Apollo is dead. Long live Apollo • Hacker News Board

Re: Apollo is dead. Long live Apollo

#101

Post by cush » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 1:24 AM UTC

MBCook wrote: post #22

I’ve long used Apollo to hold an alt account. I just downloaded the official app and logged in. In 3 minutes I deleted it. Ignoring design issues, all of a sudden the official app grabbed ALL Reddit links and if I viewed Reddit in Safari there was an unremovable “Open in the app” banner above the Safari content that couldn’t be removed. No way. Deleted. The last year has just destroyed so much of the value I get out…

old.reddit.com is somehow still a better mobile Safari experience than the new Reddit site.

Re: Apollo is dead. Long live Apollo

#102

Post by paulcole » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 1:25 AM UTC

Narwhal (a 3rd-party iOS Reddit app) is still going and it turns out not biting the hand that feeds you works pretty well.

Respect to the Apollo guy for having the confidence that he could get Reddit to back down through a well-organized PR campaign. But he could’ve had a decent business if he’d just backed down, given in a little, and not tried to make Spez look like a bigger idiot/liar than he already did.

I love a good risky David v. Goliath gamble and would’ve liked to see him win, but sometimes you lose it all.

Re: Apollo is dead. Long live Apollo

#103

Post by brasic » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 1:25 AM UTC

Nas808 wrote: post #80

bredren wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apollo had an optional safari extension that caught Reddit URLs and opened them in Apollo instead. It was great.

That was a nice feature, but there are other apps that do this without consent and I don't like it. For example, if you have the NY Times app installed and tap on a link in Safari that leads to a NY Times article, it automatically opens it in the NY Times app. iOS has no user controls for this behavior. The only way around it is to long-press on the link and pick "open in new tab", or uninstall the app.

  > iOS has no user controls for this behavior

Actually, it does but they are shockingly unintuitive and hidden. The best way to change your preference among supported link handlers is to copy a URL, paste it into the notes app, then long press that link and choose “open with” either safari or your preferred app. That will stick until the next time you long press a link in this way.

An iOS developer for JIRA taught me this when I submitted feedback that the JIRA app suddenly stopped intercepting links (probably because I had inadvertently long-pressed to open a link in safari, not knowing I was setting a preference by doing so)

Re: Apollo is dead. Long live Apollo

#104

Post by sedatk » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 1:26 AM UTC

For some reason, Narwhal, which is another nice app, is still working.

Re: Apollo is dead. Long live Apollo

#105

Post by appleflaxen » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 1:27 AM UTC

extr wrote: post #42

I remember signing up for Reddit as a college freshman. I was a digg user and joined Reddit in the aftermath of that fiasco. I sometimes laugh looking over my post history for the past decade plus. If you read the posts linearly, you can trace my evolution from a kid arguing passionately over politics and culture (things he didn't really know much about), to a more mature young adult who rarely waded into discussions…

Consider r/redditseppuku

Re: Apollo is dead. Long live Apollo

#106

Post by Waterluvian » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 1:28 AM UTC

extr wrote: post #42

I remember signing up for Reddit as a college freshman. I was a digg user and joined Reddit in the aftermath of that fiasco. I sometimes laugh looking over my post history for the past decade plus. If you read the posts linearly, you can trace my evolution from a kid arguing passionately over politics and culture (things he didn't really know much about), to a more mature young adult who rarely waded into discussions…

If we’re having a wake…

I remember when I accidentally became a moderator of /r/science because they asked for variety of domain expertise and I’m a geographer and c’mon… nobody’s a geographer. It was a fun experience. Then became an educational one. Then frustrating. Then thankless. Then I stopped.

I’m happy for the lessons. I’m sad it died years ago.

Re: Apollo is dead. Long live Apollo

#107

Post by lotsoweiners » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 1:29 AM UTC

shagie wrote: post #67

This happens to coincide with the date that a new law (singed May 12th) goes into effect in Virginia requiring commercial entities that publish or distribute "material harmful to minors" to verify the age of the users. Commercial entities violating that may suffer civil penalties. https://legiscan.com/VA/text/SB1515/2023

I don’t know law and am bad at technology too but I’m wondering if there is ways companies can get around these kinds of laws through a combination of geofencing, blocking IPs, and displaying messages that the service isn’t available in a particular state/country. I understand that it might make economic sense but just wondering if showing a certain amount of due diligence helps absolve them legally.

Re: Apollo is dead. Long live Apollo

#108

Post by sedatk » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 1:29 AM UTC

tayo42 wrote: post #35

I'm curious what happens to reddit now. I'm guessing just auto pilot of low effort content. Don't think it'll truly die as far as numbers go.

Reddit will continue to exist, but will never come back.

Re: Apollo is dead. Long live Apollo

#109

Post by Stephen304 » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 1:30 AM UTC

x86x87 wrote: post #37

ortusdux wrote: post #3

Sync is also dead. They just sent out a push notification: "Sync for reddit had shutdown. Thank you for using Sync. It's been one hell of a ride."

apparently there is going to be a Sync for Lemmy. Hopefully we also get Apollo for Lemmy and get rid of reddit for good.

On a similar note, the Boost dev who previously said they were not interested in making a Lemmy app seems to have changed their mind, their Play store account now has Boost for Lemmy available for pre-registration (waitlist essentially).

Re: Apollo is dead. Long live Apollo

#110

Post by transcriptase » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 1:30 AM UTC

paulcole wrote: post #102

Narwhal (a 3rd-party iOS Reddit app) is still going and it turns out not biting the hand that feeds you works pretty well. Respect to the Apollo guy for having the confidence that he could get Reddit to back down through a well-organized PR campaign. But he could’ve had a decent business if he’d just backed down, given in a little, and not tried to make Spez look like a bigger idiot/liar than he already did. I love a…

>Well-organized PR campaign.

Sure, if you call simply posting his experiences on his own subreddit for his own app a PR campaign.

He certainly did a better job than Reddit did, blatantly lying about their conversation, timelines, and motivations for killing 3rd party apps.

Reddit is trying to pivot to the TikTok and YouTube comment section population of the internet, while the HN commenter types were simply costing them money.

We’ll see how it plays out.