I am in the same boat. Bought RIF years ago and there are a couple of other apps I got as a one time purchase but subscriptions mostly make me delete an app immediately. Stuff like Spotify or Netflix are exceptions of course but those apps are just the gateway to a paid service. Sync doesn't have to pay money on an ongoing basis to Lemmy. It's straight up a purchase to the developer for an app.
Not too concerned though, I use Voyager at the moment and it's just such a great way to browse Lemmy, I have no problem sticking with it!
Technically, they could be fair but they're just always extremely overpriced. If you buy an app for $5 and use it for 5 years, it comes out at 8 cents a month. You'll never find an app subscription that costs you 8 cents a month, but that would be a fair deal.
It'll probably have a one time fee option. The dev must know that not everyone will want to pay a subscription. I paid for removing ads on Sync for Reddit and I'll happily do it again, so hopefully there will be an option of just removing ads. I don't use either Lemmy or Reddit enough to justify paying a subscription, even though I really respect the dev.
While I've never used this app, it seems like there are so many good quality free/open source Lemmy apps now that an app with ads and subscriptions doesn’t really make sense.
I'm fine with an ad version and then an upgrade to an ad-free version.
What's insane here is this developer making a subscription service instead of an ad-free pro version
I mean, he's competing against TOTALLY FREE, Ad-free lemmy apps RIGHT NOW, and every 3rd-party Reddit app developer is working on a lemmy version as we speak.
This was a total clown move. I was ready to drop like $10 on a pro version right now, if it had great UI. But a subscription ... For access to a FREE service? The balls on this guy.
Lemmy instances are not a free service. Yet don't have ads and instead rely on donations or are self funded. And then this app comes out with a subscription model to remove ads despite instances doing the heavy lifting of this space that has been contrary to the usual monetization model?
I'm not sure this type of defense you make really applies in this situation. If it was a reddit app sure, but in the space of the fediverse it stands out as rather unusual.
I'm not defending anything. Simply pointing out that Lemmy isn't a free service even if it looks that way for some (or many).
I'm not sure who does the heavy lifting btw. It's not easy to decipher whether running an instance or developing the cloud components or the mobile components is easier. Also the funding is a bit wonky at the moment. The core Lemmy development is woefully underfunded compared to some of the large instances. It's likely to get better eventually but so far I've noticed that core development funding barely budged for the last month or two. Instances are vitally dependent on the core project.
People are understandably reluctant to donate to the core Lemmy devs, but donating to an instance is a lot more reasonable to many folks so that's why it's unfolding that way.
Yes, lemmy isn't a free service So the argument to defend lemmy and give them money makes more sense when it comes to instances than it does for an app that shows up with a subscription model to remove ads.
The subscription from sync is not one run directly by the lemmy instance that is not charging api calls, not showing ads to users, and not paywalling users yet taking on so much expense. Which is why I'm not really sure what role sync plays here from your comments, since sync app and the costs of hosting a lemmy instance seem like entirely different matters.
I wasn't expecting an ideologically motivated project by any means, but his focus is on the diminishing parade of users he's got from the previous app and not where he's sending them.
I got kinda disappointed when I noticed that the author almost doesn't visit Lemmy and everything is coordinated on Discord instead of the, you know, forum-thingy which you make an app for.
On sync for reddit there always was a one time purchase to remove ads. The subscription is for extra features which you honestly don't need. I believe the one time purchase is coming back on this version as well.
Given the dev history on the reddit app and implementation of features and changes based on users feedback, I'm willing to pay for a pro version, not so sure about the subscription model though.