The slowdown was unsurprising for a network with roughly 30,000 users. So, in order to keep revenue coming, Mr Haddad made Netbot free. But rather than sell his users out for a pittance to online ad men, he took advantage of App.net’s incentive programme. Each month the social network currently divvies up $20,000 in cash among its most active developers, based on usage patterns and a monthly survey of users’ opinion.

Very smart.