Since you're just starting, can you maybe go beyond what Twitter does in some obvious ways? We've learned a lot about social media in the last few years and you're still agile enough to incorporate all the lessons and make things significantly better.
As an example, my biggest issue with Twitter is the noise, which mostly stems from a single issue: people I follow don't only share interesting things, but they also share a lot of irrelevant stuff such as pictures from family hike. I'm sure this is interesting to some of their personal friends, but not to me. I want to subscribe to that person on a "coding" stream, and leave the "personal" stream alone. People are multi-dimensional beings with many orthogonal interests; Consider giving them multiple stdouts.
Also, I have to say, 140 is often too little :) Will you also force me to write up the occasional longer post on Google+ and then link to it?
This looks nice, I just hope you won't be a Twitter bare bones re-implementation that I have to pay for. Ideology gives you many points, but I'm not certain about just to what degree a sponsored tweet here and there really bothers me.
As someone who doesn't use Facebook, Twitter, G+ or other crazy social networks, I must say that for the first time I can see myself using a social network if it was like what you described (i.e. multiple streams).
Though, in practice I don't think it would be as successful as you (and maybe I) hope. People who use twitter want to say something and they want to say it fast; they don't want to stop and think "is what I'm sharing (for example, iOS 6 download links when it comes out) code related, or related to Apple, or work?"...
These are only the first screenshots of the UI built on the API to show this isn't vaporware. You should follow that dribbble account, because there is much more to come!
It's awesome that App.net is trying to build something new, but I think the Hacker News market is somewhat saturated considering how many articles have been on the front page lately. If people haven't donated by now, I don't think a few screenshots will sway their opinion that much. I'd guess that turning your effort towards other avenues would be a better use of time.
First I'd ever heard of App.net was Siracusa's "Hypercritical" podcast last night. This post on HN reminded me to check it out. I added my support. Just wish someone would do something like this for Path (and all the other web services that I love, but don't want to become the "product")
It's times like this that I realize how much I take HN for granted. Great service. No Ads. Fantastic Community.
identi.ca is just a site, a red herring as I explained in the other twitter thread of the day. It runs off the StatusNet platform, a software package in the way wordpress is (as opposed to wordpress.com, a site.)
Even more important is the OStatus protocol, which if adopted, would allow decentralization and federation with other sites that speak the same protocol.
I'm sure I'll sound horribly impolite, but why did you choose such an Apple-esque style?
You all could be a revolutionary team, but as far as I can see the UI is not a revolution at all. I'm not telling you that a drastically innovative interface is needed, but to be future-proof you should go fully-digital, if not something farther.
The interface must be perfect, cool, useful, built tightly around the user and functions, not nice.
Thanks for the feedback. I know I probably sound redundant at this point, but we are still very early in the development this product. These screenshots are meant to show a working prototype built on our API and also to spark your imagination!
@comex for example expressed his likes about the UI, do not take my opinions as simple critics about the style. But looks like an UI that every UI designer could come up to. Well, it's pretty and curated. Thinking about it you have to account for customers/users with strong expectation from such a service, it's not that stupid to go for the well-trodden path.
I hope you're not going to be flooded by a too common design...
Wow. The fact that some teaser screenshots are getting so much attention is great news for App.net.
Honestly I wasn't sure about Dalton's prospects at first -- but with the developer community hanging on to his every word, he might have a shot.
I still remember the days when Twitter was just a bunch of geeks tweeting about how much they hated MySpace. Now they can update their App.net statuses about how much they hate Facebook.
But just having 10K people who want App.net successful is not enough to get me to put in $50 (or to even try it out for free).
Now, if this a community of a 100 entrepreneurs, I might be more interested. Perhaps, you guys need channels for various groups or something.
My point is that I cannot yet find an excuse to see why you will be successful and therefore would want to bet anything on you. Help me find that excuse :-)
I understand your uncertainty, however I encourage you to search twitter for people who have pledged their support (we have highlighted a handful on join.app.net). I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!
It seems like the name of this project alone is enough to guarantee traction problems. Having a searchable name these days counts for more than having a name that is clever, short, appealing, or anything else.
I think that whatever comes out of this campaign (i.e. certain failure), the team of app.net should continue developing this service bc the need for it will emerge one day in the future. It's just that right now, this point hasn't been reached yet. But being able to move first when the time has come is a good thing.
Right now they should, instead of associating this project with failure, provide the service for free but be clear about the fact that they will start charging for it at some point in the future. Or maybe offer a free and a paid plan with the former being limited in possible API calls.
As an example, my biggest issue with Twitter is the noise, which mostly stems from a single issue: people I follow don't only share interesting things, but they also share a lot of irrelevant stuff such as pictures from family hike. I'm sure this is interesting to some of their personal friends, but not to me. I want to subscribe to that person on a "coding" stream, and leave the "personal" stream alone. People are multi-dimensional beings with many orthogonal interests; Consider giving them multiple stdouts.
Also, I have to say, 140 is often too little :) Will you also force me to write up the occasional longer post on Google+ and then link to it?
This looks nice, I just hope you won't be a Twitter bare bones re-implementation that I have to pay for. Ideology gives you many points, but I'm not certain about just to what degree a sponsored tweet here and there really bothers me.