Better is mostly subjective, so take this with a grain of salt.
But it isn’t better, not yet. And it may never be.
But, let’s loop you in, Odd one (it’s a book reference, not an insult)
So, Sync started as a reddit app. As you know, reddit fucked third party apps, and made a series of insulting statements to users and mods, generating an exodus that led some people to lemmy.
On reddit, when it was fresh news, many of those app devs that had a reddit presence were asked if they would migrate their app to something else, with the most common request being lemmy (the only option that had an API worth mentioning at the time).
Out of those, Sync was one of the top five android apps. For some, it was reddit, they’d chosen sync and used nothing else.
Thus, you had weeks of build-up after Mr Dawson announced he was going to migrate. Serious hype.
So, the app drops. People check it out. Those unfamiliar with the app from reddit are surprised to find it has ads. Those familiar with it were aware that ad monetization was part of how Mr Dawson made a living. The rest was through various ad free versions, and “ultra”. Ultra was a service that added features to the app on reddit. Here, it doesn’t really add as much because some of what it does isn’t server based, so a subscription fee for those specific features isn’t as attractive. A one time fee has been added to remove ads, and the price point is a matter of upset as well.
Secondary to that, the app is closed source. Again, anyone familiar with the app from reddit would know this. It was known when very fervent requests to migrate were made.
As you may be aware, lemmy runs high to open source advocates, privacy advocates, and general mistrust of anything that doesn’t at least give a polite nod to those principles.
And that’s where the drama starts.
With all of that in mind, you have segments of the lemmy population that are hyped to have an early version of a familiar and well executed app. Those folks are surprised at the sheer venom that has been directed to the app and its developer. A segment of those are very vocal in their defense of the app. Some cross the line into being jerks. There’s another segment that dislikes the app on those principles, another that just don’t like it as an app (or prefer others), and there’s the small but noisy and rude segment that hates the app.
That’s where the drama centers. It is magnified by the fact that the more energetic the opinion is, the more likely people are to voice it, and the inverse.
Most lemmings don’t care much at all, but they’re not emotionally driven, and/or would rather just avoid drama.
My bias: I think it’s rather rude to throw nastiness at a developer that was practically (and in a few cases literally) begged to port his app for lemmy. One can object to decisions made in a civil manner. Sync was not my app of choice, but I found it to be a solid back-up, and Mr Dawson to be a fairly good example of how a developer should communicate.
Now, my opinion on sync for lemmy, as it currently exists. This is pure opinion, and should not be taken as anything else. While I despise ads, it’s a case of “hate the game, not the player”. I understand why app developers use ads, and I can’t say I blame them. The price Mr Dawson has set for a one time ad removal is fair. Regardless of what level of income can be expected from ads, that income is continuous as long as the app is used. The fee represents a reasonable amount for an app that is likely to remain useful just as it is for years.
Now, it is not up to feature parity with core lemmy tools. There are plenty of apps further along in that regard. It is, however, a very well crafted UI and has a long history of being actively maintained as well as moved forward over time. That last assumes the developer doesn’t throw up his hands as a “no win” situation and walk away. I doubt that will be the case, Mr Dawson is a pro. Wouldn’t blame him if he did though, some of the comments directed at him would have been nasty on reddit; here, they’re so far beyond acceptable it’s disgusting. Lemmy is supposed to be better than reddit in that regard.
I don’t do tl;drs because it ain’t that fucking hard to read, but to kinda close things out, it can be summed up as a massive amount of confusion about exactly what the app was, is, and should be.
This is a good summary; as a reddit exile myself who exclusively used Sync, I think it’s worth emphasising that Dawson has done an amazing job of making the transition from reddit to lemmy pretty seamless from an app design point of view. I can set my views and filters up identically as they were in the Reddit version of the app, and the lemmy experience becomes essentially identical to reddit.
There’s definitely a conflict between “paid closed source app” and “FOSS fediverse”, and there’s arguments to be made about whether user revenue should be directed to server expenses to maintain communities or front end app development to attract more users, which I think will be interesting to see play out. But at the end of the day Sync makes lemmy “useable” in a way that replicates the reddit experience, which is what a lot of migrants were after - other apps (while arguably more feature rich in terms of the fediverse) just didn’t quite hit the dopamine-feed the way Sync does.
I get the idea that the FOSS outrage is not 100% honest. Not to say that they don’t hold a strong pro-FOSS stance, but I think it’s fueled by something else.
I think a lot of people are just plain annoyed with the way the Sync fans suddenly took over discussion all over Lemmy, and the FOSS position was an easy one to “legitimize” their opposition to this new crowd.
It’s pretty normal to have people push back when there’s such a vocal crowd about something. What’s frustrating is how it’s so polarizing that if anyone wants to express a dissenting opinion and have good faith discussion, they’re usually lumped in with the massive circlejerk on one side or the other.
It’s not. It’s popular because it was a popular Reddit app and a lot of people here are former Reddit users.
Everyone has their preferences but that doesn’t make sync better than any other app. Just different.
It’s not.
But it has potential to be, let’s remember it is in beta state, as many other apps.
It is almost unbeatable in smoothness and I think only Summit, Voyager and Connect for Lemmy are good alternatives to it, regarding features and smoothness.
And it has one big perk against all the others, you can multitask with it.
I never said it didn’t. But you point out that it’s in the same state as many other apps but don’t mention whether or not those apps are better in any way.
I keep hearing about smoothness and polish. Can you define those for me? I see nothing about Sync that feels more smooth than other apps I’ve tried.
The animations are smooth, only Summit can compare (indeed I think it is better as of now).
The app lasts longer in the multitask/app switcher and it almost always remembers your place on the feed.
You have peek to see posts, and those are one of the top features that come to my mind that not all the other apps have, but I know some do, like Voyager holds on the background a bit longer than other apps as well, and I am pretty sure some have peek to see as well.
At the end of the day nothing is wrong with one of another, the good thing is that we get options.
I heard it has ads and you can’t post. Some people are a little too loyal
Perhaps I am biased, but I’d still like to point out some facts :)
Yes, it has ads. It also has options to remove them.
No, you can post. That’s coming soon.
This app is also in its first beta release. It hasn’t been officially launched yet. It just happened that a lot of people who were excited about Sync coming back drummed up a lot of hype for it when the beta finally launched, that we kicked off a massive news wave apparently.
Also, of the ones I’ve used, the fluidity of the app, the smoothness of it, and the polish (especially for a beta) is unmatched from the other Lemmy clients I’ve used (haven’t used all of them, but I used a lot of them.)
There’s a lot of opinion in that last paragraph that a lot of vocal sync users don’t seem inclined to see.
It’s equally fine that you like it and I don’t.
It’s a nice app, (first time Sync user) great functionality and design, but the downside is it’s not open source and it has ads and even optional subscription service. Some people think it goes against the whole fediverse mindset, others (long time Sync for Reddit users) defend it as they are looking for the same experience they had on reddit.
That said it’s 100% usable, but if you don’t like this kind of stuff you have half a dozen free alternatives with just as many functions and different designs.
Couldn’t agree more!
(I hope I don’t come off as attacking you! I’m kinda just using your comment to piggyback and make my own haha)
It’s closed source, as was his reddit version, so idk what anyone expected there. He also never said it was ever going to be open source. But I completely understand anyone who isn’t willing to let go of their FOSS. FOSS is good for a reason! :)
I do understand the mindset that it goes against the fediverse, but I happen to disagree. In other threads, there’s been discussion about how they are actively paying donations, patreons, paypal, etc to help fund their favorite instance or whatever else. That needs to happen to offset the cost. Especially if it is the instance owners hobby, and not full time job.
Well, what if we want a nice experience while using Lemmy? Sure, there’s plenty of apps, but what if someone was able to dedicate their entire working hours to that app? To make it as good as possible? Well, then they’d need to make money somehow, right? Or they’d have to get a different job, and do the app as a hobby. This hurts the app, and then it just becomes another run of the middle Lemmy client.
I understand why people are upset. Lemmy is free. The fediverse is free. (Most of) the apps are free. But someone is paying for all of this, whether we realize it or not.
Sync and Connect are pretty similar, but I prefer Sync. I like its design a bit more, also it is more customizable and has more features I use: customization of sorting for every feed and subscription, option to hide nested comments by default, button showing parent comment without need to scroll up. Also it can track comment count changes.
I think people are talking about Sync because it has ads and its pricing is too high.
I started using sync a week and I don’t believe I’ve seen an ad. Also, it hasn’t asked me to pay to use it. Am I missing something?
I think it’s just a what you know sort of situation.
If you’ve used sync for years, the interface, shortcuts etc feel intuitive even though that is caused by hours of practice/experience.
Personally, coming from another reddit client, all the Lemmy apps/interfaces I’ve tried still feel a bit awkward even after a month or whatever.
The uncanny issue may also be causing a problem. While Lemmy is different, the basic idea (communities, posts etc) is very similar to reddit. Something that is similar but slightly different can feel uncanny, which is often unsettling/frustrating.
Relay. I’m using connect which isn’t bad. I figure instead of looking for exactly what I had, I’ll just get used to Connect.
Though if you have (or anyone else has) another suggestion I’m all ears!