this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2023
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Fediverse

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In many ways, Mastodon feels like rewinding the clock on social media back to the early days of Twitter and Facebook. On the consume side, that means that your home feed has no algorithm (this can be disorienting at first).

Practically, it means that you see only what you want to see and only see it linearly. You never wonder “why am I seeing this and how do I make it go away?”. Content can only enter your home feed via your followed tags or handles and the feed is linear like the early days of social media.

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[–] Izzy 125 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (16 children)

Put it simply I just hate ads. Anything that puts in ads is terrible. Including Sync for Lemmy who seems to have completely missed the point of getting the hell away from Reddit.

The next terrible thing is automatically generated content and bots, but I guess those are also really just ads.

[–] [email protected] 72 points 10 months ago (7 children)

I disagree. I hate ads with a passion too. But as long as we can pay a sum to remove it, it is fair to have a free option with ads. A kinda unlimited "demo".

We are fools for thinking anyone would give away their own time and effort for free forever. We have completely lost the perspective of how much things should cost because of how much we've taken for granted that was paid for with our personal data. And the biggest fools is those who think most software developers and server admins can live reliably on donations alone.

Though Youtube is taking the ads a bit far, maybe. One shouldn't scare away users before they have even become customers.

[–] ryncewynd 16 points 10 months ago (6 children)

Absolutely agree with your comment.

I don't really know the solution either... I can't afford to pay for all the things I enjoy online.

I was considering supporting 1 Twitch streamer I enjoy until I saw subscription cost. And if I paid that for every streamer or YouTuber I enjoy, I'd be broke in a single day lol.

I get so much incredibly good info and discussions online about my hobbies, all for no charge.

I used to subscribe on Patreon to my most useful resources/people, but in the end I just could afford it and had to cancel all my Patreon

I hate ads but I don't understand how the internet would function without ads. No one could afford it

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

Yeah, I'm not rich enough to pay for every site and service either. A site like rockpapershotgun I left when it paywalled most of its contents, it wasn't important enough to me to pay for. I've never paid for reddit, but i probably should have by how much i used it. Not that I will do that after what they've pulled lately. I donate to a fediverse server to put my money where my mouth is and at least pay for what I want to keep alive.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

Agreed, but even if free ad tiers exist, web trackers have to also exist to track everything you do, just in case you use the ad tier again.

Privacy shouldn’t be something unaffordable.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Um Linux and FOSS, kinda show you wrong in that many people are happy to see others use their work for feee.

We are fools for thinking capitalist solutions are the solutions we need.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Major Linux contributors are payed by their employers to work on the kernel.

[–] Geert 2 points 10 months ago

So you really believe that FOSS is only developed by people doing this for free. Not saying there are no hobby projects developed by people in their free time but thinking that is how it works is pretty dumb. Postgresql, Mozilla, various Linux distributions providing "business solutions" - hell, even the Lemmy developers are funded.

You are a fool if you think all Foss developers are anticapitalist idealists.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

The second ads are required the customer stops being the users and starts being the advertisers. This starts the enshittification ~~snowball~~ shitball, Randers.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's a good thing you have the option to pay to remove ads and stay the customer, then

[–] MrLuemasG 5 points 10 months ago

Legit. I paid $3 for Sync back in 2014 and used it daily for nine years.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago (5 children)

I'm working on the app full-time and the ads / subscriptions cover development costs.

[–] Koplinaut 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I just wanted to say I greatly appreciate everything that you've done for reddit/lemmy in app development. Without Sync I'm not sure how I'd browse the web without pulling out all my hair due to all the ads and inconsistencies.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago
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[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Wrong. The next terrible thing is mass-AI-generated propaganda and disinformation. Like in the "dead internet" theory

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Next? I think you misspelled "current":-D

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[–] sparr 5 points 10 months ago

Web of trust solves this problem, until people start intentionally trusting AIs as much as they do other humans, at which point it's no longer a problem.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (8 children)

When's the last time you developed and released a full fledged software project for free?

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I just paid the one time fee for no ads. Works for me.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This is only FOSS bros making a bigger deal than it should, I like FOSS I use FOSS but they need to chill a bit.

[–] Geert 2 points 10 months ago
[–] te_abstract_art 10 points 10 months ago

I hate ads too, but devs have to eat so why should we not pay them when we use an app or service they spend countless time making and maintaining?

Sync is a one-time payment of £17.99 / $20 to remove ads and for the amount I'll be using this app, I think that's absolutely fair. I'll spend more on one takeaway pizza on a Friday night.

[–] Geert 8 points 10 months ago (3 children)

It would suck if Sync was the only option but it's not. Nobody forces you to use it. You have such a hateboner for Sync it's ridiculous. So the guy asks money for his work, who fucking cares.

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[–] MrLuemasG 5 points 10 months ago

We have different reasons for getting the hell away from reddit. I came to lemmy because reddit killed sync. I paid like $3 for Sync in 2014 and used it every day until Reddit killed it without seeing a single ad. So, not only do I disagree with Sync for Lemmy missing the point of getting away with reddit, but I also disagree with the notion that sink for Lemmy is in any way bad for having an ad - supported tier when you can pay a negligible amount of money ( $20 in 2023 ) and never see an ad again for the entire lifetime of the app.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (9 children)

Including Sync for Lemmy who seems to have completely missed the point of getting the hell away from Reddit.

If there is one reason to support ads, only one reason, is for using Sync for Lemmy.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Are there ads on Sync? I've been using it exclusively for the last week or so and haven't seen a single one.

[–] MrLuemasG 4 points 10 months ago

I've been using Sync for Lemmy since it was first released and I still haven't seen an ad. I'm pretty sure it's a bug.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Bad content feels much much worse to me. E.g it is so infuriating to see those fake prank videos with tons of likes and positive comments. It kills my hope in humanity every time... At least an ad could be for some interesting legit product. 🫠

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