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Google terminates Play Store account of Simple Keyboard developer

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Re: Google terminates Play Store account of Simple Keyboard developer

#11

Post by ignoramous »

iqanq wrote: post #3
rvz wrote: post #2

This is Google (as well as YouTube) showing once again they (and their robots) do not care and ultimately, they will never change. The Play Store is evidently hostile to free and open-source software. > Please do not attempt to register a new developer account. We will not be restoring your account at this time. Meanwhile on F-Droid, they welcomed Wire, an E2EE messenger. [0] That is at least much friendlier than the…

F-Droid is cool in theory, but it is largely unmaintaned and understaffed. If you upload a new build it may take weeks to get distributed to users.

Yes, that's because they deeply care about what is allowed in the store. F-Droid had "privacy labels" before Apple did [0]. They do scan/review [1] submitted apps for spyware, to the extent they can with the tools available to them [2].

Often times, F-Droid volunteers go out of their way and help developers publish apps to F-Droid [3].

Besides, in my experience, once you've setup the distribution, F-Droid pretty much auto-builds and auto-publishes the updates forever, until unless the builds fail or their automated review process detects something untoward.

I'd say F-Droid is pretty cool in practice too.

[0] https://f-droid.org/en/docs/Anti-Features/

[1] Ex, see this review for an app I submitted: https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/-/merge_requests/8605

[2] https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/-/issues/2289

[3] Ex, here's F-Droid maintainers attempting to get an open-source app, Outline (a ShadowSocks client), built by Google, distributed on F-Droid: https://github.com/Jigsaw-Code/outline-client/issues/50

Re: Google terminates Play Store account of Simple Keyboard developer

#12

Post by justsomehnguy »

IiydAbITMvJkqKf wrote: post #5
rvz wrote: post #2

This is Google (as well as YouTube) showing once again they (and their robots) do not care and ultimately, they will never change. The Play Store is evidently hostile to free and open-source software. > Please do not attempt to register a new developer account. We will not be restoring your account at this time. Meanwhile on F-Droid, they welcomed Wire, an E2EE messenger. [0] That is at least much friendlier than the…

People need to stop bringing up F-Droid in response to Google supsending accounts. F-Droid does the exact same thing . If the distributor - whoever they are - don't like you, they will ban you. Your only option is self-hosting APKs (Android only). https://old.reddit.com/r/fdroid/comments/ceyzuz/the_fdroid_d...

>Your only option is self-hosting APKs

F-Droid (a program) allows you to specify your own repos. Eg: NewPipe

Re: Google terminates Play Store account of Simple Keyboard developer

#13

Post by MisterSandman »

Completely unrelated, but this keyboard feels a bit useless to me. I understand the appeal, but why would you not have emojis on a phone keyboard? Surely that counts as something that should be part of the basic package of something. Or am I overestimating how many people use emoji?

Re: Google terminates Play Store account of Simple Keyboard developer

#15

Post by viktorcode »

I think it is better to use real humans for checking violations and sending emails. Yes, humans inevitably will make mistakes. However, unlike a neural network algorithm they can be reasoned with and can correct their mistakes later. I'd take much longer issue resolution with hired operators over the fast AI violation check.

Re: Google terminates Play Store account of Simple Keyboard developer

#17

Post by ecedeno »

MisterSandman wrote: post #13

Completely unrelated, but this keyboard feels a bit useless to me. I understand the appeal, but why would you not have emojis on a phone keyboard? Surely that counts as something that should be part of the basic package of something. Or am I overestimating how many people use emoji?

> why would you not have emojis on a phone keyboard?

Because I don’t use them

> am I overestimating how many people use emoji?

You are probably not. But why should I care how many of the people who won’t use my phone need them? Not all apps have to cater to the majority of people.

Re: Google terminates Play Store account of Simple Keyboard developer

#18

Post by nicce »

rvz wrote: post #10
IiydAbITMvJkqKf wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People need to stop bringing up F-Droid in response to Google supsending accounts. F-Droid does the exact same thing . If the distributor - whoever they are - don't like you, they will ban you. Your only option is self-hosting APKs (Android only). https://old.reddit.com/r/fdroid/comments/ceyzuz/the_fdroid_d...

> F-Droid does the exact same thing. If the distributor - whoever they are - don't like you, they will ban you. Your only option is self-hosting APKs (Android only). Interesting. In fact, that is actually a good point. Now you put it like that, self-hosting makes EVEN more sense. Apps like Discord does it with their desktop apps and Telegram does it with their Android APKs. I completely support this. Now. Here's a ve…

The same applies for most of the social platforms. Especially for those with E2EE messages. By definition, content cannot be moderated on there.

It is rather diffucult area and the decisions are often made based on by the popularity and the variety of the users on the platfom . It is easy to ban an app which is mostly used by rightwing-extremists for example, but not the app which is used by everyone. So, what is the right way?

Re: Google terminates Play Store account of Simple Keyboard developer

#19

Post by smartties »

Another malicious developer most likely used his source code and republished/spammed the Google play store with the said reskin. The original developer, is now associated with the malicious developer and has his account terminated. It's not the first time an open source project gets removed from the Google store for "prior violations of the developer program policies".

Re: Google terminates Play Store account of Simple Keyboard developer

#20

Post by mark_l_watson »

Bummer for the developer, but bad stuff happens randomly to people. Google is able to operate because of the scale of automation they use. I use Google services but often back up my data.

For this developer, as someone else said, Fdroid is a possibility. Same problem as with Apple’s store. I have one app on Apple’s store, but it is free and simply an example program for a book I might finish writing someday.

I would feel nervous depending on either company’s App Store for my livelihood.

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