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Two weeks of dealing with Google as a developer

danfitdegree.hashnode.dev

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Re: Two weeks of dealing with Google as a developer

#311

Post by rrwo »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #194
rrwo wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is legislation going to help? of anything, countries will add their own bizarre restrictilns to protect children, morality, religion and politicians. "We're sorry, but your app will be removed until you can satiafy legal reatrictions for Saudi Arabia, Popua New Guinea, France and Alabama."

The notion that companies with a presence on the Internet have to obey laws all over the planet is not how the Internet was ever supposed to work. Eventually people will remember that we used to think that way, and why. So, as Google is a US company, US law would apply. Developers in other countries would presumably benefit from the same requirement to provide a human support contact. If not, that's unfortunate.

The problem isn't the lack of a human contact.

The problem is having no choice but to participate in a closed app store with opaque rules with no oversight or appeals.

Re: Two weeks of dealing with Google as a developer

#312

Post by tpxl »

jfoster wrote: post #299
tpxl wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They could add all sorts of scary warnings in-between a user and a suspicious looking app That's a nice looking app, would be a shame if it had a big scary warning on it. If they did that, they would rightfully be accused of running a racket.

They currently block some apps from publishing altogether. Is that not worse?

They'd block all the same apps, and some extra for the racket money. So no, current situation is not worse.

Re: Two weeks of dealing with Google as a developer

#313

Post by nyuszika7h »

fleddr wrote: post #119

And this is why we need to cherish the web. I see no reason why a yoga app can't be done on the web. I do know that apps tend to convert better, if only we could bridge that gap. It's in particular troubling how much of this madness we've internalized to just accept. The idea that you need to resubmit a 100 apps because Google decided you need to target a different internal version number is insane. It would be very…

> What if my moderation workflow would only allow draft posts, each manually approved, making reporting them pointless?

this implies you never make mistakes. even if there's manual approval there should be a way to report content that slipped through.

Re: Two weeks of dealing with Google as a developer

#314

Post by Litost »

bitexploder wrote: post #177
gerdesj wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a decent approach to any "Gate Keeper" entity. The Gate Keeper might be anything from a budget holder to a government. "The Prince" by an Italian lad off of the 16thC is still a pertinent read 400 years later and he's riffing off old Romans, Greeks and before and that's just in Europe. I'm sure China and India, int al, have similar writings. Coercion and other trickery is hardly the invention of Renaissance I…

Always, always, always “manage up”. When people in some service role like a counter person for an airline hold this much power over you, you lose almost nothing by treating them like they are the most important person in the universe. Talk them up, be overly kind, do everything you can to make their job and life easier. It isn’t fair, but I have found you will experience much less friction in life following this phil…

This "managing up" concept sounds remarkably similar to "face-work":

"With people we trust and know well, we don’t worry so much about face, but with those we don’t know – especially when those people have some power over us – we put in the face-work. When someone puts in face-work and yet doesn’t achieve the face they want, they feel bad. If you strive to be seen as authoritative and someone treats you with minimal respect, you feel embarrassed and even humiliated. In some circumstances you might try to sabotage the encounter to feel better."

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/16/how-to-have-...

Re: Two weeks of dealing with Google as a developer

#315

Post by bogwog »

robertlagrant wrote: post #302
bogwog wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you choose the Samsung App Store, or was it preloaded on the device by the phone manufacturer? Consumer choice is restricted by those anti-competitive business practices I mentioned. Whatever deal Samsung has with Google for preloaded software is irrelevant. If you wanted to install the Epic Games Store, you'd have to go flip that switch[*] [*] actually, Samsung allows Epic to distribute their store through the G…

Relative to almost anything else a consumer might want to choose in their purchasing lives, tapping a screen a couple of times doesn't seem to qualify as difficult. Definitely not as a restriction of consumer choice.

By “tapping a screen a couple of times” you’re referring to the process of enabling side-loading on Android?

Because if you don’t think that’s a problem, then you must be living in a bubble surrounded by techies.

Imagine you’re trying to start a competing app store. What does user acquisition look like for you on Android? Besides the regular ad spending to promote your app, you also need to figure out a way to guide consumers through the installation process.

Even if you manage to solve that problem effectively with some kick ass tutorial, your main competitor doesn’t have to worry about that. They will always be advantaged no matter how superior your product/service is.

And that’s just the side loading side of it. There are many other anti-competitive things Google does on Android to maintain their monopoly.

Re: Two weeks of dealing with Google as a developer

#316

Post by bogwog »

enumjorge wrote: post #228
bogwog wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a completely ridiculous solution to a very simple problem. How do we give bargaining power to developers? We break up the app store monopolies. That's it. Google/Apple giving you shit? Give them the finger and put your app on another store. There's no stronger bargaining chip than the free market.

Which other store? The only stores that matter as far as mobile goes are Google and Apple's.

That’s a chicken and egg problem. Break up the monopoly, and the competitors will come.

It’s not like the Google/Apple stores would be hard to compete with. They both have massive, longstanding problems that consumers and developers have been complaining about since forever. There’s a lot of opportunity to innovate in that space, if only it were actually possible to compete.

Re: Two weeks of dealing with Google as a developer

#317

Post by loup-vaillant »

juliushuijnk wrote: post #281

I was also thinking I was talking to an AI after a number of emails, so eventually I tested it out: > I wish to speak to a human. If you are human and are allowed to write anything, please use the word "cow" in your reply. Response: > We appreciate you getting back to us and we apologize for any inconvenience this is causing you. Yes, you are communicating to a human being and per your request, please see the word "c…

> I also always appeal everything, use their feedback tools, give single star ratings to review process, etc, hope it will set something in motion.

Or it will flag you as overly negative, someone whose reviews can safely be ignored. Who knows.

Re: Two weeks of dealing with Google as a developer

#318

Post by Nemo_bis »

XCSme wrote: post #73
praxulus wrote: post #10

It'd be great if google offered an option for a video call with a reviewer for $500/hr as an escalation option for businesses who are getting nowhere with the regular process. Ideally you'd get a refund if you turned out to be correct, but I'd be happy even without that.

Why $500 and not just enough to pay for the salary of that person, or just enough to even be profitable for Google?

How do you suggest to estimate "profit" on such a service when the downside is a risk (however small) of an almost 20 G$ fine by the EU?

Re: Two weeks of dealing with Google as a developer

#319

Post by _yb2s »

6510 wrote: post #192
_yb2s wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once you've lost your cool you've also lost.... so take as much as you can!

You are just embracing the dystopia at this point.

Quietly accepting the abuse, and getting angry are two sides of the same coin, both of which are basically "just embracing the dystopia." Notice that the same people that do the first, will eventually do the second once pushed far enough, with ultimately, the same results.

It's perfectly fine to express displeasure in a calm and collected way, the same way you would patiently correct a child... e.g. "I am really disappointed that ____, can you please ____?" (without being sarcastic or condescending)

But losing your cool doesn't correct anything, it just expresses emotional weakness and makes the person dislike you and not want to help you. Someone customer facing at a place like Google sees angry upset customers all day long, and probably makes fun of them to their friends and family, but doesn't go out of the way to help them.

What they don't often see is people showing strength and calm in the face of this BS. Someone that can endlessly adapt and redirect things back to their own clear goals regardless of what is thrown at them, without even needing to be adversarial. Think Bruce Lee's "Be like water." In most cases, this will be off script for them, and they actually won't know how to deal with that other than giving you what you want.

Re: Two weeks of dealing with Google as a developer

#320

Post by kodt »

trhr wrote: post #124

Stay off Google. Stay off Apple. Stay off Facebook. Stay off Amazon. Stay off Microsoft. Stay off Reddit. Stay off Twitter. Stay off Adobe. Stay off Salesforce. Stay off Oracle. Stay off Sony. Stay off eBay. Stay off GoDaddy. Stay off PayPal. Stay off Etsy. Stay off Steam. Stay off Comcast. Stay off RCA. Own your platform from the bottom to the top. If your business model requires you to rely on one of these companie…

You could have just said "Stay off the Internet"
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