Last week we added an app.net connection to Flattr. We know that a lot of people have requested connections to other services, but adding app.net was not because of heavy request. We think that projects like app.net are of utmost importance for the future of the internet, that is why we have added app.net.
app.net in one sentence is: “a Twitter that you pay for”. Their idea is to create a social network that won’t rely on advertising as the business model, basically they wan’t to create a social network for the users, not for the advertisers. Not everyone knows that most social networks on the web does not have a business model other than selling information about their users in some way. This can be your social habits, what you like or webpages you visit around the web. Most of your behavior is tracked wherever you go. By taking a fee, app.net can guarantee that you own your own data, they don’t need to sell it to make ends meet.
Backing app.net was beyond question
Flattr has been in the works for several years, and one thing that we have seen clearly during this time is the consolidation of power into a few players. Players that clearly have become more and more evil.
The new Twitter terms, Facebooks dominance or Apples arbitrary Appstore rules might not be a threat to Flattrs existence, but it is for sure a threat to the openness of the internet. The all-powerful are playing a game we don’t like. If app.net will succeed with their mission is not relevant at the moment, the fact that they are trying is. We think helping them is our responsibility.
Connect to app.net
If you want to support people posting on app.net you can flattr posts with our extension and all of you out there posting on app.net, connect your account to enable people to flattr you.
I have also added support for App.net in Flattrstar for flattring users you follow. More to come as soon as favs and reshares are added to App.net.
Not sure this can be true, but when I tried to tweet about this Twitters mac client refused to post any tweet containing “app.net”. Had to add a # before to be able to post. If this is filtering by Twitter it only proves the point even more.
What about identi.ca and other status.net sites? They are free as in freedom and were here for a much longer time than this new app.net thingy ;-P.
Yes they are already on our long list of connections to add, we just prioritized app.net at the moment.
And yet, when I flattr something, up pops the dialog to share this good news but it offers me only the legacy services (Twitter and Facebook).
How are they going to convince people to pay for something they have for free? Moreover, they have convince full groups of friends because one person won’t move to another social network if their contacts don’t do the same.
What would happen to the service if facebook or twitter offer the same paid service combined with the ads based model? They already are big so you have to offer something they won’t replicate easily.
So, does this work like with Twitter, where one can just flattr any App.net account and that person will get the money once they claim that id?
What URL exactly would we have to flattr for this to work?
And will this also work with flattring actual posts?
App.net integration works in the same way as Twitter. You can flattr app.net users (https://alpha.app.net/smgt) and posts (https://alpha.app.net/smgt/post/285315). I hope this answers you question.
If only app.net was Free Software (then it would be truly owning youself) and federated (then they would actually stand a chance togheter with the other small players against the monopoloists).