I think now is a great time to remind everyone, like sync’s developer, Lemmy’s developers need to be paid too! The amount of time all the devs put into making lemmy exist, in my opinion, should be worth some of your money. If you can afford it, donating to the people who develop lemmy and/or the people keeping your home instance up will accelerate the incredible growth of lemmy!
That’s how things should work honestly. Those that can chip in, should. A beer every so often goes a long way. It’s honestly something I barely notice in my finances too. This time it goes to something I believe in instead of a twitch sub lol.
Don’t get me started on twitch subs. Supporting a creator you like is fine, but spending 100s of dollars on gift subs is so stupid.
Twitch looking at their top creators leaving for other platforms.
Increasing our revenue share, unilaterally, should fix this.
“Supporting creators is fine, but supporting them more is so stupid”
Ok LUL.
Is that what gift subs are? I’ve never understood that. Is it like a tip?
Subs are kinda like tip, except you get something in return. Usually its emotes you can use on any stream on twitch. Some streamers can make other stuff like sub only discord channel but its optional.
Gift subs are exactly the same except you give the benefits to some other chaters.
My guess is they mean in the sense of “support creaters as you’d like, but don’t throw all your money into it just for them to pay attention to you for a second”
Well then they probably should’ve said that instead of saying something unrelated to the point ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Eli5 gift subs?
Subs = subscriptions.
A sub on Twitch gives you a badge and special emojis on your subbed channel (streamer).
You also have the option to gift (randomly) 1, 5, 25, 50, 100 subs to random followers (users).
A sub costs $5 in the US, you can gift 100 subs ($500) if you want to.
Agreed, I started donating to Lemmy as soon as I switched, and I’m happy to pay for sync too. I want to support this ecosystem.
Yep! The developer of Connect for Lemmy is getting caffeinated on a regular basis by me. It’s a perfect fit for the RIF gap in my heart. ;)
He/She(?) is doing an awesome job and it’s amazing how far this app has come in just a few short weeks. I am trying to keep the dev motivated as much as possible, for sure!
My only gripe is that it’s not open source, but that is OK.
“They”
Very true
Sync dev wanting something worth for the all the work they’re doing is fine imo. You can tell he put a lot of effort into the app.
The sync cult however seem to be as annoying as they were on reddit. They are like this when we discuss anything about sync’s pricing even on non sync communities.
“I’m so happy I can buy sync again”
“Sync is the best”
“No other 3PA can compare to it in my experience”
This is one of the few times I feel like “nobody asked” applies.
Did somebody asked your opinion?
No. But here we are. Reading about the “sync cult” whatever that is.
So… Let’s extend that courtesy to everyone, all right?
Because a “nobody asked about your opinion” stance is a sure fire way to end any discussion platform. Like lemmy.
What I do think that Mr. Dawson should do is direct a percentage of that sweet sync income at lemmy.world and the lemmy devs. That would end or at least lessen this discussion.
I’d normally agree. I don’t really like when someone responds with “nobody asked” to me or someone else.
But I really don’t think a comment such as “I’m glad I can buy sync again” is appropriate for posts such as this. OP came to remind us to donate to lemmy devs as one of the main topics of lemmy is about sync now. The OP and the users who clicked this post didn’t come to see comments like those from those specific sync users.
As for calling them a cult, I apologize for that.
Again, I also agree “nobody asked” isn’t really a healthy way to proceed but those comments really do feel irrelevant. I have no idea what their purpose is here.
No need to apologise for anything bud, this is the Internet where Linus rants daily! We all do!
I understand you’re fed up with all the sync bs. I just think we have to try to turn this in/to a way everybody gets better from it.
The reddit refugees are happy because “this feels just like home”, they(we) don’t care it’s 20 bucks!
The og Foss crowd grumpingly :) accepts the higher amount of contributions which stems from that. (this is the point we’ve to drive home to ljdawson(sync dev)
And we all benefit because the fediverse grows and keeps growing, more content, more everything. Shiny beautiful future, end to war and world hunger, beginning of a new era where humanity reaches for the stars or dies because of a rogue AI or because of a runaway greenhouse effect.
Wait. No, not those last ones. It should have a happy ending.
Anyway: Everybody is happy. More or less. :) *for a while. *
Conversely, all the memes trying to shit on sync by people who never used it or even tried it, who asked?
right? “sync users never shut up”
meanwhile my feed:
edit: and three posts down:
we get it you don’t like sync, I’m just trying to find content in an app i enjoy 🤷♂️
Ohh, that’s mine. Sorry if my post annoyed you, i’m just trying my best adding content to lemmy. Funny enough, i’m really to throw money at ultra sub because i love reddit sync, but seeing the pricing and no regional price while the app still in beta state, i’d rather not, for now.
App is nice though, feels like home.
There is regional pricing though, look at the comments under posts about removing ads. Some are paying the equivalent of $15, others €18 to €23.
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Pretty sure my region is where my Google account is set up rather than my instance, and I’m at the upper end of the prices I saw. Thanks for the head start in the wrong direction though.
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lol it’s all good 😁 I don’t mind the posts at all
Personally I find both sides a bit grating, but moreso the anti-Sync crowd lol.
I used Sync for Reddit and paid for lifetime, but after a while I found that I liked Infinity better, so I switched. I’m now using Infinity for Lemmy and probably won’t use Sync for Lemmy, but people who are using Sync (and paid for it)? Good for them. No need to tell them, “Haha you’re a sucker for paying for something when there are free alternatives!!”, you lose absolutely nothing by other people using Sync or other proprietary apps.
Let people use what they want, jfc.
Q on infinity, is it possible to hide/collapse comments? When I click on a comment, it just shows/hides the toolbar. That’s what’s stopping me from using at the moment.
On infinity a long press will collapse all comments replying to that comment. With the “Fully collapse comment” setting enabled (under Interface->comment) it will collapse that comment too. The setting “Swap tap and long press in comments” (under Gestures & buttons) will make it so tapping has that effect instead. In the comment toolbar, to the left of the save comment button there is an up arrow that also triggers the collapse of the comment.
Thank you!
Edit: back on infinity with this change :)
Damn these people being happy their favorite app is on Lemmy.
Seriously why do you care ?
Also, the reality is not that the sync cult is too vocal it’s that they represent a solid chunk of the overall user base.
And also the fact that on Lemmy there is not much content as of now so minor things can become events.
I’m a bit salty about sync’s pricing especially because I already bought the ads removal when sync was on reddit. And I feel like this is not a new code base so I should at least get a minor discount.
There are all kinds of sync users, stop oversimplifying things and spreading stereotypes. Just let people enjoy their few days of being happy they can browse Lemmy in their comfort zone.
The sync cult however seem to be as annoying as they were on reddit.
This is very weird for me because I was very active on reddit for many years and was subscribed to the android and sync subreddits. Barely ever seen any comments or posts about sync. If you had a lot of interaction about sync on reddit, I have to believe it’s because you were looking for that type of content. Or maybe you had a very narrow selection of subreddits. I don’t know.
Seriously why do you care ?
Not the person you were replying to but it does get a bit much when a thread isn’t about Sync - like this one for example, which is trying to draw attention to funding Lemmy development and instance sustainability - and then it gets hit with people talking about how much they love Sync and they’re happy to pay for it.
You realize this branch started with someone adding 0 content about supporting the server or lemmy?
I’m not sure if this is your first time using threaded conversation based software but that’s really not how a thread works.
Is that not the first response to OP on this branch?
Please see my previous response.
Is this a point about using the word, “branch.”
Or you pointing out that conversation organically drifts? Or something else?
My guy go read the threads title
My guy read the actual post.
They are both the submission. Unfortunately OP made sync’s cost part of the topic and the pivot point into a reasonable ask.
Headlines matter and cannot be completely separated from the entirety of the message.
Y’know, most people are capable of nuance and ascertaining meaning from context.
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Again this is organic. A large influx of sync users started being active on Lemmy. It will fade out in a matter of days.
I understand the sentiment but honestly feel like people are creating unnecessary drama. This is just a temporary trend just like we had days and days of beans meme which was also mildly annoying after 5/6 days.
True, drama hits everywhere, but it can easily be avoided in a post about the importance of supporting lemmy development and instance sustainability by not going on that post to comment how much you personally love a for-profit app. Or any app in fact.
I’m a bit salty about sync’s pricing especially because I already bought the ads removal when sync was on reddit. And I feel like this is not a new code base so I should at least get a minor discount.
I am in the similar boat. I feel that I left reddit in solidarity with the 3rd party app developers. And, I was expecting the price to reflect some discount for the people who left in solidarity.
I also feel that ad removal is a in principle as most people on lemmy would be using tools to already block ads. I am willing to pay, but I am hardly inconvenienced by the ads.
And right there is the problem. I bought sync for reddit so why should I have to pay for lemmy. I mean the developer had to do work to rewrite for the lemmy api.
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Seriously why do you care ?
Hmm, I’m not sure how much I actually do. It’s mostly these posts coming to my feed automatically and this is like the main lemmy topic today.
The sync cult however seem to be as annoying as they were on reddit.
This is very weird for me because I was very active on reddit for many years and was subscribed to the android and sync subreddits. Barely ever seen any comments or posts about sync.
Hmm, maybe I shouldn’t actually have called them a cult after thinking through more. But I do find some of what they do annoying like what I mentioned before.
If you had a lot of interaction about sync on reddit, I have to believe it’s because you were looking for that type of content. Or maybe you had a very narrow selection of subreddits. I don’t know.
Sync was mostly drama free but there were two things I noticed on reddit.
-
Sometimes when free version users come to troubleshoot an issue, premium users would try to convince them to buy the pro version to support the developer without offering a solution(most likely because they can’t offer a solution). I was in many different third party apps and this was absurd to me. I don’t recall seeing anything like this in any of the other third party app subreddits. A reason behind this might be the large userbase. Sync has a much larger userbase than most third party android apps. Also, sync dev and the moderators were chill. It was just comments from random users.
-
The developer once released a major update which many old time users didn’t like. They raged to the point that the sync dev took a pretty long break to the point people were wondering if sync was abandoned or not. Even his own moderators lost contact with him. I wasn’t even subscribed to the sync subreddit when this happened and l learned of it like a few weeks or maybe a month or two later from I think r/androidapps or a similar subreddit where people were discussing their favourite third party apps.
So, nope. Sync isn’t drama free completely and my selection of subreddits definitely weren’t narrow(I had to make multiple custom feeds at the end).
I want to add again that I’m satisfied with the sync dev’s work and decision. It’s not wrong to want to profit from your work.
-
No one asked.
So what is lemmy then?
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I had to search for what MAGA is.
Make America great again?
I’m not american.
I agree, some of these users in Sync threads are just straight up fucking annoying. Not even with their opinions that Sync is the best, that’s inconsequential in my opinion and fine, but I’ve had to stand up to a few really ignorant and a couple of really dumb takes regarding FOSS recently. I’m a FOSS advocate, but I believe in using the best tool/app/option firstly and I generally avoid recommendations unless they are sought after, but I just can’t stand by when inaccuracies and hypocritical takes are being thrown around regarding FOSS.
I had someone essentially arguing for security through obscurity with this comment recently:
FOSS brings a whole lotta good - and more good than bad - but it’s also pretty damn vulnerable because a bad actor could just look at the source code and then figure out what exploits and vulnerabilities a FOSS app might have.
Another user with another bad take:
Why would I invest my time and energy into a FOSS app that may go defunct in a year or two, when I can just install an app that does the same thing, looks nicer, does more, is easier to use, and has the backing of a company that is likely going to stick around for a while?
Like hello? That proprietary app just got killed by a proprietary platform, and was saved by a FOSS platform. And backing of a company? Also might want to check out killedbygoogle.com
With that said, Sync is really polished, it’s been in development for a long time now so it’s going to have that advantage over other clients. It has by far the most customization I’ve tried, which I absolutely love, and it runs smoothly. Right now it has a major glitch with comment sorting by top, but once that is fixed, then it is worth $20 for ad-free. And annoying Sync users aside, that’s how I feel about Sync.
I also support Jerboa, and have sent them money. And in all honestly, even though Jerboa doesn’t have the customization that Sync has right now, it runs just as smoothly and the defaults align with my wants and needs so it doesn’t need the extra customization for me personally. When Jerboa adds a default comment sorting option, it’s going to be my preferred client.
inaccuracies and hypocritical takes are being thrown around regarding FOSS.
Oh wow that grinds my gears too. Hopefully those takes are out of pure ignorance and lack of information rather than actually believing FOSS is not secure.
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Yes, most people are dumb
The second bad take lmao. Is this actually from lemmy?
Yeah, unfortunately, although they were kbin users. I made lengthy responses to both of those individuals. If you want to read a lot of really bad takes, here you go:
https://old.lemmy.world/comment/2003731?context=4
Although, I narrowly avoided an aneurysm reading their comments, so I wouldn’t recommend it.
Welp, that was something to read
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Like every open source projects, you can donate with money or your time. Both are equally valuable. Promoting the project, helping new users, heck, even being pleasant and help fostering positive environment in the fediverse so new users feel welcomed is actually very valuable (especially given current reputation of fediverse citizens being especially harsh to new users).
I don’t get where this reputation came from? I’ve had more positive interactions on Lemmy in the last month than I had on Reddit in the last 10 years, literally. I feel like this is the internet equivalent of Iceland, everyone must think it is a frozen hellscape, but then you get here and it is actually a really nice place to be.
To add to this, it can even be as simple as reporting bugs you find, whether that be with the Lemmy code itself or a client you’re using.
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You don’t have to explain if you can’t! Don’t feel bad. Supporting yourself should definitely come first. Hope you are doing alright.
Yeah, I do wish there was some form of regional pricing going on. Doesn’t seem to be the case if the prices I’m seeing in my (also third world) country are anything to go by.
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You’re absolutely right, major brain fart on my part to assume that’s what the person I responded to meant
According to his update I believe he’ll be working on regional prices this week
And that’s totally fine. That’s the beauty of the internet, not everybody has to pitch in, and if you can’t you shouldn’t feel bad about it. There was a time when I was a starving college student and was doing the five finger discount on a very regular basis. We’re glad you’re here regardless.
My egalitarian FOSS is showing lol
FYI if you still want to show support, librepay allows you to give a “symbolic donation” of just $0.01 a week, or $0.52 a year
I’m new to lemmy. What’s a home instance?
Sync is making it so I don’t need to think think hard. Makes head go ouchie.
I’m new here also but I think it’s the instance where you registered your account in. For example lemmy.world.
Registered your account in, yes, but more importantly - which home instance you’re logged into at that particular moment.
It’s like email, I have yahoo, you have gmail, your grandma has aol. Each is their “home” instance but they can all talk to each other. They’re not in a walled garden and can only talk to themselves like whatsapp or reddit or twitter etc. Fediverse is an open platform and lemmy is a reddit-like part of it. Mastodon is a twitter-like part of it. Sync does do a great job, no need to make head go ouchie.
Much thanks. Me smart!
Help me here… What is the story about sync’s pricing?
The story is basically that it’s a really nice looking app, but $20 to remove the ads is a little steep comparatively. They also have subscription options which rub me the wrong way. Those are just my opinions though. If it was the only app available I would probably be much more vocal but the fact is there are dozens of other apps and more in development so it’s not that big of a deal.
Its pricing seems unreasonable to a lot of people. Without premium you get ads which is why I have Infinity
The user interface is pretty nice though
If I understand right, the lemmy devs are already paid to develop lemmy full time. I don’t fully understand the arrangements or who’s paying them though.
Not quite. This is from their OpenCollective Page:
“Lemmy is entirely open source and funded exclusively by donations. The maintainers dessalines and nutomic have been working on it full time for the past years thanks to generous support by the NLnet foundation. Now that this support is coming to an end, the project is increasingly relying on donations from individual users to fund development. Your donation allows the developers to fully focus on making Lemmy better for everyone.”
Why did NLnet sponsor the development for years, and now when Lemmy is successful, they stop sponsoring it?
What was the goal of the sponsorship?
The https://nlnet.nl/project/Lemmy/ link goes on about how the internet is preditory today and big tech exploits users, and then at the end:
Lemmy is an open source tool that helps users discover what the fediverse has to offer as a decentralized alternative to for example Reddit. Everyone can host their own instance of Lemmy, determine their own moderation policy to keep discussion as civil as you would like and let users share, post, vote and interact without any corporate interference, all from the comfort of their server of choice. Search and discovery on the fediverse becomes easier, more fun and social, without forgoing independence and agency.
Yeah ok, so why stop sponsoring the solution?
NLnet paid them for every feature they launched, but with the explosive growth, they’ve been focusing on refactoring the codebase and making it more scalable, which doesn’t count as a “feature” I guess.
Reminds me of the corporate idea of software where new features are more important than quality.
It’s like having a garden where you just spread new plants out and ignore the ones that don’t feel good where they are.
NLnet offer grants so I would assume when they sponsor a project its for a fixed term, either in time or stage of development or amount of money.
Seems like throwing away money.
I think users aren’t smart enough to donate to the Lemmy devs, not enough money at least.
They will donate to apps and even instance owners, but not to the people who make the actual software we are all using.
The problem is both the devs and instances need donations. Just saw a post one instances bills are $2300 a month. No on is going to pay that out of pocket.
Oh boy, the last time I heard about finances (a month ago) it was all well below $100. Lemmy.ml only costed something like €10 a month.
Yeah it’s better to keep instance size within your budget.
But with so many users on Lemmy.world, donations could maybe work. Problem is that it’s not a fixed income, but the bills are fixed every month.
NLnet aren’t crystal clear but I think they see their role as getting something up and running rather than continued funding, which is fair enough. Trying to support a multitude of projects indefinitely isn’t really feasible. At some point I feel it’s justified to ask users of the project (i.e. us) to support future work.
Lemmy needs at least 3 more years of funding… It just got off the ground here.
I think if people don’t donate, this will turn into open source worked on by volunteers, which means a much slower pace.
I absolutely agree, whilst I do monthly donate to .world, I donate more to Lemmy devs at the moment as it 's at a crucial stage of development and financial support is imperative right now. I just don’t think NLnet are set up to offer that sort of grant system.
NLNet was sponsoring Lemmy for about 1500 euro per month according to dessalines: https://github.com/LemmyNet/joinlemmy-site/blob/main/src/assets/news/2023-06-17 - Update from Lemmy after the Reddit blackout.md
Edit: I was wrong, it’s 45000 euro total, split into several payment milestones: https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/hezuy1/nlnet_funding_and_lemmy_070_with_new_image_hosting/
They are paidvfrom these donations, afaik.
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Last I checked, the Sopuli admin said that running his instance cost pocket change, $20-30 a month. That might have been before the explosive growth though.
I do think he had a donate link to buy them coffee though.
I’ll throw some money in!
There are three donation options on that page, LiberaPay, Patreon and OpenCollective. Which one take the least amount of fee from the donated money?
They’ve mentioned they prefer liberapay
Opencollective has PayPal ☝🏻 Best choice for me
Ended up using opencollective as well because of Paypal. But using credit card seems to have a bit lower fee than Paypal. Maybe I’ll use that for the next donation.
Using Credit card with other currencies than euros, my bank charges me fees. PayPal does not, that’s why I always prefer PayPal
Is it just me or does Sync’s pricing seem… Exorbitantly high?
Exorbitant is the right word. A subscription model for a UI enhancement app is pretty ridiculous no matter what the price. Likewise, $20 to remove ads is absurd. A much more reasonable approach would be to charge upgrade fees to pay the dev for continued development as Lemmy evolves.
By contrast Tasker, an app that provides serious Android customization & script capabilities that enable users to enhance their entire Android experience, costs just $3.50.
As a long time Sync for Reddit user I planned to buy the Sync for Lemmy app but noped on out of there when I saw the pricing.
IMO the dev is trying to quickly replace his lost Sync for Reddit revenue before the Lemmy user base has grown enough to make that possible with reasonable pricing. Good for him that many of you are willing to pay what he’s asking, but I’ll be sticking with some of the other excellent apps available right now.
Infinity for Lemmy works really well despite its early development status: https://codeberg.org/Bazsalanszky/Infinity-For-Lemmy/releases
Based on the other comments, I definitely don’t think you’re alone.
It is. The Lemmy instance owners and the devs aren’t even making a dime off the platform.
That said, the decision to pay is still ultimately up to the user. If you feel it’s too pricey, then there’s Liftoff, which is a perfectly fine app in itself. Others are okay with it or even better if regional pricing is launched.
I’m currently running infinity, seems OK… There’s still a handful of features I’d like.
I am definitely not going to run Sync with adverts and I’m not paying the amount they’re asking, neither am I going to go with subscription based.
If sync halved their ad free version, I’d probably pull the trigger - failing that, I’ll eventually just hack up their client and remove the ads myself.
Instead of hacking Sync to remove the ads, why not spend the same time helping with a free app to add the features you want?
I don’t have free time to start a project like that, removing ads from an apk is trivial.
Is it true that purchases from sync for reddit don’t carry over to sync for lemmy? I don’t know how anyone could possibly justify a lifetime purchase if so.
OP: Please try and support instance admins and Lemmy devs
Sync fans in the comments: Yes, I bought Sync and love it
Ironic because it’s literally the same situation that Reddit was going through that caused the migration to Lemmy in the first place
I left because of how reddit treated the 3rd part app Devs, suddenly forcing them to cancel subscriptions halfway through the year. (They could have given the Devs a heads up, but chose not to.) I left because of the libel that was being spread about a dev. For me, it wasn’t that they wanted to charge money to use reddit, it’s how they went about it that made me leave and not return.
Of course, they also forgot about blind people and moderating tools. They then kicked many mods for voicing their opinion and/or participating the blackout, even if the subreddit in question was in agreement with them.
I don’t see Sync doing any of that, so please speak for yourself on why the migration happened.
Agree. The service needs money and if it’s used hours a week… it may deserve some monthly cash.
But spez. Spez had to spez. I try not to click reddit answers on Google now. Someone else can get that traffic/click.
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If all the big instances go away through lack of financial support, they’re going to find out they paid $130 to swap Sync memes with the 3 people left.
And then the dev will probably pitch in funding to instances or host.
They might contribute to an existing instance sure, but I doubt they’d host. There’s no real financial incentive for the profit driven to host a Lemmy instance unless they charge for membership and I doubt even Sync users are naive enough to pay twice for something.
Fair enough. That is what I meant for the record. It’s just a business cost at that point.
Lemmy.ml is og instance hosted by lemmy devs
Who shutdown sign ups during the influx cause they couldn’t handle it. So don’t expect it to last if all the other instances fail.
Sync fans in the comments: Yes, I bought Sync and love it
This is what people said me that would not happens. But, I knew people will think by paying for Sync they will pay for Lemmy (devs and instances).
See it’s funny because when I browse everything it’s basically 50% memes from existing lemmy users about not liking sync.
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I don’t care
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Which would be massively relevant if I was talking about ‘everything’. I’m talking about this post, so it’s not.
How do you think I got here
They can get paid, but $20 for lifetime ad removal, and $130+ sync ultra whatever it’s called?
That’s not beer money like another commenter said, that’s fraud and stealing money for barely anything to give for it.
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I should go check on my admin lol
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Calling it fraud and stealing money is uncool. People aren’t being forced to use the app or pay for the subscription. Let people spend their own money however they see fit.
You can’t be serious lol
You know you don’t have to use it right?
He made on of the best Reddit apps ever. Supported his app for like 10 years.
20 is nothing.
Oh yeah $20 is fine albeit a bit too much for ad removal but fine
What I really have gripes with is the $130+ ultra thing. I saw that and noped the fuck outta that app and uninstalled it as quickly as I installed it.
It also doesn’t help that when I bought sync pro it was equivalent to or less than $10 and now he wants $20 for a basic ad removal? He’s greedy.
Ok you go make sync then
Dude, you don’t have to buy ultra. It’s for people who want bonus features and support the dev.
This is like refusing to buy a Volkswagen because they also make Lamborghinis
you don’t have to buy ultra
Then don’t put it in the app. Simple as that.
It’s 2023, we’re really debating over pricing in a FOSS Android app that just so happens to host a website/forum that just got popular only because people don’t like the other main big internet forum?
What? Just because you don’t want to pay doesn’t mean no one else does.
Also sync isn’t FOSS
Literally nobody would pay over $100 for an app.
And no but the service is.
Idiotic take
How is it fraud ?
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Yeah. If you got 100$ to spare you should be giving it lemmy instead of sync.
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The difference is that some users have been using sync for a decade and using Lemmy for only a month. So it’s a lot easier to mentally justify supporting a developer who you’ve been benefiting from for so long.
I have also donated to my local instance, I really hope to see it all grow together.
The problem is that, for that decade, Sync has been benefiting from reddit, and now Lemmy. And reddit/Lemmy were the ones footing the majority of the operating costs so that Sync could be useful.
While obviously not a perfect example, think of it as letting your friend stay in your spare room. And then they decide to run a business out of that room and you have customers coming at all hours of the day.
This is increasingly a concern with the modern internet. All of those super popular streamers and youtubers? They are profiting off the content of game devs and other youtubers (ironically, it is the hot tub streamers who are stealing the least content). And plenty of content creators have come out and talked about how they increasingly hate “Reaction” content (Hasan getting special mention for just playing full videos to his chat while he has a piss break).
I am glad Sync is a product people feel is worth paying for. Not my thang, but it doesn’t need to be. But… let’s just say that if the only thing to come out of the reddit debacles over the past few months were “Third party apps need to serve ads or pay for expensive API keys” I would probably actively not care.
Just to be clear. I very much feel that creators deserve to get paid, even if they build on top of the work of others. Maybe less so people who just stream content with no comment while they take a shit but, generally speaking, even just interacting with chat while you play a round of Valorant is “transformative” in my book.
But it DOES suck how many developers, services, and creators are more or less getting screwed over in the interest of “exposure”.
Reddit has benefitted from Sync, and other 3rd party apps, way more than Sync has benefitted from Reddit.
It’s less clear cut with Lemmy, which is supposed to evolve an ecosystem of free tools, so it might be that some day Sync will be benefitting from Lemmy more than Lemmy from Sync… but for now, Lemmy is relatively bare bones, like what Reddit used to be 15 years ago, so any 3rd party app with extra features is still a good thing.
Fortunately, Lemmy has no incentive to go closed source, like Reddit did (let’s not forget Reddit used to be open source while it was convenient for them, then it wasn’t).
Genuine question:
Why did reddit benefit from Sync but Lemmy doesn’t? In both cases, it is a third party app (with premium options or ads that support Sync and not the service it is engaging with) that greatly increases utility for “power users”. So that more or less means that it provides “exposure” by encouraging power users to make the content that casual users will come back to the site for.
And there is the argument that that actually could be bad if the product has no viable monetization strategy but user count keeps increasing but… yeah.
The 100$ is very much a premium tier with nice to have features. The ad free version is around 20$, which is still steep but you’re paying for lifetime ads.
you’re paying for lifetime ads
You don’t need to pay for that, just go to Reddit. Free unlimited lifetime ads! 😉
Sync is $20 to remove ads no? Where is it $100?
Update: nevermind I see it here for sync ultra
