[elomarns]

Exactly!

That's why I think App.net. is great!

It's hard to have a consumer product with subscriptions as business model, but I think worth the try. This way you treat the people who make you pay the bills with the respect they deserve.

[jmathai]

See @graue's post above :)

[elomarns]

I agree with @graue, descentralized services are better for their users. At least on theory. But I don't have any problem in using a good service provided by a company. Many things I can't live without were created by a company aiming to gain some money. The main point to me is focus on please your customers. So if a company do this, it will have my money.

[jmathai]

++

The issues I have with App.net is that their claims of "we won't screw the user" don't really have any legs to stand on. No company starts out wanting to screw users. But when it comes to turning a profit sometimes you have to put users second. There's nothing built into App.net's model that would prevent that.

Federation bakes that into the model from the beginning. So they're making core claims that aren't built into their core model.

I'm happy to pay for online services like App.net but I wish their messaging would have more sustenance.