

The Twitter Rebellion: App.net Builds a Hacker's Alternative - tdgrnwld
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the-twitter-rebellion-appnet-offers-a-hackers-alternative.php

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milliams
How is this different from Status.net or Identi.ca?

<http://status.net/product> <http://identi.ca/>

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18pfsmt
Um, it's closed source with an API, and you get to pay for it to the tune of
$50/yr assuring it's continued development...or something like that.

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jonmwords
The whole spec is there on GitHub for your perusal and criticism, though.
<https://github.com/appdotnet/api-spec>

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MatthewPhillips
> On Thursday, Instagram released an update in which the "find friends from
> Twitter" feature is broken. Instagram shows a warning message: “Twitter no
> longer allows its users to access this information in Instagram via the
> Twitter API.”

This passed QA? Users don't need to be aware of an implementation detail like
this.

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milesokeefe
It might help them lobby to get it back. Or maybe they want to show that
Twitter is responsible, not themselves.

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MatthewPhillips
You shouldn't pull your users into business/political battles like that. These
are billion dollar companies fighting.

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true_religion
Why not?

\---

That said, I think this is fair because Instagram didn't have time to
deprecate the feature and now _needs_ to explain why it isn't available.

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pwpwp
Can somebody tell me why building a centralized service that stores messages
is a good idea?

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msie
Because a distributed service would take longer to build and probably not get
built?

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icebraining
Except it already exists in the form of StatusNet. You can already download
the program, install it on your server and follow people from other servers
(and vice-versa).

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munimkazia
Yeah. As inspiring as it sounds right now, it is not going to work. Your
common user is not going to shell out cash for a service like this. It doesn't
matter if he won't get ads or if his information won't be sold. This thing
will build up a lot of hype, may probably get funded, but eventually will die
out after hackers and tech blogs lose interest. Much like diaspora.

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jonmwords
It's not for common users. It's for people who want to pay for this service.
Developers will build federation out to Twitter to reach those who don't want
to participate.

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Apocryphon
It may be good for developers, but what about it will convince users to switch
from Twitter to using it?

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lleims
Easy answer: the majority of users won't switch. This reminds me a bit of the
Diaspora hype a few months ago.

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shampoo
I don't understand why we all don't just install a copy of identi.ca and run
with it..

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pgrote
I know nothing about Twitter's patents. Wouldn't something like this infringe
upon them?

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almost
Why would it? Do you think twitter has a patent on the idea of status updates?

Hey, maybe they do, the patent system is pretty messed up after all, but I
would guess not!

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roqetman
How will it get future funding for upkeep etc?

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mikegreenspan
App.net is a subscription-based service. i.e. Users and developers pay a
yearly fee.

