As of today, App.net is a freemium service

http://blog.app.net/2013/02/25/introducing-a-free-tier/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=introducing-a-free-tier

by anu_gupta • 13 years ago

115 151 13 years ago

blog.app.net

jpinkerton88• 13 years ago

invite please? :)

jdolitsky2• 13 years ago

email me for an invite: josh@dreamsha.re

jdolitsky2• 13 years ago

those went fast! all out people

benatkin• 13 years ago

And the million dollar question is how do I convert my paid account to a free account? Will it happen automatically after the year I got from the KickStarter-like program runs out? Also being able to follow a maximum of 40 people sounds like a feature, not a bug.

Samuel_Michon• 13 years ago

The pledge was for $50. In October, the annual fee was lowered to $36. As a result, current members received 5 extra months on top of the first year. By the time your credit is up, in February or March 2014, I'm sure you'll be able to change your account to a free plan.

http://blog.app.net/2012/10/01/app-net-pricing-changes/?utm_...

jh32• 13 years ago

I can invite three people.

edit: All gone.

tylermauthe3• 13 years ago

Me please: me@tylermauthe.com

jh32• 13 years ago

Invited.

mazsa2• 13 years ago

peter dot hnusername at gmail. Thank you.

mazsa2• 13 years ago

Thanks:)

sumit_psp2• 13 years ago

Can you send me one? pasupalaks at gmail

evanmoran• 13 years ago

Would love an invite if anyone has any left. My name at gmail!

CyberDroiD• 13 years ago

I prefer Twitter over App.net. So far there isn't any reason for me to switch. I have no complaints, so I have no need for a competing service.

Anyone else out there feel the same way? App.net's environment seems hostile (like following only up to 40 people), compared to the friendly environment and user experience with Twitter.

samastur• 13 years ago

No ;)

Obviously you are not alone in liking Twitter, but seriously, no reason whatsoever?

I don't doubt what you say. I just find it astonishing that Twitter behavior and service has been such an absolute match for you.

untog• 13 years ago

Well I'm sure that plenty could be done to improve Twitter, but I'd ask whether app.net does any of those things. Last time I looked it is pretty much exactly the same.

binarycrusader• 13 years ago

No complaints? The sponsored tweets haven't annoyed you yet? The inability to use some twitter clients because Twitter refuses to give out more licenses hasn't annoyed you yet?

I use Twitter a lot, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't jump at the first chance of a real alternative.

jmathai2• 13 years ago

I haven't found the sponsored tweets annoying at all. I mostly don't even notice them. I scan my feed and I only pay attention to the tweets which interest me. Everything else could be an ad as far as I'm concerned.

The number of sponsored ads don't seem high enough to make me feel like it's annoying.

As for Twitter clients. Eh, not sure I care so much. I just need a decent client which doesn't suck.

I think their recent decision sort of suck but as a user I don't know that I care too much.

klapinat0r• 13 years ago

FYI: They don't show up in the Twitter's OSX app, and neither on their Windows Phone integration or their official WP app.

tylermauthe3• 13 years ago

would love an invite please, me@tylermauthe.com

bluetidepro3• 13 years ago

Here you go: https://join.app.net/p/kvyxdfrbhj

wildfeuer• 13 years ago

Would anyone be able to spare an invite?

kwildfeuer@me.com

selectout• 13 years ago

Joining in the crowd...anyone else have an invite? calvin [at] selectout.org

1morematt• 13 years ago

I WOULD LOVE AN INVITE!!! matt [at] ingrouille [dot] net

bluetidepro3• 13 years ago

Sent you one

criley• 13 years ago

The second that App.net was announced and I saw the prices, I was out. You don't pay money to develop for a service that only developers are using.

The price was extremely high in comparison to what it offered: Sure, Apple charges to develop for iOS, but iOS has a few hundred million credit-card enabled customers buying software. App.net had a bunch of already-paid developers using the service.

I tried to figure out the point through a few emails with the creator but ultimately it felt like a service for developers flush with spending money to join a sort of app vanity press.

I'm glad that it's opening up now and I'm suddenly starting to get interested in the project!

Void_• 13 years ago

Meh, App.net always seemed to me like an elite club of rich Twitter haters...

Like by having an account you're saying, hey, I'm rich enough to spend $5/month just because I don't like a company.

Give it to charity for goodness sake.

Shank5• 13 years ago

There are a lot of users & developers who've been burned in the past by Twitter's moves, one way or another. The problem with requiring cash is that it does very little to encourage people to try on the service without being committed to it.

By moving to this free (with 40 people followed) model, they can allow users to try and thus get more that are likely to upgrade to the higher tier when they want more.

Developers (like @falcon_android) that have hit Twitter's token limit are also getting encouragement to move or support it - as it's not a small subset but a very large one of people who can use the service.

eridius6• 13 years ago

Meh, Github always seemed to me like an elite club of rich Bitbucket haters...

Like by having an account you're saying, hey, I'm rich enough to spend $7/mo just because I like a pretty UI.

Give it to charity for goodness sake.

kevingibbon• 13 years ago

When do we deem the App.net experiment a failure?

trafficlight• 13 years ago

If it's an experiment it's neither a success nor failure. It's just a data point.

GVRV• 13 years ago

Would love an invite! :)

gaurav [at] dadhania [dot] in

mcantelon• 13 years ago

Anyone got an invite?

mcantelon at gm ail dot com

lux2• 13 years ago

Would love an invite :) john dot luxford at gmail

bluetidepro3• 13 years ago

sent

lux2• 13 years ago

Thanks!

Yeri• 13 years ago

I'd love an invite as well (yeri@tiete.be).

Cheers.

trotsky• 13 years ago

So remember this: at its core, App.net is an ad-free, subscription-based platform, a backbone, a dialtone. [1]

I had to go back and find that to make sure I wasn't misremembering. If the free tier includes a cap on the number of people you can follow, has the "we're not just a pay twitter" angle been abandoned?

[1] http://blog.app.net/2012/08/

samoakley• 13 years ago

Anyone with remaining invites, It'd be great if you could hook me up with one: sam(at)blork.co.uk

terhechte• 13 years ago

I do have some invites, email me at appetizer@instadesk-app.com first come, first serve :)

Avenger422• 13 years ago

I emailed to request one. If you're out, thanks anyway!

Edit - got it, thanks a million!

igorgue• 13 years ago

Invite please? igfgt1 [at] gmail [dot] com

scott_to_s• 13 years ago

App.net was a great refuge away from all the spammers, and I'm totally happy to pay to keep them out. Very disappointed in this change of policy.

Avenger422• 13 years ago

You still shouldn't get spammers - if all of a paid member's invites go to people who get blacklisted as spammers shortly afterwards, that member shouldn't get any more invites to offer.

MWil2• 13 years ago

invite plz wilcut.matthew at gmail dot com

theootz• 13 years ago

If anyone has an extra invite, would love to have one please: ootz0rz+hn@gmail.com

sucrenoir• 13 years ago

I would love an invite jm[at]iesta.com Thanks :)

tsurantino• 13 years ago

Can someone spare me an invite? arturtsurkan@gmail.com

antoni• 13 years ago

Can the new (free tier) members also invite other people?

IbJacked• 13 years ago

Any more invites floating around? I'd love to have one :)

silentreign at gmail.com

tuananh• 13 years ago

wow lots of people got invited. If anyone til got a spare invite, please send me [at] tuananh.us .Thanks a bunch.

adamnemecek• 13 years ago

Let me try some reverse psychology: No one send me an invite at adamnemecek(shift+2)gmail.com.

MWil2• 13 years ago

no invite sent!

orangethirty2• 13 years ago

Seems like a move to inject some momentum into a stalled growth.

juan_juarez2• 13 years ago

In the MMORPG world, even handing out free trials, let alone going free to play, is often a sign that a game that's dying. It's a last-ditch effort to keep things going for a few more months.

Shank5• 13 years ago

I think that's the wrong way of going about what they're offering. Either they're lying in that blog post (which would be very disingenuous to the people who pay them to operate, the users), or they legitimately had an idea of a free model with benefits added on and wanted to get some buffer cash before going that way.

Everyone saw the writing on the wall about growth when it launched, and the best solution to drive new users (and encourage them to upgrade) is to offer a service at a model that allows them to "get their feet wet" without signing up with a credit card.

eridius6• 13 years ago

Is World of Warcraft dying? They've been handing out free trials for many years now.

orangethirty2• 13 years ago

Well I don't think it's dying. This is the sign of a bigger pivot (the free tier being a smaller one) coming up. Given their track record I think this might turn into something more along the lines of google plus.

jlongster7• 13 years ago

I have 3 invites. First people to answer these questions correctly gets one (only answer one question):

* What is the integral of "x + 2"?

* How would you implement coroutines with continuations? (Just a very brief description is fine) (edit, if nobody answers this in a few min I'll just invite people)

* What is memoization?

imkevinxu2• 13 years ago

x^2/2 + 2x + C

jlongster7• 13 years ago

What email do you want? :D

danabramov3• 13 years ago

In CoffeeScipt-flavored pseudocode, I'd say

    memoize (f): ->
        cache = { }
        () ->
            h = hash arguments
            cache [h] ? (cache [h] = (f arguments))

And my email would be my username at most popular email service dot com.

jlongster7• 13 years ago

I don't know CoffeeScript too well, but reading as pseudo-code looks good.

What email do you want me to use?

rmcooke2• 13 years ago

1/2(x^2) + 2x + c

jlongster7• 13 years ago

You replied 3rd and this was already answered, but I don't think anyone is going to answer the continuation question.

So I'll give it to you. What email do you want?

PizzaManBear• 13 years ago

memoization, basically remember the results of methods that have a particular parameter values. so it does not actually execute the method it retrieves the remembered value

georgemcbay• 13 years ago

IOW, memoization is a pretentious way of saying result caching.

jlongster7• 13 years ago

I still have 1 invite so if you give me your email I'll give it to you.

judofyr• 13 years ago

You can implement coroutines with continuations with two functions:

    def resume
      callcc do |cc|
        $current = self
        @caller = cc
        @resumer.call
      end
    end
    
    def self.yield
      callcc do |cc|
        $current.resumer = cc
        $current.caller.call(cc)
      end
    end

`resume` (on a coro) will store what coroutine we're entering (globally) and the caller-continuation (so we know where to go to after Coro.yield). It will then invoke the `resumer`-continuation. `Coro.yield` will store the `resumer`-continuation on the coro (so we know where to go to after `.resume`).

You need something to kick it off though. The simplest way is probably to use `(@resumer || @code).call`.

jlongster7• 13 years ago

Nice! I've already given my invites away though, sorry :(

runn1ng2• 13 years ago

I have given more downvotes in this story comment section than in my whole Hacker News history.

bdcravens4• 13 years ago

Yep, me too.

IceyEC• 13 years ago

I'd appreciate an invite if anybody has one to share: chmacnaughton [at] gmail [dot] com

csmeder• 13 years ago

I would love an invite. My email is csmeder (gmail.com)

danielsamuels• 13 years ago

I wouldn't mind an invite if someone has one going: daniel.samuels1@gmail.com

jwarzech7• 13 years ago

For those wanting to jump onto App.net backstitch (http://backstit.ch) has over 100 invites to give out.

mandlar• 13 years ago

Verified. Send a request to their twitter @backstitchapp

jwarzech7• 13 years ago

We are sending them out as quick as we can! :)

antihero• 13 years ago

Trying backstitch now. So far it just seems to make the internet more boring.

josiahthomas• 13 years ago

I would love an invite. josiahdthomas [at] gmail [dot] com

bdcravens4• 13 years ago

I'm sorry, all of the replies on HN begging for invites are kind of annoying.

runn1ng2• 13 years ago

If you have enough karma for that, downvote all of them.

bdcravens4• 13 years ago

I did.

goldfeld• 13 years ago

If you want an invite follow me on app.net.

olalonde• 13 years ago

I'll be happy to follow if you invite me :) Email in profile.

manish_gill• 13 years ago

The paid angle was the only reason I never bothered with app.net. Seems like I need to ask around for invites now. :)

Anybody got one?

dangero2• 13 years ago

I'm going to look at this from their perspective. They have a ton of subscribers right now, but they have 2 problems on the near horizon:

1. They know that a lot of subscribers have abandoned the service and probably won't pay again, but they don't want to have to report that the number of users is declining once those subscriptions start to expire.

2. Acquiring new customers is not happening fast enough to keep critical mass or grow.

This move is to address those two problems. I also think it's a negative signal for the future of the company because I don't think a limited free account will get people to join. While they make clear that they are not a Twitter clone, the concept of following people is a Twitter concept, and you don't have those same limitations on a Twitter free account.

There's something in general that bothers me about App.net. In my career I've found that software engineers rarely are able to climb the org chart like business people are. The reason I've found is that engineers in general have a certain disdain for schmoozing and company politics, so they try to isolate themselves from it. App.net's marketing pitch I feel appeals to that isolationist desire and that's part of the reason it was such a hit.

eridius6• 13 years ago

What's your evidence to support claim #1?

ChikkaChiChi2• 13 years ago

Actually, I think the lack of active users was proven recently.

This "goodwill" move seems to reinforce that. This smells like Second Life's PR all over again.

edit: OP changed #1. Used to say they had a ton of users.

webwanderings• 13 years ago

So this starts a new business model: app.net apps and their paid users prostituting for customers/followers with an invite?

kmlymi• 13 years ago

if anyone has an invite left, kmlymi (at) gmail.com please.

perishabledave2• 13 years ago

Anyone see the 40 people limit as a problem with this working? I would think limiting connections would limit the usefulness of the service, leading free users to dismiss ADN.

I would like to see ADN become a fully armed and op.. err fully sustainable service (I paid up when they started), but I'm wondering if they should have went further with the free tier.

eridius6• 13 years ago

For a lot of people, the only ADN functionality they really care about is that which replicates Twitter. How do you provide a free tier to these people that doesn't remove any incentive to go paid? Limiting the number of people you can follow seems like a great way to do this.

perishabledave2• 13 years ago

I'm interested to see what uses people come up with for ADN's storage. If there are some neat uses, that could be a great incentive.

I don't disagree with the limit providing a great incentive to go paid, but when a free user joins, there is a point where the user decides this service is neat/useful enough that he wants to pay for it. I wonder if this limit might hinder people reaching that point.

Shank5• 13 years ago

If anything, it gives incentive to follow only people you truly care about instead of the "everybody follow everybody" model Twitter has. Probably a lot less people willing to follow companies and more following users & interacting with a smaller pool of them.

supercoder• 13 years ago

Free as in falling.

laureny• 13 years ago

First they charge for it.

Then they make it free.

Then they die.

pkrumins• 13 years ago

Can I've an invite please? peteris.krumins@gmail.com

dpatrick86• 13 years ago

Me too. dan@mdpatrick.com

jwarzech7• 13 years ago

Sent you an invite!

jwarzech7• 13 years ago

Sent you one courtesy of backstitch!

gatesphere• 13 years ago

Hopping on the begging train: gatesphere [at] gmail.

Thanks!

ChikkaChiChi2• 13 years ago

I thought that the paywall was supposed to keep degenerates like me away from those cliques that formed during the early years of the term "blogosphere" Wasn't the whole point of this to make you pay to listen to people like Scoble?

The only people who care about platforms are people like us. The average user doesn't care about App.Net being a "more civilized" Twitter.

mumphster• 13 years ago

Glad to see this. I really liked playing around with their API and even wrote a SMS <-> App.Net gateway client thing (https://github.com/Ell/appdotnet-sms/blob/master/app.py)

ineedtosleep• 13 years ago

I haven't followed app.net too closely, but was that fact that "[...] [they] initially conceived of App.net as a freemium service" a secret at all? From the tone of the comments so far, it's like this entire thing is a surprise.

lovamova• 13 years ago

If this account gets an invite lovamova@gmail.com, I think I don't visit HN daily for nothing.

indy• 13 years ago

If anyone still wants an invite, I've got 3 available. Just send your email address to appdotnetinvite@indy.io

ronaldsvilcins4• 13 years ago

Can someone invite me, please? ronalds.vilcins [at] gmail.com

ronaldsvilcins4• 13 years ago

Would love an invite to app.net please, ronalds.vilcins@gmail.com

dmalenko• 13 years ago

Any spare invite for dmalenko @ gmail.com, please?

nealpgards• 13 years ago

would love an invite if anyone has an extra! nealpgardner at gmail

gogoalba• 13 years ago

could you give me invitation, thanks, hsj717#126.com，

jwarzech7• 13 years ago

If anyone is still interested in invites, backstitch (http://backstit.ch) still has a bunch to hand out.

As of today, App.net is a freemium service

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