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I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

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Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#311

Post by ZeWaka »

sshine wrote: post #297
ZeWaka wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Users are /very/ not used to how to install PWAs to their home screen. Also, in the EU it just opens the site up in your browser, no lack of browser UI like you'd expect. Apple is wonderful. Edit: It seems I never got the news they reversed course on that particular idea of theirs.

I’m in the EU, and adding a website to Home Screen does hide the browser feel. Maybe this experience is different in different European jurisdictions. Your point about users not being used to this is very real. I didn’t know you could until some app author showed me. It really is as simple as sharing a link or copy-pasting, but if you don’t know it’s a think, it disappears into obscurity in the menus.

Ah, it seems they reversed course after a few betas.

There's still this funny business: https://developer.apple.com/support/alt-distribution-ux-in-t... & https://developer.apple.com/support/dma-and-apps-in-the-eu

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#312

Post by [deleted] »

block_dagger wrote: post #167

I attended a concert last night and was wishing for this exact kind of app, being able to quickly exchange a follow with someone you just met in real life but will otherwise never see again unless you specifically ask for their name/number, which is awkward. Could spawn some special relationships.

[deleted]

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#313

Post by rTX5CMRXIfFG »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #164

> this failed Apple App Store review because of Guideline 4.2 — Design — Minimum Functionality. They said “the usefulness of the app is limited because it seems to be intended for a small, or niche, set of users. Specifically, the app is intended for invited friends only.” This is why we need laws regulating mobile platforms. Apple shouldn't be able to dictate what you use your phone for, or what apps you can give to…

I don’t believe that the government should police what types of computers I can build. I occasionally tinker with hardware myself and have been thinking up ways to build a smartphone differently. If I want to make the device so that it only interoperates with a certain class of items, I would rather build nothing at all than be forced by the government to interop with everything, which is also a costly thing to develop.

I get it that people want more freedom from their iPhones but the thing about consumer devices is that they are an expression of a certain philosophy of how computers should work. Being a walled garden is one such approach. If you don’t agree with how a device operates on principle, you should not buy it—there’s Android or derivatives. You’re also likely to be a power user who’s in an incredible small minority because iPhone sales keep getting better every year and the walled garden approach has market (as in free market) validation.

Now, if your objective is to regulate monopolies, I think that the policing should happen in the supply chain and production side instead of the consumer software side. You don’t have more options than iPhone and Android because big players like Apple and Samsung have captured manufacturing facilities with long-term exclusivity contracts, making innovation in the space prohibitively expensive. But the law shouldn’t dictate what sort of computer innovators are allowed to build.

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#314

Post by tmpfile »

biztos wrote: post #298
KPGv2 wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I struggled with Guideline 4.2 when I tried to publish an app showing the bell schedule and other local information for the neighborhood school. Why would you not just make this a webpage, and then the users could add it to home page as if it were an app? no Apple review necessary then. What does it being an app give you besides bureaucratic headaches?

1. Many people are more comfortable with apps, and don't really "surf the web," and for such people "a webpage" is at best a hassle. 2. Those people and many more besides have no idea what "add it to home page" even means. It being an app gives those people an experience that matches their normal use of technology, and I think they're probably a majority of users. Plus, if the parent feels like making an app instead…

> 2. Those people and many more besides have no idea what "add it to home page" even means.

If Apple supported the beforeinstallprompt event (available in Chrome since 2015) then people would have same experience as installing app [0]. Instead, you must create a wrapper around webpage and submit thru App Store.

[0] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window/befo...

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#315

Post by 1123581321 »

esperent wrote: post #272
card_zero wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What even is the idea, what would be the value in weeding out niche apps, if they did it consistently? To reduce the work involved in keeping everything in the garden lovely?

I've been thinking about this because I'm working on an internal company tool. It's a web app but I was thinking about creating mobile apps. In the age of agentic coding, that's no longer a massive undertaking like it used to be. However, I'm completely blocked by Apple app store review. There's no way an app designed for 30 people would pass. I can't get an internal app onto people's phone. I could release it as a t…

You should be using an enterprise cert for this. You won’t have any issues with enrollment or distribution that way.

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#317

Post by Traubenfuchs »

ZeWaka wrote: post #295
KPGv2 wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I struggled with Guideline 4.2 when I tried to publish an app showing the bell schedule and other local information for the neighborhood school. Why would you not just make this a webpage, and then the users could add it to home page as if it were an app? no Apple review necessary then. What does it being an app give you besides bureaucratic headaches?

Users are /very/ not used to how to install PWAs to their home screen. Also, in the EU it just opens the site up in your browser, no lack of browser UI like you'd expect. Apple is wonderful. Edit: It seems I never got the news they reversed course on that particular idea of theirs.

I live in the EU and just wrote my first PWA and that‘s not true, there is (almost) NO browser ui/ux.

No url bar, no back/forward, no tabs, nor translation, no menu bar, no loading indicator, just… pressing down on a link shows the target url and offers open, copy link, add to reading list and share -which honestly looks like a weird oversight.

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#318

Post by viccis »

angoragoats wrote: post #188
viccis wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bluesky is political because their invite-only on-boarding process for months meant that only really tight knit subgroups and subcultures found their way in. By the time your average person who just wanted to stop seeing ads about Great Replacement Theory or whatever found their way into Bluesky, it was chock full of furry art, "fandom" posting from teenagers on the spectrum, and political rambling from people who ha…

How does having a really tightly controlled and/or lengthy invite period translate into the user base being of one particular political viewpoint? I'm not seeing the causal link. Even if I take at face value your claim that "only really tight knit subgroups and subcultures found their way in," I still don't see how these subgroups or subcultures would necessarily have the same political views.

Well it self selected for left wing ones.

My point is normal people who aren't extremely online and part of 10 Discord servers with an internet friend network who can hook them up with an invite didn't get into Bluesky. Instead the people who, well, did, got the invites. Obviously the extremely online right didn't because they had other places to go and weren't welcomed by the bsky admins.

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#319

Post by arlattimore »

Tapping phones seems very limiting. I don’t see most of my friends in person that often, different cities etc.

I think a better alternative would be a phone number.

You only give your number to friends, which aligns with the brand and product concept.

Allows more of your friends to join via your address book, good for the app growth.

Might also mean indirectly you can’t follow a non-personal page which also aligns to the brand and product concept.

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