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.
My First Day
My first day went very well actually. I was able to have multiple conversations with total strangers and was able to chat with multiple app developers. I also discussed ethics, ideas about the service and more.
Those I met were surprisingly nice and the discussions were often very thoughtful. Perhaps this is due to the types of people that might be drawn to a service like this (developers and early early (early) adopters) but I enjoyed the experience.
Meet Expectations?
It did meet (and even exceed) my initial expectations for the service. While I know much of the chatter now is about the service itself I have to say that even without those conversations the service itself worked as intended.
I was able to send short posts (not quite sure what to call them really yet) out as well as receive mentions and re-post other's posts. I fiddled around with a few different webapps for App.net (quickApp was one of my favorites) and was even able to install and use the first-ever native iOS App.net app (AppNet Rhino) available on the Apple's App Store.
Where to Now?
So where do I see App.net going from here? I hope that is will grow into an almost compete replacement for twitter. I'd love that to happen but in reality it will likely not happen. Or if it does it will take years to happen. (But it could happen. Remember when the thought of MySpace going completely away was a bit far fetched?)
The initial $50 fee is a really commitment. I can't see my mother paying $50/year just to be able to reply to me on App.net. I can see here getting a twitter account thought.
I can actually see myself using App.net as more of a one-way, outward-facing short message service (at least initially). Something more akin to twitter but without the interaction from as many people. I wouldn't actually mind that. I kind of like the idea of having a short message service to myself (at least for now).
A Twitter Replacement?
Will App.net replace twitter for me? Not any time soon (but I really want it to someday). The reason that twitter is so important (and the reason I think twitter can get away with treating 3rd party developers so bad) is that it has all the users.
How many of my 1000 twitter followers do I think would pay $50 to be able to reply to me on App.net? My guess is one or maybe two. Perhaps, over time, there would be more but even then I think it would initially be people like me who are advertising-averse and cognizant of the treatment of developers by twitter as well as tiwtter's continued march toward more obtrusive and harder-to-ignore ads.
Make no doubt about it. The "suits" are now at the helm of twitter. Suits like to make money. It's their job to make money even if it means changing what many consider to be the very definition of what something is.
In the coming months you will likely see lots of new articles and blog posts hailing App.net as a "twitter replacement". It isn't (at least not yet).
As it stands App.net is really a service for people who want to know that the service they use has their (the customer's) best interest in mind rather than an advertiser's best interest.
It's been said before but it bears repeating: If you are not paying for a product, you are the product.
Conclusion
Having played around with App.net and, perhaps more importantly, having paid for App.net I now have a vested interest in seeing how the service grows and evolves over time (at least for the next year).
So far I am impressed with not only the App.net service but also the development community that has sprung up around it and is almost continuously giving App.net users new, useful and interesting tools to use to interact with the service.
For the foreseeable future I expect much of the chatter on App.net to lean heavily toward the techie/developer/early adopter side of things but I don't mind that. I've already given feedback to multiple app developers and find these kind of conversations quite enjoyable.
If you want to join App.net you can do so for $50 for one year of normal access or $100 for one year of developer access.
You can find me on App.net here: @jimyounkin.
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