid=285) but no mention of what their corporate structure is. Is this unusual? Should they explicitly be a charitable organisation?
- psc 14y agoAccording to Charity Navigator, it seems the Free The Slaves is very accountable, transparent, and financially effective, with a maximum 4 star rating: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=11051 http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary... I'm not sure why the LLC owns the site though.
- micro_cam 14y agoThe registrant is probably an artifact of Superhuman Ventures doing the web work for the non profit on a paid or volunteer basis. Small non profits tend to be pretty disorganized about stuff like this.
- citricsquid 14y ago> Commenters seem to be missing the point of this. Probably because it's the most poorly presented social statement... ever. Requiring users to go as far as to try and sign up (with no indication it's anything other than a developers idea of a dumb joke) is... silly.
- maxer 14y agois this the new reddit?
- akurilin 14y agoMore free publicity for Dalton, he's not going to mind.
- thinkingisfun 14y agoSo? Good for him. In the big scheme of things, money is the consolation price. This however is a spoof, it hits bullseye, and it's actually intelligent. You cannot buy that with money. How many posts have you seen on HN in the last days that mentioned "I put my money where my mouth is"? I came across 3 or 4, one poster even quoted their app.net welcome e-mail, haha... Now this. Priceless. I couldn't stop laughing reading the page, and the fact that they actually refer you to a worthy cause when you try to sign up makes it all the better. 10 million out of 10 possible points for style, to quote Douglas Adams.
- arkitaip 14y agoIt actually comes of as teen angsty and narrow minded. The type of nonsense ignorant people like to spew because they can't grasp that we can focus our collective effort on many things at the same time, that we can spend money on our own interests and still be a positive force in the world.
- thinkingisfun 14y ago> "It actually comes of as teen angsty and narrow minded." The site? Or some of the reactions to it? > "The type of nonsense ignorant people like to spew because they can't grasp that we can focus our collective effort on many things at the same time, that we can spend money on our own interests and still be a positive force in the world." LOL? Now you're really reaching for it.
- shock3naw 14y agoExcept, that isn't even close to the actual quote: "Okay, so, ten out of ten for style, but minus several million for good thinking, okay?"
- 14y ago
- amalag 14y agoAm I not hip enough, I don't understand the point to this.
- lmm 14y agoIt's mocking app.net
- briandear 14y agoI must not be hip either because I don't understand the point of App.net.
- benjaminwootton 14y agoThe website is a little obtuse. I think it's a pay-for Twitter without ads.
- debacle 14y agoIt's a twitter you pay for where none of the people you follow are on it. What's not to get?
- rickdale 14y agoI am offering a 6month same as cash interest free loan for those lacking the $50. Check my profile for more details...
- 4ngle 14y agoIf that's the cost of friendship, consider it paid. All joking aside, I agree with the message. I almost signed up for app.net today, but didn't (after finally noticing the charge aspect (not gonna lie, didn't really look into it)) because it is NOT going to overthrow anything, let alone Twitter. The warm sentiments of no ads is nice, but end-users don't give a shit. $50 is MONEY, free--adversely--isn't. I'll be happy if people can prosper from app.net, but I don't see much happening there that didn't happen at google+.
- malsme 14y agoI would never pay for something like that, I barely see a use for ad-supported social networks, but those that pay will feel a psychological pressure to make use of their investment, it will also create a feeling of privilege; whereas something like Google+ is seen as free, open and less valued, and therefore needs to vie for the attention.
- slig 14y agoWe whine and bitch about not having control of our data, about some corp having central authority over everything and yet we decide to ignore status.net and pay $50/year to something that doesn't even exist yet. Go figure.
- coldpie 14y agoIt's almost as if there is more than one person involved in these actions!
- georgespencer 14y ago"There are people [VERB] in [COUNTRY]" has never been a satisfactory argument to me, and this seems to just be the digital version of that.
- thinkingisfun 14y ago"There are people [VERB]" better?
- thinkingisfun 14y agoWhat? The argument is that people are X, and in what country they are X is completely irrelevant. It's called being a human, try it sometimes.
- pessimizer 14y ago"Are" is the verb. I didn't understand what you wrote because of that until after a few passes. Try [GERUND] or better, [VERBing], maybe?
- corin_ 14y agoA gerund is just a form of verb, it doesn't prevent it from also being a verb.
- jwoah12 14y agoIt is a form of a verb, but it essentially becomes a noun. Which brings me to my next point- [VERBing] is a participle in this case, not a gerund, since it's an adjective modifying "people."
- corin_ 14y agoIt doesn't become an adjective, it very much remains a verb. If it is, for example, "people dying" then it's not saying "they are dying people", it is saying that the people are currently dying, i.e. an action, using a verb.
- Roflharris 14y agohahahaha oh god all the crying.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- brianwillis 14y ago>First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. It would appear that App.net is now at stage two.
- thinkingisfun 14y agoWhen one of those things occur in isolation, that doesn't automatically mean you're fighting for truth. For example, app.net was never in the being ignored phase, it's got plenty of hype and it doesn't even exist yet. Also, there's plenty of things that get mocked and nothing more. Sometimes laughter results from fear, sometimes it just results from genuinely finding something hilarious. But thanks for comparing app.net with Gandhi, that just made it funnier :P
- sankara 14y agoI'm sorry, can't refrain from correcting you. It's Gandhi not Ghandi. And I see this mistake very prevalent.
- unimpressive 14y ago> And I see this mistake very prevalent. Oh the irony.
- Monkeyget 14y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphrys_law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphrys_law
- ctdonath 14y agoMurphy was misquoted.
- superchink 14y agoFrom the linked article on wikipedia: “Not to be confused with Murphy's law.” Muphry's Law is something different (yet related).
- ballooney 14y agoOur team has spent the last 9 years building social synergy, developing paradigms, talking on out mobile phones and more. Jesus wept. Edit 30s later: Oh it's a spoof. My faith in humanity restored.
- redthrowaway 14y agoAlright, I read the damned post and I still have no idea what it's about. Is it supposed to be satire, or some other wink and nod approach to...something? Either I'm just not all that bright, or they took a swing and missed on their message.
- unimpressive 14y agohttps://join.app.net/ https://join.app.net/ It's making fun of the idea of paying $50 to sign up for a years membership to this service.
- Munksgaard 14y agoTry to sign up (by clicking the "I have 50$" button on the right.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- facorreia 14y agoI'm kind of disappointed. None of the comments so far have pointed out the fundamental logic flaw in this. Buying the membership doesn't prove you HAVE 50 dollars, it proves you HAD it.
- neebz 14y agoI am not really interested in all the twitter/app.net hoo-haa but I find it intriguing that we are at a stage that one guy develops a product and charges $50 for it. And the rest of the world mocks him for not making it free.
- sofuture 14y agoPeople are not mocking app.net for not being free. They are mocking it for being a generally silly idea borne of nerd-rage against 'the man' err... Twitter... wait, what?
- moron 14y agoYes, they are. The entire premise of this stupid god damn thing is that everyone who joined app.net just wanted to shout to the world that we have $50 to spend. Well, I'd also like to shout to the world that whoever made this is a killjoy and an idiot.
- neebz 14y agoYes they are. They are mocking it because they think it's a privileged network only for people who are willing to pay the grand sum of 50 US Dollars. It was the same story with svbtle. This smug sense of entitlement is frankly disgusting.
- foxhop 14y agoI used to follow Dustin Curtis. I liked that each of his blog posts had a unique theme/layout/typography/imagery. Then once he became popular what does he do? He built svbtle, a blog network of bloggers who all have pages and posts that look identical... I also avoid the greater-than-thou grouping.
- Baba_Chaghaloo 14y agoThey asked for $500,000 to make a Twitter clone and they got it. Who's laughing at whom?
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- namidark 14y agoThe video on the main page is just a link to the sign up...
- madmikey 14y agowhy not 50dollarsbacon.com
- pandeiro 14y agoi don't get the reference but the domain is a winner for sure.
- Rulero 14y agoThis is quite funny, it made me chuckle. Now, putting the joke aside, let's be real. Whilst the majority of you aren't willing to spend $50 (Including myself), the fact is, some people already have and they have managed to raise a lot of money. I suppose it doesn't matter what product you have as long as you know how to market it and most importantly, solve a problem. Whilst App.net may be ideal for developers because it considers their requirements, I highly doubt whether main stream users care the problems that App.net is trying to solve. None of my friends would pay for a social network, and neither would I. Why? Because I can use my phone and there's plenty of other free alternatives. Either way, I wish App.net all the best but I rather keep my $50.
- thinkingisfun 14y agoI suppose it doesn't matter what product you have as long as you know how to market it and most importantly, solve a problem. What problem does app.net solve? Honest question, because it surely doesn't solve the problem of walled gardens.
- fusiongyro 14y agoThey have a product they're charging $50 for and they have 1000 customers. Whether you see a problem being solved or not, there's clearly $50 of value in the eyes of these 1000 people, and that's what a business is. People can pay $25 to adopt a star, which is just a certificate saying you spent $25 on a certificate. That's a legitimate business (or charity) even though it's idiotic. Lots of businesses are about solving the problem of too much thickness in your wallet and your head.
- thinkingisfun 14y agoI know... like televangelists.. I was merely wondering if there is more to it. I mean, people DO (intend to) develop apps for it.. how many of them are solving actual problems, and how many just make them in the hope that people will use them? You know, the latter would kinda make app.net meta-kool-aid for kool-aid brewers, but that's snarky, and also premature. So I'm really, honestly asking, and willing to consider answers. Yes, I am skeptical, but I'm trying to not be too much of a bigot. After all, asking doesn't cost anything :D
- state 14y agoWith all the handwaving and yelling around this issue I find this really refreshing.
- zachinglis 14y agoThis is beautiful.
- debacle 14y agoI couldn't initially determine the level of seriousness of this page. I spend too much time on HN.
- ThePherocity 14y agoActually, this really pisses me off. Heaven forbid that all the hard work we do as developers actually come with a reasonable compensation option... like money. I think more sites need to go pay only, I'm tired of every advertising company on the internet knowing more about my buying preferences than I do. Support developers FFS.
- manaskarekar 14y agoThat's a legitimate complaint. This attempt does seem to point out how a basic online tool is considered "first world luxury" even though it might be, and probably is, an important tool that will help a lot of people create value (new companies, mergers, sharing of information that may save people money by propagating best practices etc). (Sorry for the salesman pitch.) I mean you don't go out and guilt a carpenter for money because he bought a nice power saw instead of using a manual one? This just goes on to imply that internet "goods" are frivolous commodities further degrading the idea of paying for software. I wonder if they did this similar thing for other 'tangible' goods, like this silver plated ballscratcher http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0010NWP9K http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0010NWP9K.
- thinkingisfun 14y agoSome things are only really useful as protocols. We don't pay for the email or http protocol either. We pay for the hosting, not for the ability to interact with others - we pay for the actual resources, not proprietary ideas. At least those of us who live in the amazing world of wonders that is the future. Why pay for federation of content and relations, and subscription to updates? I mean sure, feel free, but for me that's just throwing money on something that isn't just pointless, it's actually counterproductive. It is NOT buying a powersaw, it is making a contract with someone who saws your stuff. And the criticism is "when that guy runs away or starts being silly, you will STILL have to learn how to saw a piece of wood, so maybe learn that right away." - not that it's always bad to pay money for convenience. It's the difference between a literate person paying someone to summarize the newspaper for them, and someone who can't read doing the same, never developing the desire to learn reading and writing. The latter should raise red flags. In that sense, app.net offers zero improvement over twitter and facebook. It's just another dead end.
- paduc 14y agoI think this parody is right on. The app.net pitch is all about the fact there is a fee. Why not build a cool app, ask for a fee and _then_ explain the reason for the fee?
- seagreen 14y agoVoluntary charity can of course be a noble and merciful thing. That said, strike at the fucking root people.[1] The problem isn't slavery. Slavery is a symptom of the problem. The problem is bad economies, which come from bad government. If you're not working on trying to find ways to encourage good government you're a hobbyists, not professionals, and you should take claims like "Our goal: to end slavery in our lifetime."[2] off your website. If you are interested in improving bad governments then for God's sake don't listen to intellectuals. Read the people who've actually done it.[3] It's not as good as a controlled experiment, but it's way better than pure talk. [1] I'm actually not sure about 1st world countries like the U.K. There might not actually be a root to strike at there. [2] https://www.freetheslaves.net/SSLPage.aspx?pid=285 https://www.freetheslaves.net/SSLPage.aspx?pid=285 [3] http://www.amazon.com/Singapore-development-policies-and-trends/dp/0195825152 http://www.amazon.com/Singapore-development-policies-and-tre...
- kmfrk 14y agoThis is like falling into a worm hole that takes you back to when Twitter was competing with Pownce and Jaiku for marketshare. What a bizarre situation.
- pandeiro 14y agoThis is fucking excellent satire. Hilarious.
- ctdonath 14y agoOH, NOW I GET IT. Good night that was painful. ihave50dollars.com is a spoof of join.app.net (duplicate layout of main page, text changed), which is a no-ad paid-membership version of Twitter, which apparently got VC funding to some people's amazement. An attempt to sign up takes you to an "end slavery" charity. Yeah, sounds stupid to spell it out like this. Not everyone knows what app.net is, nor what its backstory is (I still don't). Ergo the spoof garners a well-deserved WTF. WHY someone felt compelled to create the spoof is still a mystery to some of us.
- vineet 14y agoI think the spoof was created was because (a) app.net has no value proposition other than wanting $50, and (b) that there were over 100K people out there who put in money regardless. (No value proposition is more accurately no value proposition for the site by itself. It does have a value proposition if it does billions of users like twitter, but that there is no realistic way of getting there.)
- ctdonath 14y ago"A thing is worth only and exactly what others are willing to pay for it." Obviously it's worth $50 to 100,000 people. Some of us would like an ad-free version of Twitter that, by paid signup, screens out much of the...um...less interesting participants. Sounds like they've got 100,000 users already, which seems a good start.
- CodeMage 14y agoI've always thought that was a very shallow definition and this has just helped me finally realize why I think that. Basically, I could announce that I'm offering a service whereby you give me $50 dollars and I call you gullible. If I find 100,000 people willing to do that, it would mean that my service is "worth" $5,000,000 dollars. The "worth" you're talking about does not seem to me as a very good indicator of whether we're improving the world or not.
- 14y ago
- notlisted 14y agoWhere Dalton is going I don't know (and I feel he's generally a pompous ass when he speaks/writes) but... I think app.net is a matter of OWNERSHIP. Ownership of your data and ownership of the company. Companies are beholden to those who pay. If it's the users who pay, the power is with them. I like that idea. If it's the advertisers, they don't need to care as much about the user, see FB and Twitter. Stuff DOESN'T have to be free. I pay for many things, and in general the things I pay for are better than things which are free. I have no problems with the $50 or the request for it. Those who do should buy GIMP, while I use Photoshop.
- hnruss 14y agoIf you can't tell that a site called iHave50dollars.com is a joke... there is a good chance you are confused about a lot of things. It might be time to questions your assumptions about life.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- guscost 14y agoI would pledge to support this fine and fantastic platform!!!
- scottilee 14y agoHilarious. Yes, you're supposed to laugh.
- ebabchick 14y agofinally, some truth shed on this developer-centric bubble of a "company"
- akldfgj 14y agoThe punchline is to show you a video about ending slavery along with a comment about how spending money on that is more worthwhile than a social network. The video was created at TEDx in Maui. TED is one of the most expensive social networks in the world, charging thousands of dollars to attend the main conference, which is the foundation of the TEDx programs. Accidental endorsement of Dalton?
- OzzyB 14y agoThis is for a Charity? Well they botched that then IMO. After clicking the top "alpha.ihave50dollars.com" link (and others) you end up at heello.com. So I then understandably thought the site was a "snark-attack" by the Heello/Twitpic guys. After all, Heello was started by Twitpic when Twitter was just starting to clamp down on their API usage and was about to start their own photo service -- so Heello was started pretty much in the same spirit as App.net was -- at least in the sense of "Hey! I'm pissed at Twitter, so now I'm gonna make a competitor clone". So I wonder, why doesn't anyone mention this Heello? Does the App.net guy have more Hacker Mojo than the Twitpic guy? Is this Heello guy pissed that App.net got paid $700k+ for doing what they wanted to do 1-2 years ago? Hmmmm...
- stevencorona 14y agoThis was not made by Heello / Twitpic & has no affiliation with it.
- D9u 14y agoI don't have $50. I don't use twitter. I won't even login to Facebook anymore. Thus I lol'd at this.
- rnernento 14y agoNice start, clean design but it looks like signup is broken. It redirects to some random TED talk :p
- ruggeri 14y agoSo, so good. You earned your $50.
- niels_olson 14y agoFrom ebay: > The seller will only ship to confirmed addresses. To complete this transaction, you will need to enter your information again. by my address is confirmed. What gives?
- ilaksh 14y agoI think I'll go for a higher-end market, so I'm launching ihad5000dollars.com tomorrow.
- dumbluck 14y agoWhen you give, your intent is not to pay for a bunch of mailers to be sent out, killing trees and increasing the world's CO2, and your intent is not to hire some Ivy+ grad with a major in making themselves feel better about helping people as they sit at their desk and drink their Starbucks mocha. You want to free slaves, feed the homeless, feed the starving children, cure cancer. Don't give to those that waste that generosity, and don't support sites that don't tell you where your money is really going. In this case, supposedly the overhead is 16%. That isn't great, but it is in the "meh" category for me. I'd rather give to the Salvation Army that only takes ~5% overhead. In addition, I'd like to see what the 86% going to programs and services is really accomplishing.
- drhowarddrfine 14y agoLet Gates do it. He's dumping multi-millions into Africa while I sit here watching a homeless person walk down the street outside.
- shredder 14y agoI have 50 dollars is a great satire of yet another social network (app.net) that promotes non-social interaction..
- shredder 14y agoI have 50 dollars is a great satire of yet another social network (app.net) that promotes non-social interaction..
- hullooo 14y agoAwfully similar site to app.net, no?
- hullooo 14y agoAwfully similar site to app.net, no?