I'm not backing it because there isn't a real need for it. It would be nice to use a twitter like service ad-free as a customer and not as a product but whenever you charge for a service like this attracting people to it is very difficult. A lot of people I know love and user twitter. None of them would pay for this. So, why would I pay for this if none of the people I care about are using it?

To me it seems like Twitter pissed this guy off so he decided to try and build a competitor. It's a nice idea (and something us geeks can get behind) but if he did any market research I bet he would have discovered very quickly it's a lost cause. The vast majority of people aren't going to pay for a product they can get for free and people are the most important aspect of a social network. Without people it's doomed to failure.