Yeah, this Dev seems to be counting on the idea that everyone in lemmy will forget that there are perfectly good free apps out there, and that all the other 3rd party Reddit devs are working on their own lemmy versions.
I think he’s actually counting on the fact that people will be using this app daily for the next decade, just like they did with Sync for reddit.
Imagine a city with 5 roads leading into it. A 6th road opens, and the builder puts up a toll booth, charging a high amount. Meanwhile 5 additional roads are currently being built leading into the city.
I mean, sure, some fools will pay the toll, but it really looks like the road builder is hoping to capture a clientele that doesn’t know the other roads exist.
I disagree. I think that is an overly simplistic view of the situation.
Some people buy iPhones and Samsung Ultras and whatever else. Some people use the same basic phone they had ten years ago. Both are valid. It’s no different here, if you’re happy with the free stuff then cool, if you want the very best Lemmy app which has had over a decade of development then also cool.
Saying that people are fools because they want to pay for the software they use and have made a value judgement to do so is absurd.
He would have had an edge had the released sooner. But now there’s too much free competition.
The free competition sucks though. Liftoff and Thunder are useable but buggy, the rest is rubbish.
Not providing a lifetime purchase at the initial release, then gradually giving 2 updates that disables ads and then ultra permanently, seems like the dev is greedy. Probably that’s why they didn’t have good terms with Reddit in the first place. Who knows.
