81–90 of 135 posts
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Application developers practically tripped over each other in a scramble to join these stores. Serves them right.
What exactly "serves" them? Just in 2018, the App Store paid developers $34 billion from their sales. https://fortune.com/2019/01/28/apple-app-store-developer-ear...
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I agree with all the things you say about trying to get more freedom on mobile platforms, but let's not be disingenuous. Allowing more freedom on app stores absolutely increases viruses and malware that can get onto phones. If we aren't honest about that then we won't be out brainstorming methods of avoiding that kind of cesspool.
Is that brainstorming a prerequisite to letting people be adult humans with free will who can, after a few warnings, be allowed to make their own choices? We allow people to drink, gamble, join ponzi schemes or self-harm. The non-negotiable nannying around app stores seems infantilizing in comparison. To answer your question, yes the risks are real. But so is life.
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"Frankly I do not understand why do people submit to this kind of stewardship" Uhhh: "I am lucky that so far I have managed to avoid all this walled garden madness" "All of my products..." "...desktop based or browser based and servers are hosted on my own/rented hardware" This is like a professional chef saying they don't understand why everyone does not make their own souffles. People want the same services you wan…
"why everyone does not make their own souffles" - I am not only developer. I am also a customer. And I avoid those McDonalds of the Internet like a plague. Not always successful but mostly.
Also, and I don't know this, but if I were to look at your service stack, are you telling me I could not find ANY google/amazon/cloudflare service or something that significantly relied on on them? I would be shocked to find out that's true (i've literally never seen it before) and in that case. the difference between you and a consumer is one of degrees.
Sorry, not trying to attack you but on HN i see a widespread "I can't believe how dumb people are selling out to google for nothing" mentality that makes no sense to me. If you use the internet at all, you use big tech services. Period. Some people don't like saying that, but it's still true.
For some perspective on apple "killing" developers. Apple is FLOODED with copycat crap apps - 10 different names etc etc. Seriously, the play store used to have lots more of these - maybe now cleaned up. But saying that apple needs to encourage this crap is silly. This is what was killing the play store. The guy complaining here has his "privacy policy" as follows: https://github.com/glushchenko/fsnotes When someone…
I guess I'm a bit biased since I use it regularly, and I really like the business model of an open-source application that is available for free, and is purchasable if you wish to support the creator.
It seems like you're ignoring the fact that an actual person (and presumably, fellow developer, I am assuming you are also a dev) who provides a useful tool for free and spends a considerable amount of time and energy on it is going to read your posts that just shit on him and his work with no sympathy.
Also, please keep in mind that $500 is a LOT of money for many developers, both inside and outside of the United States.
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Is that brainstorming a prerequisite to letting people be adult humans with free will who can, after a few warnings, be allowed to make their own choices? We allow people to drink, gamble, join ponzi schemes or self-harm. The non-negotiable nannying around app stores seems infantilizing in comparison. To answer your question, yes the risks are real. But so is life.
No, I don’t think sewing opportunity for scammers to take advantage of others is better. I used to agree with you in my libertarian utopia stage as a uni freshman but looked at things differently when I watched my tech unsavvy parents lose money to scams like subscription antivirus software that just played the same bullshit scanning animation every time. “Personal choice” is probably the same justification the scamm…
Cash transactions are no different from sideloading (on desktops we call this "installing") applications. They are between only you and the vendor, no 3rd party involved.
Sure, your parents are affected. But other people's parents are smokers, having their QALYs stolen by the tobacco industry. And yet all we do is add some nudges and hope they'll stop, nothing more.
This is hypocrisy.
Any idea why they would want to kill your notes app? There are already a bunch out there and Notes has been around forever.
I don't think they have to want to do anything. This is just the reality of a faceless bureaucracy which isn't accountable to anyone or anything. To the dev, their app is their livelihood— to Apple, it's just a ticket in a queue somewhere.
Please. They're accountable to their one billion plus customers who depend on them to keep as much riff raff as possible out of the app store. They're likewise accountable to the developers who created this market.
Apple's process is imperfect. They certainly raise a lot of false negatives. The requirements are sometimes onerous and nebulous. However, the alternative is knowingly peddling hot garbage and harming their customers, partners, third-party developers, and thus, their own business.
Write your core app in cross-platform C++, decoupling the UI (maybe using MVP or similar approaches), then switch to another platform.
REPEAT
We have suspended your AdSense account due to our ML system flagging you for fraud (yes, we trust it) and we can't tell you why (no, we really can't tell you even if we wanted to).
UNTIL customer goes away or the case gets enough upvotes on HN to be a PR problem
Amazon:
REPEAT
We have removed your seller privileges due to a change in our policies we didn't communicate to anyone and you likely selling a brand that was recently put on a gated list or our ML system is thinking you are a fraud because you logged in in private mode.
UNTIL customer goes away or hires a consulting company with ties to Amazon managers
Apple:
REPEAT
We have placed your account under review with opaque "policy violation" but we won't tell you why (like Google we can't tell as some of our ML models have good day flagging you for reasons known only to them). Or you might have tweeted something 5 years ago against a company we just acquired. Well, bad luck.
UNTIL developer goes away
FAANG customer service in a nutshell.
Google: REPEAT We have suspended your AdSense account due to our ML system flagging you for fraud (yes, we trust it) and we can't tell you why (no, we really can't tell you even if we wanted to). UNTIL customer goes away or the case gets enough upvotes on HN to be a PR problem Amazon: REPEAT We have removed your seller privileges due to a change in our policies we didn't communicate to anyone and you likely selling a…
For some perspective on apple "killing" developers. Apple is FLOODED with copycat crap apps - 10 different names etc etc. Seriously, the play store used to have lots more of these - maybe now cleaned up. But saying that apple needs to encourage this crap is silly. This is what was killing the play store. The guy complaining here has his "privacy policy" as follows: https://github.com/glushchenko/fsnotes When someone…
Compare selling on the App Store to selling physical goods in a real store. Can anyone just make a thing at home and take it to their local Walmart and demand they sell it? Of course not. There are quality controls. There are things you have to learn first — that your packaging needs to be in a suitable box, that you need to get a barcode, that it needs legal notices, etc. If Walmart offered a “seller’s course” where…