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this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2023
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I've tried Connect, Liftoff, Thunder, Voyager, and Infinity. It's just bugs galore. The back button will take you to the wrong activity, comments won't post (due to the app not the instance), some instances or accounts won't load, and a laundry list of UI or functionality bugs. Liftoff gave me the fewest issues of all of them, apart from using Lemmy in the browser.
But Sync really is polished, and the experience is night and day. I'm a big FOSS proponent, but I don't think it's wrong for a developer to want to make money when their income source suddenly disappears and they need to pay bills (and region-specific pricing is coming soon). The level of customizability, spit and polish in the other apps doesn't even come close. I'm sure they'll get there eventually, but I think it's a mistake to drive away passionate developers who want to help Lemmy succeed.
I've given pretty much every app or browser front-end a fair shake at this point, and I'm gladly choosing Sync for now.
The amount of bitching I've seen on Lemmy over paying the developer for their hard work has been insane. I was happy to pay the measly fee for ultra. This isn't in response to you, just the general vibe I've seen here. I thought we had a more tech-minded space where people might understand the need to monetize these things, but that doesn't seem to be the case lol
you have to take into consideration that not all people have your level of pay, your quality of life and so on. That 'measly fee' is two day's pay for some and they can't afford that. Yes, I understand that the dev has to make a living, but I think it's a bit expensive. And I was paying for Sync (for reddit) since the beginning. I even got Pro for my wife, who didn't use it at all, just to help LJ.
Okay, people who can't afford two dollars per month to pay for something that they use every day are welcome to use another app, or deal with occasional ads. That's the thing, there's a variety of different app choices. The bitching comes off as "I love this app but I want to use it without paying for it or dealing with ads" more than anything else.
The other apps are not free to dev and maintain either. You got to give what you can.
I agree. I will donate to liftoff and summit. I feel better when I use open source software.
It's not about paying the Developer. It's about paying the developer that much. $20 just to remove ads is a lot and a price people are not willing to pay
They're welcome to use whatever other app they want, or deal with ads. Options abound. I seriously doubt the sync for lemmy dev is swimming in cash. We're not talking about shoveling money at a company like reddit, we're talking about supporting a solitary, highly trusted dev who's worked hard to create a great app.
you fail to realize that the dev barely did any work to the app, it's literally a direct port from reddit to lemmy, yet he's recharging people money at a very steep price too and he's running ads on the app when the official lemmy site has NO ads nor does it's official app Jerboa.
Lmfao recharging people money. Base sync for reddit was free and then you could pay like $5 for lifetime support. Sorry the dev is looking to be compensated for his work, I know $2 per month is a "very steep price."
Use Jerboa.
I mean, I paid $3-4 for Sync literally years ago. Once. I personally don't have a problem kicking the dude shekels given that I literally paid pennies a month for how much I used it. To play devil's advocate, groceries cost twice what they did 2 years ago. Everything is more expensive across the board and it sucks, but these are the seas we swim in
Except the ad market is down. An ad supported user is going to generate $2-3 in revenue over the lifetime of the app at most. The pro version price should be in line with that. Or at least not vastly more.
I don't mind paying for a good appz even $20, but I just don't know if I will get that much use out of it. If another app comes around and I like it better, that's it.
Everything's more expensive so people are less willing to pay more since they simply not have the money
I think I might have felt differently at a stage of my life where I didn't have nearly as much disposable income as I do now.
Over the past few years, I've adopted the attitude of trying my hardest to pay for the things that I would be genuinely disappointed if they went away.
I have system-wide ad block, so the $20 or whatever for Sync actually bought me nothing other than the knowledge that if LJ decides to pack up Sync and go and work for a FAANG instead, I don't need to feel guilty.
This attitude would be unrecognisable to my younger self.
I agree with you. I think it's a lot of kids with summer jobs doing the complaining. I've got system wide ad block too, I paid for ultra purely to support LJ because he's earned that trust, and then some, over the years.
It's not just about Sync being the only app with ads or the fee to remove them (whether one thinks it's steep or not is apparently up for debate -- I find $20 steep for a mobile app, full stop).
It's also about the fact that Lemmy is a FOSS system that requires independent instances to run. These instances incur costs. I hope that the people paying $20 to remove these ads are also donating to their home instances. If that isn't happening, we need better messaging to users: paying to remove ads on an app does not support Lemmy itself or any individual instances, though the app and its popularity puts strain on those instances.
I get the idea of paying a dev for their work if you like it -- though mandating it vs. relying on donations is a difference between Sync and pretty much everything else. However, it seems strange that the people pushing to support this single dev who happened to chose an ad model aren't equally pushing for people to support their instances. Sync is useless if everyone just pays to remove the ads but doesn't donate to help with the costs of running this platform, and I wonder how many people who came to Lemmy on the heels of the Sync release actually know that.
I agree with you that we need better messaging to users about instance donations. For the record, I'd also support instance admins who employ an "ads or pay a fee" model. I think it's probably the best option for larger instances. I doubt purely donation based models will be sustainable over time.
If anything, I think LJ missed a trick by not having the option of doing a double subscription (so £3.99), and saying the extra £2 gets split between the instances, weighted by the time you spend time on them.