First of all, thank you @ljdawson@lemmy.world for pursuing Sync for Lemmy. It’s honestly given me so much hope for Fediverse adoption to actually happen. I do have one thought to share with you to help with success:
Come July 1st pretty much all Sync users are going to open the app due to muscle memory or due to a lack of awareness of what’s happening.
If they see “this app doesn’t work any more” or similar, they are simply going to delete the app and will likely go to the official Reddit app. The opportunity to engage them will be gone.
However, you can use it as a huge marketing opportunity if on that day it says something to the effect of:
- Sync for Reddit doesn’t work any more due to the API changes…
- However Sync for Lemmy is in development
- Here’s how you try Lemmy (and/or kbin) in the mean time…
- Keep Sync for Reddit on your phone to receive a notification when Sync for Lemmy is launched
Even if they don’t try Lemmy right away, if they get a notification from the old app saying the new one is ready they will possibly try it at that time (but you need to convince them to keep the old app on their phone)
But the clock is ticking - after July 1st the chance of engaging someone in this way is very low as they’ll likely uninstall the old app. IMO getting this teed up is of a higher priority than developing the minimal-viable-product for the new app.
You likely already have this in the works, but wanted to throw it out there incase you hadn’t planned on it already. Thanks again for doing this - I am so hopeful and excited for a viable alternative to Reddit and Sync could be such a huge piece in making it possible!
Originally posted to /r/syncforlemmy but figured I should put my money where my mouth is and post here as well. After all, this is the future!
Upcoming Sync is why I’m here on lem in the first place…just had my 15th cakeday on reddit real bummer to see it go the same way digg did…
Remember it’s just an account on some website and the person behind it is what actually bought it to life.
Yeah, that’s what I keep telling myself.
I was actually surprised by how much karma I had accrued when I deleted my account the other day, given that the majority of my comments were deep down in threads or niche communities. Often, I was happier to have 10 upvotes than 500, because the comments that got hundreds (or thousands) of points were generally short and quippy. I much preferred the sincere, expansive discussions though, and that was apparent when scrolling through my history.
Edit (Forgot to finish my point): And that kind of stuff is available in oodles on Lemmy. Hell, if anything, it’s easier here, because I feel like it’s way more likely anything I write will be seen and responded to. Maybe in a few years, we’ll be nostalgic for these times.
These will be the good old days, as they say. Lemmy is poised for great things I’m sure, but I don’t think it will never be like this again. I’ll be happy to be proven wring, though.