this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2023
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Boost For Lemmy
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"Free" as in price only
7 trackers and built-in ads
Yes, 3 ad networks (one not in use) and Firebase (crash reporting and analytics) Twitter Mopub is wrong. It is not included in the app.
I keep trying to work people through this but lemmy is filled with contrarians who see people getting excited and want a reason to be angry.
There is nothing in boost that any other app with admod lacks. Getting ad free means none of this is active. It's said every time this stuff it posted but people don't bother to read passed the angry stuff.
To be fair, that's pretty much the entire Internet.
Thank you for your work, sorry you have to deal with so much negativity.
I got down voted the other day stating that just paying for the app would disable all that. Devs need to make money too. It's either ads and tracking or pay some how.
Outside of a few amazing people out there who do this just for fun, most people would like some kind of return on investment.
Am I wrong?
Its okay, this all happened with Sync. They'll find something else they don't use to rage at soon enough.
I mean the dev spent his time building it, why shouldn’t he show ads on it? Software = work.
Jerboa, Voyager, Thunder, Liftoff, Combustible and Eternity all don't have ads
Because people donated their time to make them. You can't blame anyone for not doing that.
There are free pc games as well, and paid ones. Free movies, and paid ones. Heck you can probably get a car for free, but most people prefer to pay for one. You can use the free apps all you want.
I've used them all and even considered staying with voyager. But after one hour of using boost I uninstalled all of them.
I worked my way through just about every Reddit client available for Android and Boost was the only one that wasn't super annoying. I'm happy to support development of an app that I use every day, especially if it wouldn't be available at all otherwise.
I tried the same argument here. Don’t bother. They don’t want to see it.
No, we see it - it's just dumb. Having a free as in freedom and beer set of clients is great for lemmy - but also having market driven clients available is healthy for catering to individual preferences. Boost existing isn't your problem - clients that you like exist and please go enjoy them. I'm not certain why you're lurking here, is it just out of masochism? The person you're replying to at least put out helpful information about the application.
More choice is a good thing and four dollars for an app forever is extremely reasonable.
Then buy the ad free version or don’t use it. The initial comment here is FUD.
If you’re worried about feeding the advertisers, then buying software is the best course of action. All software development takes time, and time is money. Sometimes, developers will give away their time for free, but demanding that someone do that is completely unreasonable.
It is incorrect and misleading.
See: https://lemmy.world/comment/3977158
These are the kind of comments that make me want to stop writing FOSS. It’s more entitled than the people who come into my Discord and demand I answer their questions that are already answered in the readme.
I feel like foss users are the vegan of software.
The list of ad trackers is inaccurate, and listing a crash analytics service as a tracker is misleading.
As for the comment, I meant this one in particular.
https://lemmy.world/comment/3975312
If people feel entitled to my work, I don’t want to work for them. Why do you think so much software includes ads? Because people expect to receive software for free. I’ve been maintaining several FOSS projects for over a decade and most people are very gracious, but some people assume everything should be FOSS and every FOSS developer should provide free support.
Did you know that you have to pay to list an app in both the App Store and the Play Store? Someone pays those costs, even when the app is free as in beer and free as in speech.
And as far as FOSS and ads go, some of the biggest FOSS projects in the world make a significant amount of their funding through advertising. I hate to break it to you, but the FOSS ecosystem is mostly funded through advertising, directly and indirectly.
And all people are being told is that there are version of the same thing you’re doing that are free. It’s in the best interest of the consumer.
That’s not all people are being told. Also, I haven’t written a Lemmy client. (Although I have written an ActivityPub server. What a mess of a protocol.)
Lol what? I feel like you’re not even talking to me at this point. Yeah, I definitely don’t align with my fellow free software devs, huh?
I think it is unreasonable to diss an app because the free version has ads. Especially when the paid version is $4.
There is no ideal society where all software is FOSS, because solely writing FOSS doesn’t put food on the table. What you’re talking about is communism, which I’m not entirely against, but I don’t think it’s very likely.
One of my libraries is used in about 4,000 projects, and even though I’ve spent literally hundreds of hours working on it, I’ve never received a dime for it. I wish I could spend all day writing code for free for everyone, but I would starve to death if I did.
The infrastructure you’re talking about (which I’m assuming is things like the Linux kernel), is developed by companies that make money through ads. I’m sorry to say my guy, but advertising is what pays the bills.
And no, just because I make something FOSS doesn’t mean you’re entitled to my continuing work. First of all, it’s still my IP. I own the copyrights, as well as any trademarks. And second, when it breaks or needs to be updated or you need help with it, that’s still work that someone has to do. These software projects take actual time to create, maintain, and support. I’m assuming you’re not a FOSS dev or this would be pretty apparent to you, as well as how FOSS is actually funded (or not).
It didn’t diss it? They literally put quotes around the word free. Man, I can’t take you seriously.
Loyalists can’t be reasoned with.
I've been using it since the app was pre-released (this is AdGuard stats)
That's some neat stats, what do you use?
Adguard, I got a lifetime license for like 30 dollars from some third party seller
You used to be able to buy lifetime licenses via the Romanian publisher directly. I bought all of mine (like 12 devices worth on a couple of family plans) 5-7 years ago so I haven't checked recently but it's probably still worth a look. I've had good luck sticking my VPN endpoint in Romania (or Ukraine pre war) and just paying for stuff with PayPal.
all the google connections are the trackers
How do you check for this?
https://exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/
it's also in aurora store
It's on F-Droid as well! Cool app, cheers mate!
Incorrect, you are "free" to not use it. You are also "free" to develop your own app using your own time and skills.
Yikes. And people complained about Sync...
It's all the same people complaining for the sake of complaining when they don't get to use the nice apps with zero return.
Sync and Boost are by far the most refined apps for Lemmy out there.
Was about to say, wasn't there some requirement about Boost basically getting access to everything on your phone? I didn't read much into the details, just saw some complaint about it the other day, thought "yikes" and moved on. After then it's been a bit weird to see all the cheer for Boost.
Edit: found the thread.
Did you read the comments? The dev himself addressed the concerns, to the point where the OP updated his post (emphasis is mine)
Nope, like I wrote.
This part
Does paint a different picture though. Thank you. :)
No