Post launch day chat

I just wanted to say I'm sorry for the backslash you're getting for charging money.

I'm also sorry people expect it to be $1 because the Reddit app was $1 back in 1825. I genuinely believe it's children complaining, because no functioning adult would complain about a price increase when rent has tripled or quadrupled since the $1 Reddit app. It's also annoying to see that people think that saying they bought the Reddit app for $1 and enjoyed it for 10 years is an argument. It goes to show it was severely underpriced.

It must be frustrating to have that type of response. Lemmy users seem to be really entitled when it comes to software, and the response you're getting scares me for the future. I really hope the Boost developer doesn't cancel his app after seeing how entitled Lemmy users are being right now.

What frustrates me more is the people complaining are continuing to use the free open source apps. Like great, you already have an alternative you prefer. Shut up. Stop bringing others down.

I wish you the best. Thank you for choosing to develop for Lemmy. I have my eyes on Boost, but I'm gladly using your free tier for the time being.

Thanks again!

LJ,

I too am a reddit refugee. I like what you've done with this place.

:)

But we have to talk about pricing and privacy.

Pricing: tbh I see not much wrong with the 20 bucks. But I do think that you should take 2 bucks from that and donate one to the lemmy org (this is not reddit, nobody is getting paid, the lemmy devs also need an incentive) and the other one to lemmy.world because that's the instance you're dumping us all on. Hosting is not free, lemmy.world costs money and probably a lot of time to run. Being a reddit admin is a payed job, being Ruud at lemmy.world most certainly is not.

In this way "we" are giving back to the Foss community and it should silence a lot of critics. In that way you don't look like the evil capitalist earning a quick buck over the back of free labour of the foss community. I think that's 2 bucks well spent.

Edit: same goes for ultra subscriptions of course, a similar percentage should be fed back to the lemmy org and lemmy.world.

Privacy: since you're using admob and I forgot the other one, privacy is out the window. That's a big issue for the Foss community we're all relying on. Maybe it's wise to point out that once you pay for sync all that tracking that admob and the other one (not you I hope) does is out the window.

Edit edit: maybe you could also add a yearly reminder to donate to the users favourite lemmy instance.

Yeah man...I am a dev myself but $20 to remove ads is just too much, especially without regional pricing.

Whether the pricing is appropriate is purely subjective. I paid the 20 bucks, thank you for your work. Looking forward to see this app thrive, it already works super smooth!

Hope you do not take the inevitably rude comments to heart.

I'll repeat what I said in some other thread:

I loved the old app, I still love the new app, it’s a pleasure to use compared to the alternatives I’ve tried, and I find the ultra subscription rate both reasonable and worthwhile to support a product I truly enjoy.

Sync is good for me. There’s plenty of other options if it’s not good for you.

Please keep up the good work!

I just want to say thank you for getting Sync up and running on Lemmy. Please don't let the toxic comments sour your day. I for one is really grateful for what you do.

Beta 26 is already a MASSIVE improvement over Jerboa or the web client. Thanks for making this happen so fast!

As for the pricing, I was a paid Sync for Reddit user for YEARS. $20 is nothing for the countless hours of scrolling I got out of it.

Going to have a stab at regionalising ad free now.

Reply to this with your country and I'll regionalise the pricing there.

I'm seriously impressed with how functional this app is from the start. Like lots of others have said, it felt like coming home given how long I'd used Sync for. Didn't hesitate to pay for the ad free version once that option was added.

I'm all on board with FOSS, but I used sync for reddit for years, ljdawson has my support on Lemmy too. I don't mind supporting a good dev. Do I prefer things be FOSS? Yeah, but I have no issues using a closed source product if it works. And sync has always been top notch. Responsive dev, all around good product.

Check out number 10.

My wishlist:

• Downvote counts
• Mod tools

I was floored when I opened the beta and found that almost all existing features survived the transition. In a single month! You're a monster that makes the rest of us developers look bad 😉

I know that there's an active ongoing discussion about monetization models and I'm certain that there's room for improvement... but at the end of the day you can't make everyone happy. I just wanted you to know that, as a long-time fan, I sincerely appreciate what's been accomplished here. Cheers! Don't forget to take some well-deserved you time once things quiet down a little.

A part from the comments on the images, I think there is a bug with alignment because the first comment has 3 lines instead of one as you can see from this image

The backlash has surprised me a bit. I agree the price is a bit steep but considering the userbase is only a fraction of what Reddit has, it's understandable that the price would be higher.

I just didn't expect such negative reactions to either the ad component or the price. A lot have mentioned that it could become a form of gatekeeping for newcomers. I just hope it won't turn out that way.

Not to wake sleeping dogs or anything, but uh I don't see any ads. Where are those ads supposed to be?

Took me a while to figure out how to sign in with my lemdro.id account.

Maybe it's embarrassing to admit but I must have scanned through that long list of servers five times before realizing I could just type in my own server. Could be helpful to add a line inviting users to type in their own server.

Please don't let the controversy get to you, I love this app mainly because I feel back at home. It makes sense that if someone has never used sync, feels put off by the pricing but I think it makes sense purely because of the smaller userbase and the amount of work that goes into an app like this.

I've used some other open source alternatives and they feel rough compared to sync

Hopping on to the "I feel at home" train! One thing that really bugged me about the alternatives was that they weren't as smooth and fluid. Like I scroll down and it jumps, I scroll up, it jitters etc.

Sync is the UI and the UX I've missed!

I don't have 20 dollars to spend on removing ads for a mobile app. I also previously bought Sync for Reddit Pro. Why is the price so much higher for a client to a service that definitionally doesn't have API charges?

Cool, bumpy start but I support your work, you will be instrumental in growing Lemmy. GDPR issues needs to be fixed pronto as it otherwise won't legally comply in the EU.

I've got a bug fix thread here

Keep it up!

It's the best app but the pricing is insane. I mean, maybe you have experience from your other apps and you know this is the optimal price, but otherwise, consider changing it. People are surprised by the high price right now.

If it was me, I would price it like this:

• Remove ads - $10 lifetime.

• Ultra - $3 per month, $20 per year, $50 lifetime.

Those sums are realistic and people are likely to find them acceptable. You would get more users instead of less users paying more.

But this is just me and I speak only as someone who never had an app in a appstore. Maybe you know better. But that's what I would do.

A nice feature for us new people would be a way to subscribe to a community from the everything feed as opposed to having to click through to the community page.

I'll say it again: you are a legend.

$30.30 for ad free in Canada. That's wild. It's not even the exchange rate... that's a markup from the US price.

A really hard buy for me. Not sure I'm going to spend that much.

A few things I want to say:

1. Congrats for the successful launch! I hope this project continues to improve.
2. The ads aren't very intrusive, they're just banners in-between some posts and I'm fine with that.
3. This app makes using Lemmy more attractive than using Reddit, which means that the goal of moving me far away from Reddit has been accomplished!

Amazing job so far. Here's to the future of decentralized social media!

Apart from adding missing functionality (posting and searching), these are my top missing features at the moment:

• Setting to increase font size of replies you are typing
• Support for the link format [ Community Name ] ( /c/community @ instance )
• Support for full Markdown (code and spoiler don't work well, for example)
• Support for connecting to an unfederated community on a remote instance via search (like you would with ! community @ instance . tld on browser)
• Support for browsing all communities on a specific instance

There are more nice-to-haves I can think of but these seem pretty important.

Just voicing my support for the work you've done so far and am happy to pay the $20. Honestly I was a little taken aback at first sight but thinking about how many years of service I got with the reddit app I'm happy to support the developer. I'll reiterate what I saw another commenter say and it would be nice if a small portion of the fee was used towards to the support of Lemmy as a whole as well. I want to see this continue and flourish. Thanks again to the developer for one smooth app.

I think the biggest complaints are about the tracking stuff. That was a surprise to me as a long time user.

Hid posts are coming back when I refresh, this a known issue?

Edit: Yup, known issue, found the bug tracker! That's a doozy

Hey mate,

Yeah I'm another one who followed you over from reddit.

I think I maybe need to play with Lemmy a bit more - it's a bit confusing. Is there a map? A general guide or explanation for the ignorant?

Also, cheers mate - you must have put in a shit load of effort in a very short time to put this together. Fast development since the reddit API bullshit. Respect. An I paid ultra cos I like your work

Thanks for your work on converting Sync to use Lemmy! I've tried just about every App for Lemmy, and Sync seems to certainly be the most feature-filled one so far.

As far as pricing goes, I don't see a problem with experimenting on price and seeing what people are willing to pay. To the people saying $20 is too much... we are talking about removing the main source of revenue in the app, forever. That's a pretty tough thing to figure out the 'right' price for, and might take some experimentation. If I was the developer, you can bet I'd start the price high though, rather than too low.

I got the lifetime sync ultra subscription for the reddit app for 34.99 after getting the ad-free version and then the pro version because I really liked it. I only used it for half a year, but hey, I guess that's the gamble you take with lifetime subscriptions. I now see that the lifetime subscription is €114.99?! Is this a mistake? What is going on here?

If I compare it to the 18.99 a year price, it'd take over 6 years to break even. If I compare it to the old 11.99 price, it'd take over 9.5 years. I just don't understand the logic here.

Glad to see it live!

I agree that $20USD for ad-free is a bit high, but on the other hand I used Sync for Reddit for roughly 10 years and paid $2.50 at the time.

So I consider it a way to give back for the great experience I had in the past.

And we got used for mobile apps being dirt-cheap, but most of us don't have any issue paying even more for sitting in a dirty movie theater for a 2½ hours movie with a popcorn and soft drink.

I had not used Sync for Reddit as I was a Boost user but now that I've installed Sync for Lemmy I'm enjoying it. It's very polished, smooth and easy to use. I think it will great once it's feature complete.

In a way you have a headstart over the other new apps and it shows. I'm sure rewriting the back end is not fun but at least your already had the UI.

I think the pricing model is fair. Free with ads for those who want to try it, one time fee for those who don't like subs, and a low cost sub for power users.

Send like most people have an issue with €20. Perhaps they were expecting €10 but that's less than €1 per month in just the first year, nevermind all future updates. €20 seems fair for a lifetime unlock.

Can you add an option to use the device haptic engine, like the ones on Google Pixels, instead of the vibration motor for swipe actions?

Does anyone know how to get the coloured vertical lines back to show different levels of threads in comments sections? Or if that isn't a feature any more, can they please become a feature again?

The price is perfectly fine. I had Sync Pro for Reddit for nearly a decade for only a few dollars.

Though I’m no longer on Android, when I return, Sync for Lemmy will be my first purchase.

Thanks for your hard work!

One thing I didn't see mentioned yet: I quite liked the "go to random NSFW subreddit" function in the old app.

Would be cool to see that function again.

How come some responses end up above the comment they're responding to? Is this a setting I've got wonky? I'd like them to flow logically. Example:

Seriously, I used RedditSync Pro for 10 years, since 2 months I'm trying Connect/Jerboa/PWA/etc and yesterday I tested Sync and how boy it's so fast and clean. I bought it, thanks LJ!!!

Loving it so far! I think everyone freaking out about the pricing needs to chill out and just use a different app.

There's one thing I'm curious about and wasn't able to find in the settings. Do we have the ability to turn off the red/blue highlighting on the action area for a post we've voted? I don't like how it looks and find that the font color for the vote count is perfectly sufficient for me to know that I've upvoted and downvoted.

Mate, go grab a pint! You deserve it!

Lj, i appreciate the work and am loving being back to a familiar feel. I was wondering if there was a quick way to hide instances that i don't want to see on my feed. I typically hide other language posts simply because i can't read it or would the auto translate feature of ultra take care of this issue for me?

First time posting on Lemmy as a whole.

Thank you for making this app, been a Sync user for years and you made the hop to Lemmy seamless.

Already paid for ad-free and cannot wait to see where the app goes from here.

Thanks so much for your hard work! I can only contribute through ads, but plan on going ultra when I'm able.

I hope that, when you look through comments, you don't take the negative ones too seriously. You've done so much for us. I hope you're proud. :)

Not sure if you wanted feedback here, but here it goes. First, thank you, I missed my Sync.

• When clicking my profile page, it would be nice if comments and posts both displayed by default, instead of just posts. I believe this is how it worked before.
• When clicking a past comment to view, I would like to display context (all parent comments) by default. I don't think I saw a setting for this, but could be wrong. Right now, each parent comment to display is an individual click.
• Upvote/Downvote counter

That is all I have for now. Cheers!

I'm a user of Sync for Reddit Pro. I hope we can have more price options to remove the ads starting from a lower amount. Let's say, $5, $10, $20, $30 and maybe a custom amount (>$5). In this case those who are willing to pay $20 can remain to do so or even more but others can now support the developer by the amount they feel fit.