Subscription models only make sense for an app/service that have recurring costs. In the case of Lemmy apps, the instances are the ones with recurring hosting costs, not the apps.
If an app doesn’t have recurring hosting costs, it only makes sense to have one up front payment and then maybe in app purchases to pay for new features going forward
Isn’t app development a recurring cost? It’s not like you just work on it for a bit and just forget about it once you got a version out. Especially if it’s using a service (lemmy) that is still in development and is constantly changing.
Preach. Not sure why this is so hard for folks to understand.
App development isn’t and never has been an one-time done deal. Devs always do the work to fix bugs, add new features / requests, upgrade to new platform / API etc. If they do this for free that is at their will but they are burning their own time / money one way or another. To demand a developer to run their business a certain way and mandate their business model is just mind-blowing to me.
Ongoing development IS an recurring cost.
I have zero problem with people trying to get paid for their work, often it is the only feasible way to dedicate enough time to the project.
I’d prefer open source sure, but I’m not all that opposed to small/individual projects not going that route. Especially when it’s not a critical service and there’s an abundance of FOSS choices
Personally, I don’t need yet another subscription service.
That being said, I’ve used Sync for years (Pro, so just ad removal, one time fee.), and just paid again for ad removal. I did this because I enjoy the app, and appreciate the effort that goes into creating and maintaining it.
I have no qualms about paying a person for quality work.
And then making money tracking you too
Tracking is for ads only, when ads are disabled then so is the tracking.
Link is broken
I think there’s something wrong with lemmy.world, this is the post. The developer posts to confirm the tracking is turned off. Sorry the direct link didn’t work.
https://lemmy.world/post/2538321
Edit: a federated comment link: https://programming.dev/comment/1561763
It’s wild what lemmy.world has done. If your referrer is lemmy.world itself, a click off their web page, it loads the comment. But if you come from another lemmy instance or just put the link directly into your browser address bar, they reject it with ERR_INVALID_RESPONSE - I can’t recall having seen a website do this to try and prevent attacks.
I also have the same problem… BUT it happens if simply try to open a comment on a new window using the link.
several people have confirmed it… I haven’t seen them explain how exactly, but they seem convinced it is causing crashes so they blocked it. Lemmy is practically in the realm of voodoo PostgreSQL at this point. Since April or May it’s been scaling very poorly as data gets added.
Which there is no way to verify as the app is closed source. So it’s just a speculation.
You’re the one speculating. You can analyze your network traffic to ensure it disabled, and as people have done and verified that it is disabled. Those are standard Google Ad trackers. Any app with ads has them, like Sync for Reddit did and Sync for Lemmy does.
You can always download the APK and decompile it. Closed source does not exist in real world.
All apps have a recurring cost if the dev is continuing to develop the app. At the scale these apps are working the labor the dev puts in in the most expensive part. Plus Lemmy is continually updating so to keep the app working the dev will need to continually update.
Everyone wants a constant revenue stream, app devs aint unique. And also like everyone else, they charge what people are willing to pay. Price is never about cost.
I mean, if you want updates or fixes for bugs that’s on work that occurred after you paid? Or are you suggesting we go back to the old model of super expensive software that gets sunsetted in a few years anyway?
Development costs money. When you buy an app, development doesn’t stop. What kind of nonsense are you peddling here? How do you have such a rudimentary understanding of work and effort and how they all cost money?
As much as I support the developers’ right to profit off their work, I also cannot afford to have everything in my life turn into a reoccurring payment model.
Then don’t. Free version barely has any ads and has 99% of the functionality. Y’all a bunch of babies.
I’m not talking about this one specific application. I’m talking about the trend that everything is taking.
One thing in isolation isn’t bad. “ItS oNlY $xx.99/yr” after all.
But when stepping back and looking at the trend you see a different story.
It’s only $10
It’s only $15
It’s only $30
It’s only $5
It’s only $50
It’s only $100
It’s only $60
It’s only $3
It’s only $1599
It’s only $130
It’s only $45
It’s only $99
It’s only $200
It’s only…deleted by creator
It’s no win scenario for developers. While you’re ok with “one up front payment and then maybe in app purchases to pay for new features going forward” there’s a whole other slew of voices who are going to complain about being nickled and dimed.
Given those choices (and other factors), as a consumer I prefer the subscription model. If nothing else, it lets me forecast my expenditure and continually re-assess the cost/value proposition of the application in question.
There’s one thing you’re forgetting; most applications aren’t just code-and-forget anymore. Updates need to be made to fix security issues, adapt to newer versions of the API, etc.
I don’t really get how everyone focuses on the ad-free feature as if it’s the only thing that Sync Ultra provides. It also provides text recognition in images, translation in-app, (both requiring constant server work) and will eventually support push notifications (again requiring server work). On top of which, LJ has stated he wants to work on this app full-time, which is only possible if he earns a living from it.
If those features aren’t interesting to a user, there’s always the one-time ad removal option (I’ll admit which is a bit pricey but per OP’s post, is a one time fee and not a subscription).
Not the best take. The apps still need to continue to be developed, adding new features and improvements along the way. That’s the cost of development. Not everything is just the cost of infrastructure. By that logic, McDonald’s workers shouldn’t be paid because it’s not their buns and patties, etc.
What does this have to do with Lemmy as a platform?
Something has gone wrong in software development where software can never be finished.
If you release an app on Google Play and never touch it again, eventually Google will pull it from the store and customers will complain that it no longer runs on new devices. Android 16 will require that all applications now do something, and refuse to run any that do not.
This is the real structural source of the constant subscription demands. Nobody is willing to commit to supporting a stable API for 10 or 20 years, and nobody will keep coming in to bump dependency versions and rewrite systems to Google or Apple’s new whims every year unless they get paid for this apparently useless work.
of course nobody is going to commit to supporting a stable API for 10 to 20 years… that’s expensive as heck and not even remotely worth it!
there’s nothing “wrong” with software development, it’s just that consumers demand new features rather than stagnation… i sure don’t want to be using a 20 year old app because we’ve come a long way in 20 years in so many regards
in 2003, windows xp was still microsoft’s dominant OS with vista still being several years off, half life 2 was about to be released, gmail was allllmost ready to release, msn messenger was still in its prime
yeah no, ill stick with rapidly changing technologies rather than sticking to that for some misplaced sense of “stability”
But one would like to be able to still play Half Life 2 today, even if Valve weren’t helpfully around to update it. One would like to be able to read an old Word document or display an old blog post along with its scripts. So either you support the old standards and, for active content, the old APIs, or you lose access to anything that doesn’t emit enough cash to pay a person to keep it current.
Did you just say progress is what’s wrong with software development? Really. Do you even know how software development works before criticizing how it works?
I think the requirement for constant progress, and the expectation that all software be able to change arbitrarily with a year or so of notice, is in fact a problem with software development.
I do software development all the time, and I find this to be an impediment to my work. I also make the kind of breaking changes that cause this problem.
I think it started when software stopped being distributed physically. It’s hard to push a bunch of updates to your users when they’ve need to physically have floppies sent to them versus doing it over the network.
I remember a time when software being “Gold Master” meant it was literally written to a gold master disk, from which copies were made. With that kind of release you had to make damn sure things were finished.
The difference is that software nowadays is interconnected. Sync doesn’t exist on its own, nor does Lemmy. And if one of these links changes, chances are, that something else needs to change to keep up. You’re talking about standalone software that that exists entirely on its own. But that’s not what this post is about.
Technology moves fast. Why would you want to have an app that old, and what app is actually worth running that is that old and unsupported?
If I understand correctly, every sync feature that requires the subscription (and cannot be purchased by a one time fee) requires the sync dev to run a constantly online server. Translation makes calls to translation services that cost money, push notifications require a push server since Lemmy servers don’t include support for it, etc. Removing ads doesn’t cost sync ongoing cash which is why you can get it for a one time fee.
Seems reasonable to me.
Much as I liked Sync for Reddit I’m not willing to participate in subscription pricing for something like this, nor am I willing to pay a breathtaking $100 for a lifetime license or a still high $20 for ad removal. Keeping it in perspective, Sync is an Android app that provides nothing more than a nice UI for lemmy.
It will take some time for the number of Lemmy users and Sync customers to ramp up. IMO the dev is trying to quickly replace his lost Sync for Reddit revenue by charging excessively high prices for Sync for Lemmy. He’s lucky so many of you want to pay him but I, for one, will pass on Sync and use other apps with more reasonable pricing.
This comment was written on Infinity for Lemmy which is working just fine.
