Charging for access, of course, is anathema to the worlds most popular social networks. You never paid a dime to access Facebook or Twitter. (Nor did you ever pay to access MySpace or Friendster, and look what happened to those guys.) But by launching with an upfront, annual fee, App.net can scale out its costs in tandem with its user growth. The more users it needs to support, the more money App.net must spend on server infrastructure; by charging for each new user, the service can pay for itself and allow its creators to profit.

The goal for App.net, of course, is that everyone quits Twitter and moves over to App.net instead.

Thats not going to happen.

Right now, Im still actively tweeting, as are the folks I follow. Im less actively posting on App.net, but Im still checking in with the service multiple times each day. As the serviceand numerous third-party appsprogress from unpolished alphas to polished, user-friendly products, Ill surely spend more time there.