I am a software developer, I understand what goes into developing software. He is allowed to value his work at whatever he thinks it’s worth.

But as users we are allowed to think he is asking too much or pushing too many ads or whatever. It’s not disrespect, it’s an opinion, about a mobile app that now has ads on the main feed and in every comment section, that only works based on a platform that is very specifically known for being open and not pushing ads. And it’s an especially high price for an app that is still very under development and has only recently just gotten an update for the first time in months, even when some features had stopped working.

I have no issues with him asking to be compensated for his work, and I am glad he makes it available for free, but the ads are getting intrusive, and we are all entitled to our opinions. I don’t think there was anything disrespectful about the way I shared my opinion, but I do think it’s crap to tell us we are being disrespectful just because you don’t share that opinion.

I have switched apps. Didn’t realize I wasn’t allowed to share my opinion.

Yea it’s a bit unfortunate. In my opinion sync is the smoothest and most polished lemmy app. I get that ljdawson should be compensated for making a great app, but the amount of ads is kinda ridiculous now and the $20 ad removal price just feels exorbitant for a mobile app.

I’m fine paying, but $20 to remove ads is a very big ask for a mobile app, when it was maybe $3 or $5 for the old reddit app. Especially so when it seems he comes and goes and updates to a very in development app have stopped for months at a time.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not making any demands, I agree with everything you say, but the ad removal option is quite a lot especially when there are many free lemmy apps too.

As an open platform that’s similar to reddit, I’m in favor of it.

The reality though is not that great. And a lot of it comes down to at least some of the people who are here.

There doesn’t really seem to be enough content to allow for browsing a curated list of communities yet, so I mainly browse by all. And what I have seen are a handful of seemingly extreme viewpoints with little to no room for nuance and discussion and an attitude from those people that they are absolutely correct in their beliefs and ideas. I’m talking tankies, hatred for Israel, hatred for cars, hatred for landlords/renting, and evangelism for Linux.

I know that having extreme attitudes is certainly not unique to lemmy as it exists all over the Internet and elsewhere. But it does seem to be fairly concentrated here. And again, without enough engagement in the smaller or more niche communities there isn’t really enough content on its own.

So instead of actively browsing communities I want which would likely end up with very little content, I have started blocking instances and communities instead so I can still get a mix, but filter out things that I don’t like. And that doesn’t make for a great experience.

I have also seen some really stupid/ridiculous admin/mod drama that people also seemed to think wouldnt carry over from reddit, but of course it has.

All that to say, I still enjoy it enough to continue to browse. But I don’t really participate often. And it has to a degree eliminated at least some of the bullshit from reddit.

Or maybe they are and you just don’t like how they are voting.

I’m not saying that’s actually the case, but that point of view always seems to be absent from these types of discussions.

Sympathy? What a dumb take.

People still have wired headphones that still work perfectly fine. We used to be able to use them directly with our phones. We also had the option of using wireless too if we wanted. The option was removed, so now in order to keep using some of still perfectly fine electronics with our phones, it requires adapters. That’s annoying. What is the benefit to me as a consumer now that the jack is gone? Some marketing bullshit about weight or cost savings? I don’t buy it. Phones are larger than ever and more expensive than ever.

That is true, and you can get USBC dac cables for existing headphones that have the ability to swap cables.

But it’s still yet another thing you have to buy when your existing stuff already worked fine, and it still ties up the USBC port so unless you wirelessly charge you still need an adapter.

It’s just less convenient and as far as I am concerned removing the jack has offered no benefits to consumers.

Because they removed something that was convenient to try and force people to either spend more money on adapters or buy Bluetooth headphones.

And if you need to charge at the same time? That’s yet another adapter.

Soon there will be a new fee, the “listing fees fee”

For what? Being a teenager? Nah. I used to be a teenager. I was very stupid.

Teenagers, as a group, are very stupid people.

I’m enjoying it so far. It doesn’t have the same user base or niche communities of reddit yet, so for now I’m just doing more general browsing. There just doesn’t seem to be enough of a diverse set of interest yet. So at first it was a ton of posts about sync, currently it’s a ton of posts about LTT. And it’s just full of memes. Definitely could use a wider range of topics and interests.

That said there are a couple of really obnoxious instances that are highly political and as much as I am trying to avoid that, the users of those instances seem to dominate any thread even remotely political. It’s quite annoying.