Almost all of Syncs business model is ads. The free version has ads and almost everyone who pays for it is doing so to remove ads. Which is just rewarding the implementation of ads. I also disagree with the concept of profiting from free user content with ads like Reddit does. Which was Reddits primary goal of preventing third party apps. They wanted the ad revenue themselves instead of third parties getting the ad revenue.
The only way this can be acceptable is to not have a free ad version and only have a paid version. That way you are paying for software and not paying to remove ads or profiting from free user content.
Synce is hilarious to me. “You know how Lemmy is completely free to use? What if it had ADs! And what if you had to pay money to remove those ADs!”.
And people lined up around the block for it.
You can pay one time to remove the ads, or sign up for Sync’s Ultra subscription which provides additional features like OCR in images and text translation.
Once you do so, the ad library is not invoked at all.
I’m not trying to be rude here, but please read my post. Paying to remove ads is part of the ad business model. Anyone who pays to remove ads means the developer profited from ads.
So in your mind, what does the business model look like for the developer? If they can’t charge for their app and they can’t offer it for free with ads, then what is the expectation? 100% FOSS and assume that goodwill from users will give them enough in donations?
I saw in your comment you are in favor of charging for the app, but how is the ad free version not exactly that? It’s a paid app for those who want that but it’s a free app for those who don’t mind ads. It just seems needlessly nitpicky for that to be the point of contention here.
You do know that there are a dozen other apps that don’t charge anything, don’t you? Sync is the only one that costs money. It’s the only one that has ads.
It’s also the best hands-down. If you want to use a worse free app, that’s fine. I haven’t paid for Sync for Lemmy, and I deal with 1 ad every 5 pages or so. I’m not that sensitive.
Sure, and that’s great! There are so many good no-cost, ad-free Lemmy apps out there. And I suppose that’s what leaves me confused when people get upset because just one app happens to be monetized. With so many viable alternatives, why make this the hill to die on?
People who donate their time and expertise to provide something for free are admirable, but it’s the nature of the beast called capitalism that makes that option not feasible for everyone. When people need to afford food and rent, and an app might be someone’s primary income, there should never be an expectation that someone offer something for free, just an appreciation when they do.
There are plenty of other developers, new ones that were happy to work on integrations and apps for the fediverse. While sync is great, it’s like a giant Walmart moving into the area, displacing other viable alternatives.
If people line up around the block for it, maybe it does actually add value? You can hate ads, I do too. But if people willingly look at ads to visit a website (Lemmy) that does not have any in its original version, then for those people the app obviously adds enough value to make it worth it, don’t you think?
No, Sync has a loyal cult in a very similar way Apple does. Cult shall buy regardless of reasoning. Cult shall obey ads. Cult shall love it. Cult just wants another toilet app instead of Reddit.
I’m a sync user and pretty tired of these pointless statements. Don’t want it, don’t use it! I pay for ultra to support the dev and that’s my choice. Again, if you don’t want it, don’t use it. But can you please stop this sync bashing? It’s not as if the torrent of anti-sync memes forgot to cover what you are saying.
Why do you care if someone doesn’t like your client of choice? They have some value that is different than yours, they have every right to express why they think people using sync is harmful. You are free to disagree but don’t complain because they express an opinion you don’t like.
I paid to remove ads from Reddit Sync in 2014. 9 years went by where I continued to use the app every single day, as ljdawson continued regular improvements and updates (aside from the incident). By the time Reddit Sync went away, I felt I had vastly underpaid for what I got, and purchased lifetime Ultra as a way of supporting ljdawson.
I totally get what you’re saying. But at the same time, Sync is so much more than just the content that it displays. The ads are not there to profit on free content, they’re there to support the user experience that sync provides. They’re also far, far less obtrusive than typical ads
The nice thing is, there’s choices! Feel free to use other clients and find what works best
Same here. I used the paid version sync for reddit for years and got my money’s worth out of it. When the incident happened I switched to infinity and, while annoyed, I definitely felt I got my worth out of it. When ljdawson released sync for lemmy and added the ad-free upgrade I happily purchased it and I have been very satisfied with the app and all the improvements he is continually making. This is all coming from a hardcore open source 20+ years of Linux on the desktop guy.
This is such a bad take. Imagine being mad that the user has a choice for a low/no cost ad supported version and a paid version. There are other benefits too, like being able to trial the software for as long as you want before buying in.
I’m using the free version of Sync for Lemmy now, I don’t see any ads. Maybe because my phone has the adguard server as my DNS server and it’s just blocking them all?
Wait, how is earning revenue from having ads in your app “profiting off free user content,” but charging someone directly to use the app isn’t? They both do the same thing for the developer (generate revenue), the only difference is who is paying.
I was considering trying sync. thanks for the info. never gonna touch it now. there are too many good free browsers now to even bother. I’m still trying narrow down between the last three out of five different iOS ones I downloaded. they are all so good and Apollo like
Every time I see comments like this I imagine that Reese meme from Malcom in The Middle saying “Wah Wah, too bad!” Or whatever the English translation of that is.
I’m a bit sad that my favorite (Infinity/Eternity) isn’t that high up. Loved it since my Reddit days. Tried different clients: Lemmy, thunder, liftoff, sync,… still like this the most!
I tried using Thunder a while ago and didn’t really like it when compared to liftoff, but that was earlier in the development timeline so it’s probably better now
The one thing I don’t like about Thunder is the lack of a swipe back to previous screen, but that’s pretty minor and otherwise it’s quite slick. Not sure enough about it to settle down yet, though, there are so many other apps and most are also great
Yeah, Thunder is weird about their swipe to go back gesture. It works if you’re doing it over the post itself or if you’re scrolling through the comments (so while the comments are moving, swipe to go back).
Curious what sync users find about it worth paying for above say Jerboa or whatever? Would appreciate comments.
I used sync on Reddit and was kinda sad to see the dev didn’t grandfather people into Sync for Lemmy - especially given the high price of sync and the reuse of work that I’d already paid for. Obviously the guy should get paid, but I think £18 is excessive, especially for existing users.
I didn’t realise how much I missed image peek (long press a post to popup the thumbnail image) until I switched back from jerboa to sync when it first came out. Especially since I mostly seem to be reading webcomics.
I don’t comment much, but sync’s draft feature feels very solid.
Otherwise I did feel jerboa was good and would have gotten used to it.
Peek means that as long as you’re touching the thumbnail, you see the zoomed in image (after a short delay). When you release, it snaps back to the front page. Without peek you would touch, view the image, and then gesture ‘back’ to go back to the main page.
This works on articles and gifs too, not just images. So if the thumbnail is informative you can save a lot of time and steps and get a quick gist of what the article is talking about
I got close to a decade off a $5 purchase. (Or however much it was) I can’t think of a single other thing I’ve used daily for that long that cost so little. $20 now is no biggie to pay for a major update to switch to lemmy.
Yeah I have no problem with it being a paid app - just disappointed that it’s so expensive and that existing users of sync didn’t get any kind of offer. No hate…I’m just expressing my feelings.
There was a big thread about it where I got a lot of hate for saying that I was amused that sync users wanted to pay for no ads, when there are so many free apps. The consensus amongst sync enjoyers seems to be that they are so used to the UI that it is like muscle memory, which is a decent excuse I guess. I’m pretty sure that’s why people still use Adobe products, for example.
after trying a few, Eternity was the first one that worked without errors on my older Android phone. i enjoyed using Infinity previously and i’m glad it was repurposed
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