I have about 5 different apps installed right now, and while I plan to test them all out, curious what people’s conclusions are thus far.
That’s interesting. All the sync stuff feels the same between sync, summit, and thunder. I guess ymmv
Yeah? The reddit app isn’t that smooth, mine jitters and lags every now and then but enough to annoy me. Using a S23U too so it’s not like I don’t have the power to run it.
The reddit version of infinity appears to become jittery after you go down a rabbit-hole of sorts (go to a post, go to a different subreddit linked from that post, etc). Linking one place to another was when it started lagging heavily for me. It definitely is an issue though, but infinity was an app which was more intuitive to me brain than other alternatives.
So Sync isn’t FOSS? I assumed all Lemmy apps would be (because if the user base)
That’s unfortunate. Imagine being a Lemmy user, writing a closed source front end for Lemmy, oof
Sync has always been a superior UI/UX to anything else.
And I’m happy to pay $20 for the developers work. Ads would barely pay him anything anyway.
I feel like all you lemmings are getting way too hung up on the whole ads = spyware thing. It’s not the app that’s the issue, it’s the ad platforms - and those platforms are how he makes money. Don’t like it? Pay $20 for a lifetime without ads.
Sync is good because it’s a full time job for the Dev. That means the guy needs money to survive. I’m more than happy to help towards that, so I can have a better experience.
I used sync for Reddit for a loooong time, $20 is nothing compared to the value I’ve gotten out of it.
Thats because twitters business was advertisement and Musk fucked up one of the most important features for brands. Had they offered twitter premium in addition to verification that got you more features like youtube premium does that would have been fine.
If you can’t tell the difference between a small developer and god damn twitter, idk what to tell you other than I guess you do your job for free because paying people for their tallent is bad apparently.
But that is 6$ a month. Not a flat ad free forever 20$ you are comparing apples to oranges.
i wouldn’t have a problem to pay 20$ flat to support the dev … its a lot of time doing and maintaining an app
for now i dont see a reason to switch from voyager which shocks me bc i never thought a webapp could feel “that native”
the problem i see if i wanted to switch to sync ist, that without a google account i couldnt pay which basically kills it for me personally.
That’s an absolutely understandable point of view.
I’m just disappointed in the people who seem to think they deserve everything for free.
Of course you can use free apps, that’s fine! It’s great to have options.
Personally I enjoy the experience of using sync compared to the other apps on my phone (my own activity within Lemmy has spiked since it’s release!) And for that reason I’m happy to support its development.
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
measly fee for ultra
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Sync is extremely polished. The rest have had their issues for a while.
Too much money. I feel bad for the instance devs because sync had probably made more money than them
Not sure how it can be too much money, it’s literally free to use. There are ads, but there aren’t many and not obtrusive at all. I haven’t really noticed them. I’ll probably buy the pro version just to throw some money at the developer. Otherwise, I wouldn’t mind just using the free version.
