Sync Ultra is a very reasonable $17 a YEAR. YouTube Premium is reaching that per MONTH. I have sync downloaded and it was the first thing I did. Thanks j for the beautiful app.

EDIT: There are many counterpoints and actually good discussion happening down below. Even if you don’t agree, thanks for showing me a different perspective!

If you want to support Sync, make sure to support the Lemmy Devs and your instance holders as well!

*This post was made early in the day before the update.

    • @[email protected]
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      7311 months ago

      What’s more infuriating is that Lemmy itself doesn’t have ads but Sync has, sadly.

      • @[email protected]
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        5411 months ago

        I understand, but the dev works on this app full time so he has to earn a living somehow. Even the core Lemmy devs are able to work on Lemmy full time because they got some funding from a grant.

        • @[email protected]
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          2411 months ago

          In my recollection sync for reddit had multiple long gaps in communication from the dev, including pretty shortly after subscriptions were first announced. I appreciate the desire to be paid, but I didn’t find it clear that there were ongoing development or support efforts.

          • @[email protected]
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            1911 months ago

            He took a few months off here or there for irl issues. I’ve been using Sync for nearly a decade, my personal opinion is that the drama is overblown. Even if he disappeared I would have gotten my money’s worth out of the app, I used it daily for 1 - 2 hours a day.

            • @[email protected]
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              11 months ago

              Agreed, I’ve been using sync since 2016 and yeah the Dev disappeared here and there for a bit but it was always for personal reasons. Shit happens. The drama was definitely a bit much IMO.

              That being said, I’m absolutely sick of everything turning into subscriptions, I’ll wait for either the lifetime option or just removing ads.

        • @[email protected]
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          1211 months ago

          I mean i agree the dev should be paid for the work. But it just seems a bit odd to require a subscription to remove ads using a service that does not have ads or backend cost from a api. I think there should be no ads or at the very least a one time purchase to remove just ads. Like I understand a subscription for like power user features. And i am not some cheap ass complaining I have probably given the dev 100+ dollars in support between patreon, ultra subscription, ultra lifetime purchases.

          • @[email protected]
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            911 months ago

            But the dev already confirmed that they’ll put a one time payment for removing ads though, just not in this beta release.

          • @[email protected]
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            611 months ago

            But when you serve ads on a platform that doesn’t have ads, why would I use the ad enabled app when I can just go on the actual site?

            • @[email protected]
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              111 months ago

              Everyone needs to make their own decision but IMO Sync’s UI is a million times better than the actual site even with ads.

              • @[email protected]
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                211 months ago

                But there are tons of other third party apps that are ad free that are just as good as Sync.

      • @[email protected]
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        711 months ago

        I’ll admit to being a bit confused because I’ve been using sync for a couple of hours now and have yet to see an ad myself.

      • @[email protected]
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        511 months ago

        Yeah, I’m not too happy about that. I’ll give this a few days, at least, but I can’t stand ads. It never occurred to me that they would be brought in for a platform that otherwise has none. I paid for a lifetime subscription on Sync for Reddit. For Lemmy, Connect is close enough to the Sync experience that I’m about to say fuck this and go back to it.

    • SRo
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      2211 months ago

      Same here. I would buy lifetime again but I’m done with subs.

      • @[email protected]
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        211 months ago

        subscriptions based services are mostly about cash grabbing. I really hate it that you have to pay a subscription to use a software. I’ll purchase any software for a reasonable price but I’d never subscribe for a software product like this.

    • @[email protected]
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      311 months ago

      The problem is how apps are bought on mobile now.

      With PC applications, you’d buy a specific version and you would maybe get updates for a year. Then the developer would release an update and you would decide whether it was worth buying the update for the new enhancements. If it wasn’t then you’d stick with the old version until the next new version and make the choice again. This way the developer gets paid regularly by new and existing users if they produce a good app.

      On mobile, you buy an app and expect to get updates for the life of the app. The developer is expected to keep producing updates whether the app is complete or not otherwise their app is labelled as dead. They only get paid by new users.

      That second model is simply not sustainable from the developer’s point of view for any reasonably sized app so they need to think of ways to make it work. There are only two options which are ads and subscriptions and people don’t like either.

      Of course, PC apps are also moving to subscriptions to remove the option that you used to have to not pay them for a year or two if they’re not providing good enough updates.

    • @[email protected]
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      311 months ago

      Everything is a subscription because users demand their software be updated on a consistent basis. That’s the nature of software development.

    • @[email protected]
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      211 months ago

      Because he will always have to work on the app as long as it lives. So subscription does make sense here. And 17 dollars ain’t much at all