App.net continues in the same direction: backwards
Very few developers need App.net to add features or APIs, and I just don’t see a lot of demand for the new APIs and theoretical use-cases that they’re now pushing.
You know what developers are good at? Developing. You know what they don’t need? Yet another freakin’ API. If they needed an API, they could find one or make one. The available options for doing these things have never been easier or better.
The original idea behind App.net seemed to be this: Let’s build an infrastructure that’s so good, developers will want to build all kinds of amazing products on top of it!
Engineers are fascinated by infrastructure. Engineers love being creative by building new and clever types of infrastructure. As an engineer, it’s easy to get so wrapped up in the fascinating details of the infrastructure you’re building that you forget what the ultimate goal of it should be:
The user.
If there’s no-one to use your infrastructure, there’s no point.
That’s why you always start with the user. How can I delight the user? How can I make the user’s life better? You build an app around that, then (and only then), if necessary, you build an infrastructure around that app. The user is in the centre, and everything else is designed around supporting the user. You couldn’t possibly get the right design for everything else if you don’t even know who the user is!
App.net started with the infrastructure instead of the user. They didn’t answer these questions. They still haven’t.