New Social Network Woos Users, for $50

There’s a new social network in town, or at least there might be if enough people believe it enough to send money.

App.net is asking potential users to pay $50 to join, and in return it promises uses a “real-time social feed without the ads.” Founder Dalton Caldwell says the site will come to life if it raises $500,000 by Monday, and it had $400,000 as of this afternoon.

Caldwell thinks Twitter, Facebook, and the like have been ruined by ads and spam, and his idea is a “noble-sounding effort” that has won praise from other techies, writes Steve Kovach at Business Insider. But at Gawker, Adrien Chen pokes fun at the “geekier-than-thou” premise and its believers’ “socially conscious self-satisfaction.” Still, Chen isn’t betting against it. “I wouldn’t underestimate the geek hipster.”