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 mentioning Sync and Artemis that 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…
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.
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 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.
Since we’re only talking about a week timeline here, would it be possible to update the sync app with a list of popular Lemmy instances and a way to view your favorite one from a web view within the app? That way people could still use sync in the meantime while native features gradually get rolled out.
Imagine if it just seamlessly continued working after a short account signup and translated your Reddit subs to various Lemmy ones where it could.
That’d be magical, but isn’t easily feasible.
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.
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
Yeah the Piracy community seems like it could become an anchor on this platform, which I would love.
Pirates are generally aligned against capitalism and corporatism, but they are not all in the same boat, politically speaking.
Such a diverse yet similar group could prove very helpful in charting a middle course amongst some of the more opinionated instances.
Arggh!
the piracy subs are already here. !piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Yeah the Piracy community seems like it could become an anchor on this platform, which I would love.
Oh yeah, I think this will be a great platform for the Piracy minded amongst us. Not beholden to a central authority, censorship resistant, no legal liability encompassing the network of discrete nodes. Lots of upsides.
Such a diverse yet similar group could prove very helpful in charting a middle course
I hope this will be the case as well. Those that want to Pirate aren’t going to be sticking around long on instances whose owners are defederating the pirate horde I think.
Word. Glad you’re part of my instance and looking forward to watching how this develops together.
But you didn’t laugh at my pirate puns 😭
an anchor
in the same boat
charting a course
Arggh!
Glad you’re part of my instance
Same same
Lol somehow all of those puns completely slipped past me, idk how I even missed that
Got a hearty chuckle out of me on the second read through matey. Hmm maybe more of a cackle tbh
deleted by creator
Alot of us, including me, wouldn’t be here using Lemmy right now if people didn’t market it to us.
Even people who otherwise would can’t switch if they don’t know about it.
Marketing is important; nothing wrong with that on its own.
its just semantics chill lil bro
+1 this is a super good idea - !ljdawson@lemmy.world
Those fuckers
That’s the point. The mods are passing to NSFW because it’s a pain to view such content on Reddit
Right?!
Funny thing is that I don’t see this popup in sync.
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
PSA: get past it by clicking “desktop view”.
Could be a good idea for RiF and Apollo as well, even if they don’t plan to build apps for the Fediverse.
I don’t think it’s a bad idea to say that Sync for Reddit is shutting down, if you would like to follow new projects by LJ, please click here for Patreon or here for Lemmy or something along those lines.
Honestly, I think it needs to be more aggressive than that, as bad as that may sound.
Something like:
"Reddit’s new API policies has made it impossible for Sync for Reddit to continue.
Click here for Sync for Lemmy, an alternative to Reddit, instead. You will be notified when it is out in [estimated time for prototype]."
Would probably be more effective if the app remained the same, and you didn’t need to download a separate Sync for Lemmy from the playstore; do we know which one’s happening yet?
I wonder if this would even be legal though.
I think it would actually be pretty cool if somehow you could link configured subreddits that people have saved or subscribed to into a search for Lemmy communities.
Obviously we want to minimize time that distracts you from the Lemmy version, but I do think it would help people pivot into Lemmy communities away from their favorite subreddits.
Is Sync for ios as well?
Sync for android would be great, though since there’s already an android app which works (enough), an iOS app should be the priority IMO
No it really shouldn’t be. There are plenty of apps for both platforms in development, and Sync has always been an Android app, and should remain one.
What’s the harm if it’s made for iOS?
Resources it takes. I think Sync for Reddit was in testflight for iOS, but of course never got a chance to come out with this API change. There was also Slide for Android that later also took on the task of Slide for iOS then got dropped.
Trying to make apps for two platforms can be difficult. Especially with iOS having their own set of very specific UI requirements.
Having limited resources one has to choose the best way to apply them. Sync for Reddit has huge loyal userbase at Android camp, why would one abandon them? Any valid reason at all?
iPhone app might be a priority for apollo and what else do they have there, for the same reasons.
