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this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2023
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Commoditization by adding ads in a natively ad-free and libre service, and also questionable pricing:
This pricing increased 10 times in comparison to pre-API shit Sync for Reddit, so the community is now divided on whether the developer spreads the costs over fewer potential users on Lemmy vs. Reddit or is just being greedy and trying to monetize the new service as quick as possible before it potentially dies off.
I won't pretend to be an expert on ad revenue. But couldn't one explanation for the Sync for Reddit vs. Lemmy pricing be that reddit had far more users, translating to more ad revenue from the free version, allowing the developer to justify a cheaper price for the paid version?
As far as the $20 for ad removal goes, I haven't seen any compelling arguments that it doesnt remove trackers. Ive seen several people posting proof that it does remove trackers, along with the tool and method they used to check. As for the subscription service, it includes a lot of really nice features beyond removing ads; I think its aimed at enthusiasts and power users.
I find the idea that ljdawson is just trying to capitalize on a trend in order to make a quick buck to be ridiculous. The app is already too polished for that. Sync already offers a far better experience than any alternatives IMO, and its still only in beta.
I don't get the downvotes. I listed facts, showed rationale of the two sides of the argument and never favoured one of them (at least not in this comment). I'm only a proxy, haven't stated my opinion, just informed what's the conflict about. You guys can't get angry at facts. I see Lemmy is going full reddit. Don't shoot the messenger.
Lots of basic Reddit users are here now.
We don't know if Lemmy is going to last. Why spend time and effort making an app for it to just die. LJ (the dev) needs to eat, and since lemmy isn't popular compared to reddit, jacking up the price seems necessary.
I don't think LJ is being greedy. Again, he needs to eat. It's a niche community, and a niche community will most always be more expensive than other things.
The pricing isn't up 10x. The lifetime ultra isn't 100 USD. It is expensive to many and I won't dispute that.
I'll make an alternate argument. If people can afford sync, I'm hoping they can afford to support lemmy and/or servers. And if that's the case, what's the beef?
Okay, fair, I rounded up. Ad removal is 4x ($5 to $20) and Ultra is 2x to 5x depending on the tier.
Right; for me it's 124.78 USD converted.
Well yeah LJ is free to charge $10k for all we care, it's his right. The problem is he's acting contrary to the idea of the libre community and seems to forget what drove people away from Reddit. I have no data to back this up, but given the response on the official Sync community, he could very well double the amount of paying customers by halving the prices.
I do support Lemmy developers and my home instance on Liberapay and loved Sync back in the reddit days but I still have doubts about making this sort of purchase right now
What drove me away from reddit is when they killed Sync.
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.
$99 for ultra lifetime, not $120
Converted to what currency? Converted to the Iranian Rial would be 4.34m IRR. That doesn't mean the dev is asking for $4.34m for ultra lifetime.
converted to USD.