I'm a bit surprised the comments here are so overwhelmingly critical. I think there's a legitimate point here, which is that the users paying money is not a silver bullet. It's not as if paid services don't make decisions that end up screwing users one way or another, not to mention the fact that subscription fees and ads are not always mutually exclusive (witness cable TV, newspapers, etc). In fact Twitter toed the line for years, building developer confidence and providing a solid platform. This is precisely the problem that App.net is addressing: Twitter appeared to be trustworthy but when push came to shove they decided to throw the developers under the bus because they had enough normals that they figured the developers and early adopters weren't necessary anymore.
The reason App.net is more trustworthy is because its founding principles are a direct response to this existential threat of advertising dollars subverting the platform. The paying users part is merely the explanation of how to make this company work, not the guarantee that they will do no wrong.
My only potential gripe with App.net is that they can't protect their users after the company is acquired. The Instagram/Sparrow problem combined with tendancy of almost every company to kowtow to the advertising industry is a valid concern for me.
They should follow an IRC or Jabber model. Anyone can host an IRC/jabber server. Maybe App.net can make an industrial twitter server to be hosted on windows, *nix, etc.
But of course, that's not what App.net is going after. That is what I think would be a lot better. Or maybe an industrial Facebook-ish server, too. Would be helpful to run in-house in giant organizations, I bet.
The reason App.net is more trustworthy is because its founding principles are a direct response to this existential threat of advertising dollars subverting the platform. The paying users part is merely the explanation of how to make this company work, not the guarantee that they will do no wrong.