app.net, the new social network without ads or spam or celebrities or developer restrictions or users

I keep failing to not trash other threads with app.net talk, and now that it's ҉ free ҉ it's slowly gaining relevance (especially with stuff like google reader collapsing) so

re elvis telecom's point here about app.net being in an ideal position to step into the google reader breach: http://blog.app.net/2013/03/15/how-app-net-could-be-helpful-to-next-generation-rss-readers/ (none of which is about directly running a full google reader clone within the current app.net framework)

been hearing people on the 5by5 podcast network talk about this for months but i've been studiously avoiding visiting the site for fear i might i actually pay for it. i'm confused, though--i thought 'you're paying for it, so you know we'll make it valuable and not serve you ads' was their whole value proposition.

like, how does their new freeness affect that

their model is the same as dropbox and evernote, in that you can have a basic set of services free of charge, and if you perceive value you might choose to pay for additional features. in this case it's the ability to follow 40 people and a small amt of file storage (500 mb iirc), that becomes unlimited following and 10 gb of storage if you pay.

new iphone app lists the available apps, recommends users and apparently gives you a free invitation to sign up: http://app.net/passport

so is this thing worth it or

no way

seriously

right now it's just a no homers club

i love it but i'm not expecting 500b users so