2y ago

Sad to see almost none of the devs, from

Sad to see almost none of the devs, from
Apollor (ChristianSelig), RIF (u/talklittle), Infinity (u/Hostilenemy),
Boost (rmayayo), BaconReader, to Relay (u/DBrady), etc. are not considering Lemmy at all.

I know these were hobbies but by atleast developing it for some time just to make transition for your audience to Lemmy easier would have gone a long way!

@lemmy @LemmyDev Lemmy will remain a niche platform if not enough people switch to it

48 comments

I really don’t think they owe people a Lemmy App. Hell, this platform might even be dead in a couple of months.
Lots of people are making Lemmy apps, so there’s no real need for them to make one as well. The entire platform is a work in progress and there are a number of apps available, so just be patient and eventually they’ll be refined and ready.
- We are one centralised and pretty Reddit alternative away from people flocking to it.
  As swanky as it sounds, I doubt fediverse with all its quirks, bugs, instability, confusion etc. will be able to sustain or even gain mass adoption.
  I want this to be false, but we have Mastodon as an example and it ain’t getting the traction it needs to replace or even properly compete with Twitter. Especially not once BlueSky opens up, assuming it will happen.
  
  What makes you say Mastodon isn’t getting any traction? To me https://mastodon-analytics.com tells a different story.
  I agree a well thought out centralised Reddit alternative could swoop in, but I’m in no hurry to look at anything other than Fediverse alternatives. I see no compelling reason to.
  
  Mastodon requires the people I want to hear from to migrate. If Person X still uses Twitter, I have to use Twitter to hear from them.
  Lemmy is different. All we need is enough active users to generate interesting content. We also don’t need it to gain mass adoption. We just need adoption large enough to create interesting content. That means we don’t need to grow 5000x to meet Reddit numbers. We just need to grow X to be great.
  
  I think having 100M+ users as a goal is unsustainable and unrealistic. I'm quite happy with where we're at, and optimistic about where we're going. If growth in the fediverse continues, we'll be ok.
  My feed on Mastodon already moves quicker than I could ever keep up with.
  
  I doubt fediverse with all its quirks, bugs, instability, confusion etc. will be able to sustain or even gain mass adoption.
  I think the same. I was with the first wave that jumped over during the Reddit blackout earlier in June and questions like
  "Which instance is the best one?"
  "Why is there a /c/gaming on lemmy.world and a /c/gaming on lemmy.ml? Which is the best one? Shouldn't they be centralized?"
  "How do I search every instance in existence? What do you mean some instances don't talk to other instances??"
  I get the feeling most users want a centralized and highly managed stream of content and don't care for content on a network of small, individually managed, forums
- Of course they don't owe anyone anything.
  I still hope one or more of these experienced devs build lemmy apps. It is their experience and existing UI code base that I value. I'm glad that there are several new lemmy apps available, but the new devs will take years to achieve what the incumbents already have. I don't just mean code. The incumbents have already made plenty of mistakes and delt with complaints/suggestions from their userbase. They know what works for their users and can produce a polished lemmy with less time and effort than someone starting from scratch.
Perhaps Sync for Lemmy will help.
Unpopular opinion: I hope lemmy remains niche. Mainstream social media brings mainstream bullshit with it (trolls, nazis, low effort posters, bots, attempts at monetization leading to enshittification). People who are wanting a reddit clone, you're in luck, reddit still exists
- we aren't "competing". We aren't shilling for an IPO. We aren't trying to emulate commercial social media. We don't need 20% annual growth - or even significantly more users. We just need civil discussion forums without vitriol being deliberately injected to maximize ad impressions. On the fediverse, we are not the product.
- @animist Twitter is mainstream. Instagram is mainstream.
  Reddit was nowhere as mainstream as you might think. Outside of US.
  It had a nice balance between being niche but having enough content.
  Atleast that's what I feel
  
  On the spectrum of niche to mainstream, reddit is a lot closer to Twitter than it is to Lemmy
How do you know they’re not considering it at all?
Reddit just pulled the rug out from under them, give them some time at least to come to terms with that and decide what’s best for them. They certainly weren’t hobbies, look at Christian’s (Apollo) posts on the debacle and you get a sense of the scale of what he built.
I’m hoping Christian makes a Lemmy compatible app (I’d subscribe in an instance like I have been for Apollo) like the developers of Tweetbot did for Mastodon but they have to do what is right for them in the first instance!
- Well Doctile Alligator is trying to implement a subscription model. Of cause you can also compile it yourself with your own API key since it keeps being Open Source
Development is hard. I wouldn't be surprised if they are waiting to see if Lemmy sticks before spending time.
Also they need to make a living some how. I'm sure implementing ads into a Lemmy app right now wouldn't go over well.
It's better for them to dust their resume off, update it, and attempt to get a new job before dabbling into making a free app with no revenue streams.
- @JshKlsn You are talking about a chicken and egg problem here.
  When these devs with millions of users promote Lemmy, is when Lemmy will thrive bringing in even more incentive to build great apps for them
Sync for Lemmy coming out in a few weeks is already huge imo.
It was my favourite reddit client; amazing to see it coming to Lemmy.
Also, wefwef.app is starting to feel alot like Apollo already.
There are some fantastic apps being made right now though. For android I am following development for:
Connect
Jerboa
Liftoff
Thunder
Connect is only on Google Play, but the bottom 3 I keep updated using the Obtainium app which grabs the releases from GitHub (gets updates faster then waiting for Google Play).
- Thank you for letting me know about obtanium.
If you're on iOS, some great options are (in no particular order):
Memmy
Mlem
Liftoff
- I would also add wefwef to the list. Don’t be put off by the name. To me it’s the most Apollo like.
  
  it is a webapp
Boost for lemmy was just announced.
I would say give them a minute, month, year. They all just had a major ongoing project conclude in an unwanted way and they all deserve a break. Then in a few months or years maybe. Also, I don’t know the APIs for either platform but I would guess they are quite different so it might be starting over. As for Lemmy, I’m new to the platform but have been watching it for a while and reddit just gave me the nudge. Sure there will be a bunch of fair weather users that will go back to reddit once things die down, but they where not here before and Lemmy will be fine once they leave. Lemmy is such a breath of fresh air from the toxic nature of reddit and I just hope the Lemmy-for-a-day crowed can behave themselves for the period they are here.
Check out http://wefwef.app. It’s an excellent Apollo clone. We don’t need these devs. Others are stepping up.
To not the most popular choices, Boost and Relay were tied for first place in my opinion. (And I tried nearly all the Android apps)
While their devs owe us nothing, I sure hope future lemmy apps can borrow some of their awesomeness.
Boost for Lemmy will be a thing!
Not to sound rude, but did you do any research before naming all of these? Boost developer is developing a Lemmy app, you can find it on the Play store already. Sync developer is also developing a Lemmy app.
- @ophy thanks for not being rude about it.
  I did mention Sync. Mastodon has word limits after all so couldnt fit all in 1 post. Here's my post right after this one- https://mastodon.social/@abcxyz/110632697269529190
  As for Boost, that was announced a few days AFTER my post. Yes I didnt edit it because there was the word limit and I also like to believe my post played some part in making the devs consider ;)
  There is a reason why I used the word "ALMOST". All my posts are heavily researched :D
  
  Ah, apologies! I'm still not yet in the habit of checking post dates on Lemmy! But wow, it feels like it's been more than 10 days since all that happened!
  Of the ones that have been announced so far, which app in development are you most excited for?
Check out http://wefwef.app. It’s an excellent Apollo clone. We don’t need these devs. Others are stepping up.

48 comments