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I'll give App.net one thing:

They get more press on HN than any other irrelevant company in the world.

They have funding. Journalists like free lunches.

I think it's more that they have lower odds of success (at their current mission) than most startups, but if they're successful, a bigger impact. And fundamentally it's meta, so more interesting than any given startup -- there's more of a philosophical argument behind it than just a better designed chat client or whatever.

Well, I think they captured some imaginations, to the point where they were told it's impossible. So it's an interesting experiment. Especially since they've been success and on-target to deliver most of their promises so far.

It's a huge risk, that not many investors would take. The financial returns are questionable, but what it could do for the Internet as a platform is disrupt the current mega social providers and IMHO I think that's worth trying.

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