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Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

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Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#41

Post by FartyMcFarter »

tommilukkarinen wrote: post #16

This is the other side of the Play-store problem. The other side is the tax. Play store employee can ban your app = destroy your business at any time. The reason can be 'new policy', 'misunderstanding' or something more problematic, such as influence from your competitor to the employee. A 'power to destroy business', should not be a click away from some random employee.

> Play store employee can ban your app = destroy your business at any time

No one forces / forced businesses to rely on apps for their business. Websites do exist and work well, so there are alternatives.

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#42

Post by toastal »

It won't solve these issues with gatekeepers fundamentally and doesn't work for all cases, but embracing PWAs means anyone can click the 'install' button for your application and side step some of this nonsense while getting a fairly robust feature set.

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#43

Post by simion314 »

throwaways885 wrote: post #35
avereveard wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"they should have built their own phone with their own app store" - the hn community, when it suited their political agenda

What political agenda?

When the giants banned that app after the incidents in 6 January in US, you see a lot of comment like "free markets" and build your own platform from scratch including banks, ISPs and hosting.

P.S. I am not from US so I am not in a blue or red camp, I just don't like it when some big corporation can lock you out of your account, decide what books you can read, what apps you can install or brick your application/device ( I am thinking at the case where Photoshop stopped working in Venezuela and how on some systems the device will contact the mother ships at boot/resume or when you launch an apo for "security" reasons that could be used in future to block you using the device or app)

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#45

Post by zo1 »

For anyone unaware, the name of the app is a play on a swear word. "EskomSePush" is an intentional play on the phrase "Eskom Se Poes". Eskom being the power utility that provides electricity to South Africa, and has been woefully inadequate at doing so.

See here for a meaning of the word Poes in Afrikaans. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/poes#Afrikaans

Wonder if Google is aware of that and has been getting lots of "reports" by genuine users that are offended by this? And this weird "technicality" is just a cover for why they really got banned/taken down.

They have a one-hit wonder that they're trying to ride the wave on. So instead of sticking to the functionality they had (notifications/schedule/etc) which was perfect for users, they decided to add a "comments section" it seems for people to vent their frustrations. So no sympathy from me, despite Google being in the wrong here.

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#46

Post by nguyenkien »

arkitaip wrote: post #37
wheresmycraisin wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you can just make a web app. Unless you are doing games or anything requiring lower-level hardware access, like a bluetooth scanner or something.

Why stop there? Web apps can trivially be taken down if your domain registrar, hosting provider, datacenter partner or payment solution decides to kick you out.

There many hosting provider, datacenter, payment gatway to choose from. But just 2 appstore to use (technically android can have as many as you want, but how many pp use 3rd store right now?)

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#47

Post by wheresmycraisin »

arkitaip wrote: post #37
wheresmycraisin wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you can just make a web app. Unless you are doing games or anything requiring lower-level hardware access, like a bluetooth scanner or something.

Why stop there? Web apps can trivially be taken down if your domain registrar, hosting provider, datacenter partner or payment solution decides to kick you out.

You have alternatives for those things though, in other countries if necessary. Ok, ok, accepting payments is hard -- if you're getting booted from your processors because, say, you're in a controversial industry, you might have to get creative (look at the US cannabis industry for such creativity).

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#48

Post by throwaways885 »

simion314 wrote: post #43
throwaways885 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What political agenda?

When the giants banned that app after the incidents in 6 January in US, you see a lot of comment like "free markets" and build your own platform from scratch including banks, ISPs and hosting. P.S. I am not from US so I am not in a blue or red camp, I just don't like it when some big corporation can lock you out of your account, decide what books you can read, what apps you can install or brick your application/devic…

The problem with that line of thinking is the book burners will automatically assume your politics. Sad.

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#49

Post by chmod775 »

jonathanlydall wrote: post #32

For those not from South Africa, this app is primarily for people to be able to get notifications or look up when their area will be affected by a "planned power outage", or as Eskom (our state owned power utility) refers to it, "load shedding". "Load shedding" is enacted whenever they have a power production capacity issue where different areas take turns without power so as to not let the power grid collapse. This…

And here's a link to the app:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ashwhale.s...

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#50

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

throwaways885 wrote: post #35
avereveard wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"they should have built their own phone with their own app store" - the hn community, when it suited their political agenda

What political agenda?

My guess: when it was about banning right-wing focused apps like Gab.
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