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Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

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Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#151

Post by Blikkentrekker »

josephcsible wrote: post #125
Blikkentrekker wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A 'power to destroy business', should not be a click away from some random employee. It exists everywhere, it is called monopoly and this is only an example thereof. Businesses could also, for instance, be destroyed by ARM Holdings refusing to license the ARM architecture to them, or Valve deciding to pull a game from Steam . Especially with technology, there are a great deal of monopolies that exist.

ARM can't unilaterally revoke a contract (and even if they tried, it'd end up in court; your production lines wouldn't just suddenly stop working one day), and there's plenty of ways to distribute games to users on PCs other than Steam.

> ARM can't unilaterally revoke a contract (and even if they tried, it'd end up in court; your production lines wouldn't just suddenly stop working one day)

And the only reason Google can do that in this case is because the terms were specified as such, and ARM Holdings could do that too.

> and there's plenty of ways to distribute games to users on PCs other than Steam.

And there is also a plenty of ways to distribute Android software other than the Google Play Store, but the effect in both cases is that one's business will likely die being denied access by either.

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#152

Post by ivanbakel »

MikeUt wrote: post #114
jollofricepeas wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes because the Nationalist Party was so much better during the good old days of apartheid when corruption ran at an all-time high. It does not matter who holds it. Unchecked power always corrupts.

Did an equal amount of "load shedding" happen during the "good old days"?

Would the answer to that question be a fair analysis? A great deal has changed about the country between the successive governments - not just the political power structure. Population figures, human development, the march of technology etc, all affect energy demands.

The most optimistic view would be that an energy company that operates without blackouts in an apartheid state should not be applauded for its performance under artificially-depressed demand.

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#153

Post by saberdancer »

tremon wrote: post #135
jonathanlydall wrote: post #32

For those not from South Africa, this app is primarily for people to be able to get notifications or look up when their area will be affected by a "planned power outage", or as Eskom (our state owned power utility) refers to it, "load shedding". "Load shedding" is enacted whenever they have a power production capacity issue where different areas take turns without power so as to not let the power grid collapse. This…

Load shedding is the correct technical term for it. It's not just a South African thing either, industrial consumers in Europe have the same stipulation in their power contracts: in case of emergency, the power company (network operator) may choose to suspend power delivery to protect the grid. However, in the EU this 1) isn't a regular occurrence, and 2) the grid has a tiered system for load shedding. I can't find a…

Texas had tier 3 level of load shedding recently.

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#154

Post by MikeUt »

ivanbakel wrote: post #152
MikeUt wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did an equal amount of "load shedding" happen during the "good old days"?

Would the answer to that question be a fair analysis? A great deal has changed about the country between the successive governments - not just the political power structure. Population figures, human development, the march of technology etc, all affect energy demands. The most optimistic view would be that an energy company that operates without blackouts in an apartheid state should not be applauded for its performa…

The current blackouts were blamed on corruption, followed by "the good old days of apartheid when corruption ran at an all-time high", implying blackouts were just as bad in the past.

It would be nice to first clear up the factual issue of whether blackouts have grown more or less frequent, before jumping ahead to the moral calculus of who should be applauded or condemned more.

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#155

Post by justinclift »

JimDabell wrote: post #95
hnick wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's rife in the industry. The drama this week is that my wife can't log in to Facebook because their code generator just doesn't work. The number in the app shows up, she types it, but she can't log in because apparently it's just wrong. Due to their marvelous design, you need a personal account to run an advertising account for your place of work. Luckily she hasn't been logged out on her work laptop yet or she cou…

If you haven’t already, check the time / date / timezone on the device that is generating the codes. Facebook uses TOTP for this, which is time-based. If the time on your device is wrong, the codes will be wrong. I would expect this problem to pop up more frequently this time of year due to errors relating to daylight saving time.

> check the time / date / timezone on the device that is generating the codes.

Sounds like that'd be on the FB infrastructure side though?

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#156

Post by igitur »

mhuffman wrote: post #71
jonathanlydall wrote: post #32

For those not from South Africa, this app is primarily for people to be able to get notifications or look up when their area will be affected by a "planned power outage", or as Eskom (our state owned power utility) refers to it, "load shedding". "Load shedding" is enacted whenever they have a power production capacity issue where different areas take turns without power so as to not let the power grid collapse. This…

This sounds like a nightmare! Eskom seems to have been around for a long time, but this problem seems to have kicked in a little over a decade ago. Did something recently happen to Eskom to make them incompetent?

It's two-sided.

Apartheid South Africa's government focused on providing electricity mostly for the white minority, which it did well, but the majority of South African, especially in the rural regions, lived with no or unreliable power supply. Post 1994, with removal of sanctions, the economy opened up. There was a lot of international investment in South Africa. The economy grew strongly and the demand for electricity significantly increased.

The supply side was woefully mismanaged and didn't nearly keep up with the pace of the growth in demand. Corruption is definitely a key reason, as others here mention, with the effect being that power plants are not adequatly maintained and new planned power plants going far over budget and missing deadlines [1].

Besides corruption, there are some policitical constraints. Eskom provides power to municipalities who often don't pay. Soweto, with 1.3 million residents owe Eskom in excess of $1 billion [2]. The South African Supreme Court of Appeal has ruled that Eskom is not allowed to cut power to non-paying municipalities [3]. In contrast to a free-market system, Eskom price hikes are subject to regulatory approval [4].

One could debate the relative significance of each of these factors, but it's by no means due to only a single one of these.

[1] https://www.news24.com/fin24/Budget/how-medupi-and-kusile-ar...

[2] https://mg.co.za/article/2019-10-18-00-why-we-dont-pay-for-p...

[3] https://www.iol.co.za/pretoria-news/news/eskom-cannot-cut-el...

[4] https://www.moneyweb.co.za/news/companies-and-deals/electric...

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#157

Post by lovegoblin »

vermilingua wrote: post #132
signal11 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect the truth is, in the narrow domain of electric power distribution, Texas too has an inept government that’s beholden to certain vested interests in the garb of “free markets”. This is a state that has fetishized “light touch regulation” so much that it, for most of the state, has its own grid to avoid dealing with Federal authorities. And repeatedly failed to take action to get power companies to winterize…

So hang on, why is it that South Africa is “corrupt”, but Texas is “beholden to certain vested interests”?

The distinction-without-a-difference between these two phrases is exactly the point of the comment you're responding to.

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#158

Post by kempbellt »

arkitaip wrote: post #20
panpanna wrote: post #11

Daily reminder that your business/project/hobby should not depend on anything controlled by Google. Edit: Despite all their shortcomings, I wouldn't mind seeing android phone makers join force and create an independent app store.

Repeating this same line is just harmful noise at this point. Rather, we should - legally - demand more from tech utility platforms like Google, Facebook or Apple.

> Repeating this same line is just harmful noise

More like a strong disclaimer worth repeating for newcomers in the space.

These stories have come up several times over the years on HN and it is worth reiterating:

It is very risky if your product/company relies solely on another company's success and openness to you - especially if that company is not contractually obligated to continue providing you service.

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#159

Post by panpanna »

WolfRazu wrote: post #17
panpanna wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since when is google in charge of app functionality and UI??

Since the first Android market guidelines? There's always been standards.

No, the only rules that Google actually enforces are about security, scamming, trademark and stuff like that.

While there are guidelines for making better apps, google is happy to publish anything.

Re: Our app was banned because the button says “Report User” and not just “Report”

#160

Post by southafrica4 »

MikeUt wrote: post #154
ivanbakel wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would the answer to that question be a fair analysis? A great deal has changed about the country between the successive governments - not just the political power structure. Population figures, human development, the march of technology etc, all affect energy demands. The most optimistic view would be that an energy company that operates without blackouts in an apartheid state should not be applauded for its performa…

The current blackouts were blamed on corruption, followed by "the good old days of apartheid when corruption ran at an all-time high", implying blackouts were just as bad in the past. It would be nice to first clear up the factual issue of whether blackouts have grown more or less frequent, before jumping ahead to the moral calculus of who should be applauded or condemned more.

I lived in South Africa during apartheid and I experienced about the same consistency of electricity as I do now in the United States. It was a rare occurrence
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