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Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

danq.me

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Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#161

Post by Grombobulous »

hbn wrote: post #112
Grombobulous wrote: post #53

I recently decided to publish an app on the App Store just so I could say I accomplished that, and maybe even make a little bit of beer money on the side. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that my actual app is pretty much garbage. I don’t expect it to be popular. It’s basically a worse version of stuff that is already available. I expected this to be a learning exercise about the process of getting stuff published. Lo…

> it seems like you really need an LLC with a mail forwarding service and a cheap second phone line just to avoid the App Store sending the whole internet to your personal phone and address That's an EU thing. If you don't publish in the EU you don't need to dox yourself.

Why isn’t Apple the business with the contact info? They’re taking 15-30% cut and fully control their software APIs.

Unless I’m mistaken, Steam and GOG games aren’t listing the address of the game developers in the EU, but I admit that I might be mistaken.

Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#162

Post by bee_rider »

inigyou wrote: post #109
Grombobulous wrote: post #53

I recently decided to publish an app on the App Store just so I could say I accomplished that, and maybe even make a little bit of beer money on the side. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that my actual app is pretty much garbage. I don’t expect it to be popular. It’s basically a worse version of stuff that is already available. I expected this to be a learning exercise about the process of getting stuff published. Lo…

It's like a lot of tech trajectories. At first it was fairly easy and people did it, and then both the producer, consumer, and platform evolved off in some direction in an endless feedback cycle, and now a newcomer sees the whole ecosystem is all the way over there in some weird place and doesn't join it because why would you want to be over there, but the existing actors don't see it as strange because they acclimat…

Facebook only made sense in the context of living on a college campus… I think it doesn’t quite fit this pattern because realistically users were rarely in the “good fit” case for only ~4 years. Then, for each user, it becomes this sort of awkward slowly decaying network as people move on.

I agree with everything else you said though.

Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#163

Post by Grombobulous »

Telaneo wrote: post #157
Grombobulous wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, you’re right that much of this only comes up when you’re trying to charge money for an app. However, if you’re running your own website you can make those decisions on your own without being forced into most of them. Plenty of very large “reputable” companies obfuscate their physical address and phone number, and don’t even offer an email address for contact. I’d also say that this shouldn’t be as necessary when…

> Plenty of very large “reputable” companies obfuscate their physical address and phone number, and don’t even offer an email address for contact. This is whataboutism. They should do that too. The fact they don't isn't an excuse for smaller devs or companies. > I’d also say that this shouldn’t be as necessary when an app platform is involved. Apple takes 15-30% of the revenue and acts as a full retailer. Why do App…

How far down does this go? Should I be able to contact the individual person who picked the specific strawberries in my carton of strawberries?

In the Walmart t-shirt example, should I have the contact info for not only the factory but the other suppliers who made the dyes, threads, cotton, the people who made the fuel for the harvester, the people who welded the tractor together?

Sure, maybe your idealist answer is yes, and on a conceptual level I can agree with that. But from a practical standpoint as the end consumer there is a stopping point.

My point is that Apple handles the money and the refunds, and they make all the software APIs. Completely closed platform. Why doesn’t the buck stop there? I feel like they pass along business responsibilities despite taking a large percentage of revenue.

If they’re going to pass on all those responsibilities for me then their cut should be more like ~5% to just cover transaction and platform costs.

Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#164

Post by rpdillon »

al_borland wrote: post #99
Grombobulous wrote: post #53

I recently decided to publish an app on the App Store just so I could say I accomplished that, and maybe even make a little bit of beer money on the side. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that my actual app is pretty much garbage. I don’t expect it to be popular. It’s basically a worse version of stuff that is already available. I expected this to be a learning exercise about the process of getting stuff published. Lo…

I periodically try to put something together. I don’t even care about publishing to the app store really, I mostly want to make stuff for myself for macOS. My last attempt, it felt like Apple was no longer interested in the idea of hobbyist developers. The setup just to get the Xcode project setup felt like I needed to have a company and a website. When I selected something about iCloud, because I thought it would be…

This is exactly what I've been observing as well. As soon as the App Store became a cash cow, the incentive to support non-commercial development went away. It's now a place constructed by a giant company, for giant companies.

Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#165

Post by Telaneo »

Grombobulous wrote: post #163
Telaneo wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Plenty of very large “reputable” companies obfuscate their physical address and phone number, and don’t even offer an email address for contact. This is whataboutism. They should do that too. The fact they don't isn't an excuse for smaller devs or companies. > I’d also say that this shouldn’t be as necessary when an app platform is involved. Apple takes 15-30% of the revenue and acts as a full retailer. Why do App…

How far down does this go? Should I be able to contact the individual person who picked the specific strawberries in my carton of strawberries? In the Walmart t-shirt example, should I have the contact info for not only the factory but the other suppliers who made the dyes, threads, cotton, the people who made the fuel for the harvester, the people who welded the tractor together? Sure, maybe your idealist answer is…

> How far down does this go? Should I be able to contact the individual person who picked the specific strawberries in my carton of strawberries?

Down to the manufacturer of the whole product you're buying. In the case of your strawberries that would probably be the farmer.

> In the Walmart t-shirt example, should I have the contact info for not only the factory but the other suppliers who made the dyes, threads, cotton, the people who made the fuel for the harvester, the people who welded the tractor together?

No.

> Sure, maybe your idealist answer is yes, but from a practical standpoint as the end consumer there is a stopping point.

Of course there is. But you as the sole dev of an app are not at that point.

> My point is that Apple handles the money and the refunds, and they make all the software APIs. Completely closed platform. Why doesn’t the buck stop there?

My local electronics shop also handles the money and refunds when I buy a Dell. I can still get a refund directly from Dell if my machine breaks (not that I actually have a Dell). Yay reasonable laws.

The platform being closed and all the APIs being controlled by Apple are different problems that should be solved separately (which the EU is working on!).

Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#166

Post by buffalobuffalo »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #159
buffalobuffalo wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the fundamental problem is ios. There are a bunch of features that ios locks down so that you are essentially forced to use apps. Want to send push notifications? You need an app. Want to be able to wake your app up in the background to do stuff intermittently? You need an app. Want to get your app on the home screen? Once again, you need an app. And before anyone says you can do this with PWAs, yes, that's true.…

"Want to get your app on the home screen?" Open Safari, navigate to the web app, tap the Share button, scroll down, and select 'Add to Home Screen'.

You forgot to mention the part where, to use any of the PWA features, you now have to get the user to close safari, and re-open the page via the icon now on the homescreen. Not exactly easy UI.

Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#167

Post by ardacinar »

smcg wrote: post #74

The fundamental problem with the internet is that hosting sucks and no one wants to do it. It's thankless and it's expensive to maintain, both time and money. Apps are a way to not worry about that. By the way, the link doesn't load for me, so I used the archive to read it. https://archive.ph/ByFBN

Well if you're calling an API you host yourself to populate that said UI, not needing to host that UI as a webpage is not that much of an advantage.

Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#168

Post by inigyou »

hollow-moe wrote: post #156
inigyou wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have uBO and I still see cookie banners.

Unlock Origin doesn't enable all filters by default, you can go in the extension settings and enable more filters which removes the cookie banners etc.

Does it remove them by automatically consenting to the cookies, rejecting them or just hiding the banner?

Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#169

Post by inigyou »

bee_rider wrote: post #162
inigyou wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like a lot of tech trajectories. At first it was fairly easy and people did it, and then both the producer, consumer, and platform evolved off in some direction in an endless feedback cycle, and now a newcomer sees the whole ecosystem is all the way over there in some weird place and doesn't join it because why would you want to be over there, but the existing actors don't see it as strange because they acclimat…

Facebook only made sense in the context of living on a college campus… I think it doesn’t quite fit this pattern because realistically users were rarely in the “good fit” case for only ~4 years. Then, for each user, it becomes this sort of awkward slowly decaying network as people move on. I agree with everything else you said though.

Facebook was once a friend network and they added more and more advertising and slop to it. If you were the frog in the pot as it heated, it feels normal to you that your feed is entirely made of spam. If you're still out of the pot now, it seems foolish to jump in, unlike when it was lukewarm.

Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#170

Post by a_c »

billyp-rva wrote: post #18

> I can’t understand how we got to this place with “app culture”! The short version: ad blockers work on browsers but not apps[0]. [0] https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/30/go-nuts-meine-kerle

There are surprising portion of population expect a dedicated app to perform a particular function
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