
You Can’t Start the Revolution from the Country Club - vectorbunny
https://medium.com/p/65fb61abc815
======
mc32
App.net is only going to be a "problem" if the alternatives, for some reason,
cease to exist, and no-one decides to enter the vacuum (private or public).

But why stop there. Why not ask Twitter (and anyone else) to make everyone
everyone else's followers. Is it fair to have to build your own followers?
Isn't it unfair that only some people get to be trendsetters and leaders
within those communities? What good is an open (or closed) platform if your
voice is miniscule/diluted?

Is exclusivity a problem, if you can build your own (exclusive/inclusive)
clubs?

Sure, the internet is nominally open, such that people are pretty much free to
join G+, FB, Twitter, Blogger, etc. But in practice, most people self select
and gravitate to their own places/groups/friends, etc.

If you want to ensure an alternative open platform, then go ahead and build
your own, if you can't, then as in any case where one is underrepresented,
clamor, get attention and get served. If people in third world countries can
build apps and sites to support their needs, there is no reason people in
first world economies cannot.

------
m0nastic
I thought Siracusa had a really good take on this in last Friday's
Hypercritical (<http://5by5.tv/hypercritical/81>)

One point he made that resonated with me was how it was offensive to say that
people wanting to support App.net are doing so to "flee from Twitter" based on
the service being populist.

Even discounting the fact that the entire way you experience Twitter is
exclusionary (based on the asymmetric follow model), it seems willfully
disingenuous to ignore the main reason people are wary of Twitter (mainly, the
companies current decisions around controlling the experience, and people's
fear of what they will do in the future).

And catchy headline aside, if the "revolution" you're trying to start is one
where people pay for the services they use instead of being at the mercy of
advertisers, a country club isn't as bad a place to start it from as he makes
out.

And I say that as someone who doesn't think App.net has a chance in hell of
supplanting Twitter (which to be fair, isn't even their goal).

------
jack-r-abbit
Wow... App.net has been funded for what... a week? And already people are
pulling out both the Gender Card and the Race Card. _sigh_

~~~
norswap
Agreed. Also stating svbtle is a tool that "improves and simplify the
experience for writing and creating content online" made me quietly chuckle,
knowing it's invite only.

