216 points

Holy shit y’all. Developers need to eat too. It’s totally fine to charge for an app or serve ads. LjDawson is a fantastic developer and really listens to his user base. Yes there are plenty of open source apps to use, but sometimes closed source is way more polished because the developer makes it their job to create the app. Living isn’t free. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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22 points

Free as in freedom. Not free beer.

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-2 points

You lost this fight decades ago

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10 points

And it’s a one-time fee.

I used Sync for Reddit for 11 years.

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4 points

Holy shit y’all. Developers need to eat too. It’s totally fine to charge for an app or serve ads.

You might be forgetting that these same developers refused to simply put in a subscription to their reddit apps to continue them, instead closing their apps and telling everyone to move to lemmy because that’s where their app will be…and now adding huge subscription fees and one-off fees on a platform that doesn’t charge them to use their API lol.

Maybe I’m just cynical but this really seems like the dollar signs lit up in the reddit app devs eyes the second reddits API changes got announced.

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2 points
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Okay let’s do the math. According to here there is expected to be about 55.79 million folks using reddit daily. Let’s say a good 5 million folks use Sync. Now, reddit said it would charge $0.24 per 1000 API calls. You can find that here. Now 1000 calls isn’t much at all really. Let’s say those 5 million folks just 1000 API calls a day ( they wont’ actually use ONLY 1000 ). So we have 1000 * 5,000,000 * 0.24 = $1,200,000,000. That’s per day. Does that seem sustainable to you? Like if folks were using MUCH MUCH less I could see your point. But the fact is…they weren’t and reddit were being assholes about it. Now compare that to what he’s charging. $17 bucks for a year. Let’s break that down and compare it to what he’d be paying per day. Say all 5 million users were paying for Ultra. That’s 5,000,000 * 17 = $85,000,000. Divide that by 12 to get per month. 85,000,000/12 = $7,083,333 per month. Divide by 30 for average revenue per day. $7,083,333/30 = $236,111. Now tell me that even comes close to $1,200,000,000. Your logic is flawed. This doesn’t even account for fees and possible server costs.

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4 points
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Let’s say those 5 million folks just 1000 API calls a day ( they wont’ actually use ONLY 1000 ).

Correct - 99% of those people will use nowhere near 1000 API calls a day. Each persons subscription only has to cover the costs of their API usage.

A $5/month subscription, at $0.24/1000 api calls, gives each user just under 21,000 API calls per month. Most people aren’t going to be doing anywhere close to that.

This doesn’t even account for fees and possible server costs.

Sync doesn’t need any server costs. It’s not hosting an instance of Lemmy.

Also your maths is off by 1000x lol. The cost would be 1.2mil a day, not 1.2bil a day. You’re multiplying by 1000 for some reason, when the $0.24 already gets you 1000 api calls. So if all 5 million used 1000 calls per day, that’s 5 million x $0.24, which is $1.2mil.

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1 point

You replied to the very answer to your question. Apps can still be businesses, not everything has to be free. There’s a bunch of free alternatives, this is just one of the paid ones.

They moved to lemmy because the fees on Reddit where exorbitant, and he’d have to raise the prices too much to keep same wage (Haven’t looked at the numbers). Afterall, it’s he’s app, and he’s to decide what wage he wants to keep working on it.

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0 points

The boost developer that was at the heart of most of the uproar said that a subscription of $5/month would more than cover the API costs.

He made millions of dollars from Reddit, but drew the line at a $5/month subscription to compensate Reddit for making him a millionaire.

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1 point

No that’s not correct. sync for Reddit already had the ultra subscription. The problem was he would have had to up the price on the sub substantially to cover the Reddit API fees.

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-3 points

The problem was he would have had to up the price on the sub substantially to cover the Reddit API fees.

Less than $5 a month would cover it plus net him a few dollars profit off most people though.

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-56 points

Maybe a one time payment like for original sync, imagine supporting subscription services for a FOSS app 🤡🤡🤡

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54 points

except sync isn’t FOSS, lemmy the fediverse link aggregator is 🤡🤡🤡

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-49 points

I’m obviously referring to lemmy when I say foss app, you think you look smart being a contrarian?

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21 points

Perhaps when you create your own app you can determine your own cost model.

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-31 points

“Dont judge politicians unless youre one of them” nice mindset bro

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10 points

Lemmy is funded by Patreon/Liberapay… Which are essentially subscriptions

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-14 points
  1. their default model isnt based on ads like sync for lemmy

  2. a third party client isnt as much work as the fediverse as u see it took him a month

3)ads used to be a one time payment for his old app, so the money was enough for him back then and now hes even richer so why do you excuse his greediness?

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10 points
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160 points

It’s like having Reddit back, this is amazing. 🙏

For as long as I can remember Reddit and Sync have been one and the same. I never used Reddit website or app, only ever used Sync to browse Reddit hosted content. I used it a lot. I’ve missed it a lot.

Between the Lemmy platform and Sync client, to all intents and purposes what Reddit was has been fully restored/migrated.

I know it’s early days, but I did not expect to see anything like this so soon and it gives me hope that Lemmy can grow and thrive into the network of people that always made Reddit what it was. Everything that’s needed is there - early, a little rough around the edges, but there. And being improved constantly.

Hallelujah!

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29 points

Definitely agree. This has pretty much completely restored the reddit experience for me after I chose to delete my reddit account in the wake of reddit’s third-party app debacle. The Sync developer deserves major props. This app will surely make lemmy so much more attractive and accessible to a host of new users in the coming weeks and months.

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8 points

Yup. The third party devs ought to bring in the charm, and the people along with it as well… Fingers crossed.

Hoping that guys like the dev of joey app too shows up 🤞🏻

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14 points

It’s the same experience for me, but I still do a lot of Google searches based on Reddit content since there is a lot of information posted there over the years.

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5 points

Well said. I paid for the ad free version right away. Years of sync use gives me full confidence it’s worth it.

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5 points

Me too, instabuy. No question.

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3 points

Let’s hope that all the subs gonna start appearing in as well… Complete with the footfalls + content Ofc. 👍🏼

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5 points

Be the change you want to see! If the sub doesn’t exist yet, make it yourself, and people like you will come to fill it. Welcome home!

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4 points
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Got plans to. Never want to see a repeat of the stunt that ahole of reddit pulled on so many people.

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3 points

There’s also old.lemmy.world in case you’re more comfortable with that. Loving all the choices available so far!

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143 points
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38 points
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12 points
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5 points

Yeah, I’m liking lift off. Only thing I miss is better filtering options like keywords. But, it’s one I’m using right now to type this message.

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1 point

I like connect. It’s similar to Sync.

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14 points

Can someone please explain a bit what is included as part of a “unique identifier”… does it mean the app sends Google what communities you’re visiting or content you’re consuming, so they can advertise to you personally?

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9 points
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Deleted by creator
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7 points
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Starting with Android 12 (and maybe earlier, I think it may be a part of a Google Play update?), you can delete your advertising ID in settings - definitely worth doing!

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3 points

Unique device identifier would be some information unique to your device that can identify it. A common example of such a unique Id would be your IMEI although that isn’t necessarily what they are using. Minecraft as an example creates a unique user ID based on your account that system administrators can use to keep your player records even after you change your Microsoft account name or gamer tag.

It doesn’t have to be specific data related to your activities in the app per se, but it could potentially be used in that manner depending on the app.

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-27 points

This is present in all apps in the playstore for serving ads. If you are running away from it you have to run from the entire internet. You want to live a life like the people in privacy sub reddit with that tin foil hat. For the developer to serve ads this is necessary.

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33 points
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11 points

I entirely agree. This is breaking the unspoken rules of Lemmy for me.

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6 points

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11 points
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11 points

Logcat is your friend. Someone on one of these threads mentioned they confirmed via logcat that the dev is correct.

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-1 points

This is all you need to see, folks.

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121 points

Jesus, the absolute entitlement in this thread. Can everyone just chill until the app is out of the beta version? Some of us are fine with seeing ads until the lifetime fee is available, and some of us are fine paying a subscription until the lifetime fee is available. If you’d rather not use the app until then don’t, but trashing the dev for getting paid while he works endlessly to create the sync experience for us is so ignorant and childish.

Sync is by far the best user experience app for lemmy that’s available for Android, just as it was for reddit, and it’s worth the wait and the price until the pro version is available.

I hope the dev ignores the whiners and focuses on those of us that get it. How demotivating to see people run their mouths when they dint know what they’re talking about.

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10 points

Yeah man. I was a sync for reddit user for like a decade. I don’t actually know, but my reddit account was more than a decade old, and I really only was a user on sync for as long as I can remember. Sync was reddit for me.

I happily paid for the app forever ago, and I reckon I’ll use lemmy much the way I did reddit. And I tried a bunch of the different FOSS clients and none of them are as clean and polished as Sync was or is now. Maybe that’s because I just got so used to sync? I don’t know. But I do know that at this point in time, paying 20 bucks a year to support a developer whose work I’ve enjoyed for a significant portion of my life is 100% worth it. And I can afford it.

I used to have to use open source software all the time. I used gimp for so long, I’m just glad I have a job now that I have free access to photoshop. Why? Because it’s fucking better! Because paying for a well refined product makes it easier to use.

So all these sync haters, keep hating. But now, I can highlight the haters so the next time I come across them I already know what they are about and how they are just haters.

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6 points
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Deleted by creator
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2 points

Bought the one month sub to tide me over, but bought the Ad free as soon as it released. Honestly, cost me less than half of a decent steak dinner so I ain’t mad. A man’s gotta eat and there is no guarantee that Lemmy is ever gonna pull Reddit numbers. Dude basically spent a month blasting out what I consider the best experience for Reddit, now for Lemmy, he deserves a pay day.

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1 point

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-1 points
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2 points

What the fuck are you talking about? When did he ask you to pay anything before the app is released?

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2 points

Huh? You can test it though. The app’s functionality is totally free. You’re just not entitled to an ad free experience if you don’t pay.

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116 points

My God, I missed Sync so much. Devs , thanks.

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56 points

(シ_ _)シ

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12 points

It’s identical to sync for Reddit. You even added the ability to restore from backup from Reddit. You’ve done amazing work

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7 points
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I need an excuse to try a comment and this seems perfect. Thanks dude you’ve clearly been putting in some work. It’s like coming home.

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5 points
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You know, you have many fans all around the world. This must be great feeling. And your product is/was the meaning of Redd*t for a long time, now it’s will be Lemmy=Sync

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4 points

Great job! 5 stars!

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3 points

(☞゚ヮ゚)☞

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18 points

It was seriously like hugging an old friend when I woke up to the download this morning! So happy and warm to be back!

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0 points

I was about to uninstall the other Lemmy client was never going to return Lemmy until the notification

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