Last night I couldn't hold out any longer and went ahead and paid $50 (@jimyounkin) for one year of access to App.net. App.net (often shortened to "ADN" by its users) is a new short message service (read: twitter) that is being built around the idea of users paying for use of the service rather than the service being paid for (and beholden to) advertisers.
While I have more to say about Twitter's recent missteps when it comes to 3rd party developer relations and their increasing push to monetize their users to advertisers I won't do it here. Suffice it to say that in my mind twitter, while still a very useful service, has "jumped the shark" in the last few weeks.
I chose to put my money where my mouth is and commit to paying for App.net even at this early stage because I want a service like this to exist and the best way I can do that is by supporting it now.
So, how did my first day inside App.net go? Did it meet my initial expectations? Where can I see it going from here? Read on past the jump for my impressions.
