this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2023
24 points (90.0% liked)

Apollo - A beautiful app built for power and speed.

1590 readers
1 users here now

Since many of us are trying to avoid giving reddit any traffic, this space can be used to discuss Apollo, our dreams of seeing it join the Fediverse, and to give our appreciation to @christianselig@mastodon.social for his incredible work.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
MentallyExhausted@reddthat.com
24
Christian squeezing Apollo for its last bit of money (old.reddit.com)
submitted 2 years ago by UgandaSans@reddthat.com to c/apolloapp@reddthat.com
61 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Christian has decided to squeeze Apollo again for more money, besides the wallpapers and asking people to decline their prorated refund. Christian additionally forced a pop up ad advertising this plushie.

This is just exposing to more people the greediness that Christian has tapped into recently. Recall that previously, Christian forced daily pop up ads to paid pro users to get them to subscribe to ultra, which was originally stated to only be for notifications since it required a server, but now had all new features attached to it, even very simple local features. Reddit did him dirty, but to be honest, he may have had it coming. He previously disabled ultra access to Jailbroken devices as well, even if they were valid paid users. Christian also didn’t provide refunds to lifetime users who bought it before all the API stuff. Speaking of that, does anyone remember how instead of stating the price was increasing (which happened all the time) he instead said it was “going on sale at the old price”? Kinda misleading.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] TeckFire@lemmy.world 50 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I can’t get behind this narrative. Honestly, how else do you market this product? On Twitter? On Facebook? Mastodon maybe?

Look, he’s updating an app that hasn’t been operational in months… nobody who still has that app has any illusions of it coming back. What do they expect when they open that app?

I won’t buy a plushie, since I don’t have a place for it, but I had many fond years using Apollo, and wouldn’t mind buying something like this at all, and I would have never known otherwise (except for people complaining about it online.)

[–] stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml 30 points 2 years ago (1 children)

This is where I am. I don’t get the narrative of Darth Christian abusing the populace. He’s an independent gig worker marketing his skills and products.

[–] Whirlybird@aussie.zone 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

He’s a millionaire who made those millions from using Reddits free API. Now he’s just grifting.

[–] KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 years ago (17 children)

Source on his net worth?

load more comments (17 replies)
[–] UgandaSans@reddthat.com 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

The “product” is an attempt to get people who feel sad to give him more money. What other app tries sells plushies of its logo?

[–] JaymesRS@literature.cafe 11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Many sell merch. For example, I play an idle game called Melvor Idle that routinely sells plushies of in game pets.

[–] UgandaSans@reddthat.com 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That’s a game, not a (defunct) social media app

[–] JaymesRS@literature.cafe 10 points 2 years ago (2 children)

You asked “what other app sells plushies of its logo?”

Melvor Idle has featured those pets in its logos and and meets your question. Your only response to that was to double down and drag those goalposts further down the field by changing the criteria.

I get that you’re super butthurt over this, but maybe you need to step back, take a breath, get some perspective and figure out why others actions that have no impact on your life bother you so much. How does this change your life? How would your life be different if this happened without your knowledge or never happened?

I bet your life wouldn’t be significantly different other than the amount of energy you’re exerting letting this anger you.

[–] UgandaSans@reddthat.com 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

No “goalposts” were moved. I was perhaps not specific enough when I said app, which is why I clarified more.

There’s no reason to be passive aggressive about this. You make it sound like I dedicate my life to this, when all I did was make one post here, and outlined some of my concerns with some of the developers behavior.

[–] JaymesRS@literature.cafe 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Asking for an example, then “clarifying” so that the criteria changes in order that the example — which answers the prior questions but now — doesn’t meet the later change is literally “shifting the goalposts”. You might look up the definition.

And your multiple replies to comments to different people that disagree all over this post are a bit more than making “one post”.

[–] UgandaSans@reddthat.com 1 points 2 years ago

This “criteria” was my original intent all along. English is not my first language so maybe i was not so clear. And is it really so wrong to reply to people that come up in my inbox?

[–] Flaky@iusearchlinux.fyi 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I get that you’re super butthurt over this, but maybe you need to step back, take a breath, get some perspective and figure out why others actions that have no impact on your life bother you so much.

Honestly, Lemmy users can get antsy over the weirdest shit. Not a fan of that being carried over from Reddit/Twitter to the fediverse.

This post was crossposted to the Reddit community on one of the major instances, to which it was downvoted a lot. Reddthat doesn't allow downvotes, but the major Lemmy instances and the one I'm on do. Between that and TeckFire's top comment (though Reddthat doesn't federate downvotes, it's got more upvotes than the OP), I think it's safe to say the majority of people disagree with OP.

[–] TeckFire@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

And you’re saying that that’s unethical because…?

I mean think about it. Why does any company sell merch? Is it unethical for them to sell it? Why or why not?

[–] UgandaSans@reddthat.com 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It’s not inherently unethical to sell merch. It’s however apparent to me that this seems to be a cash grab. The app died months ago. This is further apparent to me when acknowledging the greediness Christian has shown before. It is unethical to try and use your already dead app to try and gain even more money by selling a low-effort plushie.

[–] TeckFire@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago (9 children)

Again I ask… what makes this a “cash grab” and other merch not? Is it because this service is no longer active? What if there was a new plush released for Phantasy Star Online, a now defunct but beloved game?

load more comments (9 replies)
[–] UgandaSans@reddthat.com 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I would also like to add on that this pop up was shown to all sideloaded Apollo users as well.

[–] TeckFire@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago

Ah… so unofficial installations of an old app got a notification that was only intended for people who had a non-functional version of the app, because that’s what the official update was set as? The audacity!

In all seriousness, that’s like saying someone with a pirated copy of a game having a bug and complaining about it to the one who runs the server is justified. Actually, not even a bug, just a regular notification… that only notifies you after you open the app…..

You see how thin this argument is, surely?

[–] skeezix@lemmy.world 24 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Spez sucks.

[–] Whirlybird@aussie.zone 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Reddit did him dirty

Did they? He literally made millions of dollars from Reddits product and Reddit didn’t see a cent from him.

[–] Cqrd@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 2 years ago (11 children)

Reddit makes millions of dollars from other people's content without them seeing a cent of it

[–] UgandaSans@reddthat.com 3 points 2 years ago

Yes, Reddit is all just user content, so I do not feel too bad for them, however it is true that Reddit’s free service in the form of their API made Christian potentially millions. However I do feel like there was a better compromise rather than what ended up happening.

[–] Flaky@iusearchlinux.fyi 2 points 2 years ago

And then gets mad when OpenAI uses that data. Like bro it wasn't your data in the first place.

load more comments (9 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›