First of all, thank you @ljdawson@lemmy.world for pursuing Sync for Lemmy. It’s honestly given me so much hope for Fediverse adoption to actually happen. I do have one thought to share with you to help with success:
Come July 1st pretty much all Sync users are going to open the app due to muscle memory or due to a lack of awareness of what’s happening.
If they see “this app doesn’t work any more” or similar, they are simply going to delete the app and will likely go to the official Reddit app. The opportunity to engage them will be gone.
However, you can use it as a huge marketing opportunity if on that day it says something to the effect of:
- Sync for Reddit doesn’t work any more due to the API changes…
- However Sync for Lemmy is in development
- Here’s how you try Lemmy (and/or kbin) in the mean time…
- Keep Sync for Reddit on your phone to receive a notification when Sync for Lemmy is launched
Even if they don’t try Lemmy right away, if they get a notification from the old app saying the new one is ready they will possibly try it at that time (but you need to convince them to keep the old app on their phone)
But the clock is ticking - after July 1st the chance of engaging someone in this way is very low as they’ll likely uninstall the old app. IMO getting this teed up is of a higher priority than developing the minimal-viable-product for the new app.
You likely already have this in the works, but wanted to throw it out there incase you hadn’t planned on it already. Thanks again for doing this - I am so hopeful and excited for a viable alternative to Reddit and Sync could be such a huge piece in making it possible!
Originally posted to /r/syncforlemmy but figured I should put my money where my mouth is and post here as well. After all, this is the future!
You’ll be surprised by how many redditors you can convince to join lemmy by just mentioning Sync.
It’s very effective. Understandably so; I’ve always browsed Reddit with Sync and it’s probably the single best app I’ve ever used.
Here’s a quick summary of Lemmy/kbin that mentions Sync and Artemis I find to be very effective to copy/paste to threads with confused redditors. I suggest others to do the same.
Upcoming Sync is why I’m here on lem in the first place…just had my 15th cakeday on reddit real bummer to see it go the same way digg did…
Remember it’s just an account on some website and the person behind it is what actually bought it to life.
Yeah, that’s what I keep telling myself.
I was actually surprised by how much karma I had accrued when I deleted my account the other day, given that the majority of my comments were deep down in threads or niche communities. Often, I was happier to have 10 upvotes than 500, because the comments that got hundreds (or thousands) of points were generally short and quippy. I much preferred the sincere, expansive discussions though, and that was apparent when scrolling through my history.
Edit (Forgot to finish my point): And that kind of stuff is available in oodles on Lemmy. Hell, if anything, it’s easier here, because I feel like it’s way more likely anything I write will be seen and responded to. Maybe in a few years, we’ll be nostalgic for these times.
I had never heard of Sync, but with the way people are talking about it and it’s features, I think it could replace Bacon Reader for me (RIP) and this is coming from someone who uses reddit a moderate amount for niche subreddits, but isn’t going to stand for this anti capitalist BS that Spez is pulling, so how I’m here. It wasn’t hard, but I appreciate the fact not everyone is as plugged in or aware of social causes such as this or more importantly thst not everyone has the free time to put in a minimal amount of research to figure out how to move to an alternative.
I’ve been using the Lemmy app and finding myself quite unhappy with it, but stopping to ask “Is this app actually deserving of my ire, or am I just grumpy because it’s not what I’m used to (i.e. not Sync)?”. I think it’s mostly the latter. Don’t get me wrong, Jerboa is nowhere near the level of polish or functionality of pretty much any of the main 3rd party Reddit apps (yet?), it’s just that I’m a creature of habit (and so are many others)
Nah, I agree, Jerboa is just not there right now.
I prefer the webview over Jerboa on mobile at the moment; the higher flexibility outweighs the lower mobile-friendliness for me
I can definitely see it getting great though! With more contribution.
Edit: After using the new latest version of Jerboa (0.0.35), I think I do prefer it over the webview now.
absolutely agree, get them here and make this community even more vibrant
I think grabbing more users right now is of utmost importance. If the fediverse needs to grow, now is the chance.
Mastodon had a big spike when Twitter went awol. And nows the chance for lemmy.
It only happens when you access a reddit link from mobile without a default app to open reddit. They are trying to force the shite app on everyone, which is amusing b/c all it does is make me give LJ more energy
༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ
It should just ask if you want to continue in [browser], but I think reddit flagged any posts about apps to have this popup/last ditch attempt.
PSA: get past it by clicking “desktop view”.
For sure, we are still chronically starved of users. Need to play our cards right in the next few months.
In addition to OP’s idea, all of us who still have our reddit accounts should be going over there and letting people know about Lemmy in a helpful way, like ASAP. It’s really easy now because all the threads are about reddit sucking and how there is no alternative. But in a few weeks when reddit forgets, it’s going to be viewed more as spam to constantly keep bringing up Lemmy on reddit.
If we can make people aware of Lemmy before the app shutdown, it’s much more likely that they decide to actually try Sync for Lemmy.
all of us who still have our reddit accounts should be going over there and letting people know about Lemmy in a helpful way
Oh I’ve been trying to, hopefully got a few converts so far. Trying to tiptoe the line between informative and pushy since “horses water and drinking bla bla”
Yeah, good point. I just to go super enthusiastic and positive with it usually. The main problem is I don’t feel like I’m getting enough eyes on my comments. The migration/alternative subreddits are weirdly quiet.
Best way is just to express excitement that development of reddit app for Android is continuing on a different platform, since many people in /r/Android use third party apps probably due to the demographic that even bothers to subscribe to /r/Android to begin with. All other subs might be more casual users who use stuff like reddit redesigned and don’t use adblockers, so this whole confusing cumbersome process is not something they care about. They just go API? What? Third party apps? Uh I don’t use that I don’t care. Ads? I’m used to it.
Apple is one that has nothing really that feels organic. There’s no like hey Apollo for Lemmy is coming out. And Apollo is kind of the only app that Apple users even care about compared to Android where there’s so many loved Reddit third party apps. Apple users are very used to subscriptions being sold on Apps too, so having to pay to remove ads and using official apps isn’t as big of a concern.
Plus, I don’t know that it even really matters going over to reddit to try to mention anything until the app comes out and it turns out to streamline the whole process of signing up and subscribing to different communities outside your instance as opposed to doing the weird !syncforlemmy@lemmy.world entry then wait for it to show up.
State of lemmy right now is something that people who weren’t deterred by the research they had to do ended up using. Apps have an opportunity to make it so none of that is necessary, but until then there is no selling point. People who wanted to move have moved, and those that didn’t stayed. Ones who are upset are shitposting, but I doubt they actually want to leave reddit since shitposting is also a sign they still want to stay on Reddit and wishing Reddit would roll back changes.
I just to go super enthusiastic and positive with it usually
Honestly the best way to pitch it IMO. It’s been such a great experience here I almost feel compelled to proselytize the glory of the fediverse, but if I can’t keep it in my pants a bit I’m certain to put people off the message.
The migration/alternative subreddits are weirdly quiet
I’ve noticed that too the few times I’ve checked. I wonder how many people there are still regularly tying to do outreach. I’ve had some luck on the selfhosted sub, of course you’d expect that lot would be more eager to jump on a self-hostable platform anyway. Piracy subs too for obvious reasons lol
