[lkrubner]

I find people's attitudes on HN difficult to decipher on this issue. Run this search on Google:

posthaven site:news.ycombinator.com

the full URL:

https://www.google.com/search?q=posthaven+site%3Anews.ycombi...

and for App.net:

https://www.google.com/search?q=posthaven+site%3Anews.ycombi...

On HN, those 2 sites are roughly equal, or possibly PostHaven gets a little bit more attention. Why is that?

Both sites offer micro-blogging. App.net has been around longer and has devoted more resources to building an API that will allow 3rd party developers to do interesting things with its micro-blogging service.

You can post images to App.net.

You can post long-form essays to App.net.

You can post short tweets to App.net.

App.net has over 20 3rd party apps already, which offers a kind of social proof from 3rd party developers that PostHaven does not yet have.

So why is it that people are willing to talk about PostHaven, and give its model some serious consideration, while dismissing App.net?

App.net offers everything that PostHaven offers, but App.net is much further developed.

[comex]

On the contrary, my memory is that while Posthaven had a few front page posts as it launched and has since been mostly left alone, app.net has had a constant barrage of them during its "kickstarting" and afterward. Your own Google link seems to bear that out. There are certainly commenters in every thread dismissive of app.net - probably more than of Posthaven, since where Posthaven's entire reason for existence is to have a modest and obviously sustainable business model, app.net's goals are somewhat unfocused but extremely lofty - but there are many praising it in every thread.

What does Posthaven even have to do with this article?

[fakeer]

App.net http://cl.ly/OSPc Posthaven http://cl.ly/ORwQ

Right, that is safely 40% less :-)

[minimaxir]

I'd recommend you do a Custom Search starting from 2/18/13, the date Posthaven was announced, in order to do a fair apples-to-apples comparison. The results are much different. :)

[comex]

Although app.net has the advantage of time, including the launch hype about Posthaven but not app.net is quite unfair :)

Anyway, I think number of Google results is a bad measure, since it counts posts and comments equally, and seems somewhat arbitrary in its choice of comments.

[vineet]

PostHaven's value proposition is much clearer (to me). They are focusing on content creators and are building a site that will remain around for sometime. I don't see a potential user even wanting apps on it. The site is ready today.

App.net's value proposition is just not clear. I can't think of a reason to sign up for other that the face that it will be great someday.

[jonathanjaeger]

Posthaven came out of the ashes of Posterous, which a lot of people on HN used (including me). Right now I switched to Posthaven from Posterous because the transition was seamless. Add to the fact Garry Tan is obviously well-known in the YC community, so that gets the discussion a little more attention.

App.net started with a certain positioning, not as a similar product to the Posterous or Posthavens of the world, but as a mission in how it would treat its customers (at least that's how Dalton Caldwell framed it in the intro videos). Although app.net has changed over time, I think a lot of people on HN view it with skepticism because of the lofty goal of moving users away from Twitter or Facebook. I think people couldn't bet on the fact that a critical mass of people would move from those sites simply because they make their money off of advertising dollars.

[minimaxir]

Because Posthaven has the Posterous branding and endorsement of the Posterous founder.

Brand identity and switching cost is a hard thing for most people to overcome. It's why Blogger still exists. And then there's the chicken-and-egg problem that the former Posterous had already solved.