this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2024
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Boost For Lemmy

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Community of the Android app Boost for Lemmy Play Store Link

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I would much prefer this piece of shit die in obscurity, thanks

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[โ€“] [email protected] 186 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (9 children)

Pretty sure that's Google's deal. I don't think the dev gets to decide which ads they show you.

ETA: Also, just buy the app. It's a few dollars, it helps pay for the development, and you never have to see any ads.

[โ€“] [email protected] 36 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Fr. Buy the app. Make your life better.

[โ€“] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Non-Play Store Tablet. Bought the app, still get the ads... Pi hole for the win!

[โ€“] [email protected] 20 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Bought the app, still get the ads...

That.... sounds like something that you should reach out to @[email protected] and talk about.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Love me pi hole

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[โ€“] [email protected] 73 points 4 months ago (2 children)

If you don't like ads and don't want to pay to remove ads on a Lemmy app, use Voyager, Jerboa, or any of the other many FOSS, ad free, Lemmy apps.

[โ€“] [email protected] 24 points 4 months ago (4 children)

I don't understand why people are using apps with ads. What is the reason? Is connect selling my data and boost isn't? Why would you pick an app that has ads when so many don't?

[โ€“] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Because apps with ads (specifically Sync that I use) have better UX and more features than anything open-source. Sorry but that's it.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

I guess everyone has their own level of tolerance for ads.

To me, anything ad supported has a terrible "UX". I'd put up with a lot to avoid ads.

Obviously you don't care about ads and that's fine too

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Better UX

Ads

IDK something isn't adding up.

[โ€“] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Yes because ads are the only thing making a difference in the comfort of using an app. Comfortable design (that doesn't try to cram a million things into a small phone screen) and intuitive navigation mean nothing I guess.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Have you tried clients that are focused on good design like Voyager or Photon?

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

I'm legitimately confused because I use Boost and don't see ads.

I assume my PiHole stops them on my home network, and maybe DDG does elsewhere? Not 100% sure, but it works for now.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

A lot of us here came from Boost for Reddit, where we had bought it there so we bought the Lemmy version too and never seen ads.

I'm a big fan of open-source but sometimes it's worth throwing the $3.50 for a proprietary app that works well, especially with how the Lemmy app landscape looked a year ago. It's better now, but I like how Boost works and have used it for years on Reddit.

The only free app that's somewhat close to Boost's presentation is Jerboa, and Jerboa is just a bit too buggy for my taste.

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[โ€“] AnActOfCreation 7 points 4 months ago

Or Thunder!

[โ€“] [email protected] 64 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Imagine believing that Boost specifically developed their own ad network and dictate what is/isn't on it...

[โ€“] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (4 children)

If you're not capable of dictating what appears in your own company's product, maybe that's something to rethink?

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Should Ruben vet the entire Lemmyverse while he's at it so he can "dictate what appears in his product?"

As a solo developer with limited resources, one has four choices:

โ€ข Choose an existing ad network and do the best you can within its content preferences,

โ€ข Put a paywall on your app's features and hope enough people will actually buy it,

โ€ข Work for free, sacrificing your own livelihood, or

โ€ข Don't develop the app.

Clearly they all involve a compromise of one form or another, and I trust that Ruben put a lot of thought into the decision.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

It's not a choice you get. There's only a handful of ad networks out there, and you get to choose one. If you don't do that, the only other option is to make people pay for your stuff - which most won't do because they're so accustomed to ads.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 48 points 4 months ago

You get... Ads?

[โ€“] [email protected] 36 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Whilst developers can ban specific ads, they can't really vet them beforehand. I think you can opt out of political ads (or maybe could at one point), but technically the ad you see is just for another app.

As an alternative solution to the ones already posed by others, you can use "Google Opinion Rewards" to get enough play store credit to buy the app. Every so often it'll just ask if you googled "Ninja Coffee Bar" (literally), and give you 10-25 cents for answering, and typically a good bit more for any follow-up questions ("How helpful were the results", etc).

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[โ€“] [email protected] 28 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Honestly the ads are why I quit using boost when it came out. Jerboa is completely ad free with a similar enough UI that it's not that hard of a transition.

[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Connect is simple and ad free as well. I've been using it since I joined Lemmy as it was the closest I could find to RIF.

Regardless, there are plenty of options out there.

[โ€“] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I don't get the tribalism around apps.

Somme are good, others less-so.

None are worth putting up with ads for.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Expecting free software is the problem. Software development isn't free from time or effort.

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[โ€“] RandomVideos 24 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Truth social is a FOSS social media. The app is just, based on you liking other FOSS social medias, recommending apps in the same category.

(Also, would anyone on lemmy use truth social seriously?)

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Maybe if they were some kind of political or psychological researcher...?

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It's open source? Maybe I'll make some PRs... But honestly that's shocking to me and huge. Do I support Truth Social now? Wild.

[โ€“] RandomVideos 4 points 4 months ago

They are open source because(as far as i know) they copied the code of mastodon, slightly changed it, almost got sued and released a zip file of the code on their website to respect the terms of the AGPLv3 license

But details dont matter

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[โ€“] [email protected] 23 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Siphoning money from truth social seems like the best case for an ad you were never going to click on anyway

[โ€“] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Even better you should click it in case they are billed by click

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Ads are billed by click, you're correct.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Any place we could find more details on this? Wonder if setting up an ad clicker would be a decent way to drain their funds (if many people do it of course).

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

Theoretically it is. There's actually an add on for Firefox now called adnauseum that auto clicks every ad it blocks (it's ublock origin under the hood). You don't see it happen, but in theory it costs the advertisers money and also scrambles your advertising profile since it clicks everything.

If you want to learn more just look up ad cost on any ad network as if you were going to buy an ad. They break it down in detail.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

This is a good point

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[โ€“] [email protected] 19 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Buy the app or use a DNS adblocker. There is no relationship between advertisers and developers. That's the technology world destroyed by marketing that we live in now.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (2 children)

still don't see why google haven't included politics or political ads under their sensitive ad topics opt outs. :/

[โ€“] [email protected] 30 points 4 months ago

Oh I know the answer to this one! It's because $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

You really dont?

Without political ads their mind shaping powers would be severely reduced. Same as with your data in general, google doesnt want you to keep that to yourself. Sometimes they have to allow you for legal reasons, but they make it as hard as legally possible for you to do.

[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago

It's been a while since I've done mobile ad dev, I believe you can blacklist specific ads, but it's like a full-time job to monitor them

[โ€“] sudoku 7 points 4 months ago

Just block the ads

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

adaway works well if you are rooted

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