Mastodawn

Using Sync for Reddit as a marketing tool come July 1st is more urgent than building the MVP

https://lemmy.world/post/414221

Using Sync for Reddit as a marketing tool come July 1st is more urgent than building the MVP - Lemmy.world

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! First of all, thank you /u/ljdawson (sorry, don’t know how to reference users on Lemmy yet) 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!

Alex Jun 22, 2023

referencing users on Lemmy is not at all the same as reddit, since there are multiple instances (not one monolithic server) and anyone could be posting from any instance.

there's no automagic function for it (that's why you couldn't find one), you just have to do it by hand, making a link with the user@instance address.

ie. [@[email protected]](http://lemmy.world/u/foreverwinter)

Foreverwinter Jun 22, 2023

Awesome. Thanks for the tip @[email protected] !

hoshikarakitaridia Jun 22, 2023

absolutely agree, get them here and make this community even more vibrant

the_right_god Jun 22, 2023

This is brilliant idea

imaqtpie Jun 22, 2023

For sure, we are still chronically starved of users. Need to play our cards right in the next few months.

In addition to OP's idea, all of us who still have our reddit accounts should be going over there and letting people know about Lemmy in a helpful way, like ASAP. It's really easy now because all the threads are about reddit sucking and how there is no alternative. But in a few weeks when reddit forgets, it's going to be viewed more as spam to constantly keep bringing up Lemmy on reddit.

If we can make people aware of Lemmy before the app shutdown, it's much more likely that they decide to actually try Sync for Lemmy.

sneakyninjapants Jun 22, 2023

undefined> ven 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.

Oh I've been trying to, hopefully got a few converts so far. Trying to tiptoe the line between informative and pushy since "horses water and drinking bla bla"

imaqtpie Jun 22, 2023

Yeah, good point. I just to go super enthusiastic and positive with it usually. The main problem is I don't feel like I'm getting enough eyes on my comments. The migration/alternative subreddits are weirdly quiet.

sneakyninjapants Jun 22, 2023

I just to go super enthusiastic and positive with it usually

Honestly the best way to pitch it IMO. It's been such a great experience here I almost feel compelled to proselytize the glory of the fediverse, but if I can't keep it in my pants a bit I'm certain to put people off the message.

The migration/alternative subreddits are weirdly quiet

I've noticed that too the few times I've checked. I wonder how many people there are still regularly tying to do outreach. I've had some luck on the selfhosted sub, of course you'd expect that lot would be more eager to jump on a self-hostable platform anyway. Piracy subs too for obvious reasons lol

NightOwl Jun 22, 2023

Yeah, piracy has so much activity for obvious reasons. And they constantly get kicked out and stuff and piracy is an area that does require lot of self learning to do safely, so probably the most undeterred.

But, I follow lot of games, tech, and pc related stuff mainly and pretty much only sub that bothered to actually do anything was /r/privacyguides. Which is the instance I am on. So when these tech/pc/game subs you think would more embrace new tech aren't making any efforts to leave I think it's a sign most people including the mods don't actually care about leaving. They actually care way less than most non tech related subs.

sneakyninjapants Jun 22, 2023

Yeah, piracy has so much activity for obvious reasons. And they constantly get kicked out and stuff and piracy is an area that does require lot of self learning to do safely, so probably the most undeterred.

Very true, their adaptability to ever changing conditions makes them a great demographic for early adoption.

only sub that bothered to actually do anything was /r/privacyguides ...

I think people interested in guarding their privacy are another great demographic for dropping platforms too as they've already been primed for the discomfort of dropping the easy option such as a service that mines every interaction for advertising data for something that may be slightly less intuitive to use, but keeps their privacy much more intact.

It's an unfortunate situation, but most people are pretty lazy (myself included) and aren't really interested in exploring options outside their comfort zone, and that's fine I suppose. I feel like most people just consume reddit content and aren't really interested in the community aspect of it, and completely uninterested in contributing to it, so if it's still giving them the ability to mindlessly scroll and consume than that's good enough for them. Once that starts to disappear, maybe they'll become more receptive to switching platforms, but no way of telling at this point.

imaqtpie Jun 22, 2023

Yeah the Piracy community seems like it could become an anchor on this platform, which I would love.

Pirates are generally aligned against capitalism and corporatism, but they are not all in the same boat, politically speaking.

Such a diverse yet similar group could prove very helpful in charting a middle course amongst some of the more opinionated instances.

Arggh!

sneakyninjapants Jun 22, 2023

Yeah the Piracy community seems like it could become an anchor on this platform, which I would love.

Oh yeah, I think this will be a great platform for the Piracy minded amongst us. Not beholden to a central authority, censorship resistant, no legal liability encompassing the network of discrete nodes. Lots of upsides.

Such a diverse yet similar group could prove very helpful in charting a middle course

I hope this will be the case as well. Those that want to Pirate aren't going to be sticking around long on instances whose owners are defederating the pirate horde I think.

imaqtpie Jun 23, 2023

Word. Glad you're part of my instance and looking forward to watching how this develops together.

But you didn't laugh at my pirate puns 😭

an anchor

in the same boat

charting a course

Arggh!

NightOwl Jun 22, 2023

Best way is just to express excitement that development of reddit app for Android is continuing on a different platform, since many people in /r/Android use third party apps probably due to the demographic that even bothers to subscribe to /r/Android to begin with. All other subs might be more casual users who use stuff like reddit redesigned and don't use adblockers, so this whole confusing cumbersome process is not something they care about. They just go API? What? Third party apps? Uh I don't use that I don't care. Ads? I'm used to it.

Apple is one that has nothing really that feels organic. There's no like hey Apollo for Lemmy is coming out. And Apollo is kind of the only app that Apple users even care about compared to Android where there's so many loved Reddit third party apps. Apple users are very used to subscriptions being sold on Apps too, so having to pay to remove ads and using official apps isn't as big of a concern.

Plus, I don't know that it even really matters going over to reddit to try to mention anything until the app comes out and it turns out to streamline the whole process of signing up and subscribing to different communities outside your instance as opposed to doing the weird [email protected] entry then wait for it to show up.

State of lemmy right now is something that people who weren't deterred by the research they had to do ended up using. Apps have an opportunity to make it so none of that is necessary, but until then there is no selling point. People who wanted to move have moved, and those that didn't stayed. Ones who are upset are shitposting, but I doubt they actually want to leave reddit since shitposting is also a sign they still want to stay on Reddit and wishing Reddit would roll back changes.

imaqtpie Jun 22, 2023

All good points, I largely agree. I still think it's important to spread the word on reddit right now and use our momentum.

NightOwl Jun 22, 2023

I think the biggest obstacle is the mods. I think very few actually gave a serious thought to leaving reddit, and some using reddit to communicate to each other when reddit can read everything instead of moving to stuff like slack, matrix, or even discord was bizarre. It was like a union discussing plans while corporate is invited to sit in.

To me it is very apparent the mods don't want to leave reddit, and I wouldn't be surprised if many who are holding polls on whether to continue black oust or go back to operations are hoping redditors vote to reopen so they can save face and say it was a community decision and they had no choice and that they are remaining on reddit for the community. Like just looking at some mod profiles they are still contributing to subreddits that are functioning normally, so even their contributions indicate they want things back to normal since they are providing the type of content in line with what reddit wants.

And obviously the people left are people who just want to use reddit, so when mods don't give indications of wanting to move the remaining community with be very hostile. I feel like people who have made the decision to leave have had their commenting and contributions to the reddit site just drop significantly, and or completely left. So to me it seems difficult unless the mods get on board with actual alternatives.

imaqtpie Jun 22, 2023

Totally agree with all of this. They've been bowing down to reddit for so long they can't truly comprehend leaving. And reddit is fully aware of that fact, which is why they're not even pretending to negotiate.

You're spitting facts

NightOwl Jun 22, 2023

I realized if the mods wanted to increase visibility to alternatives they could restrict /r/modcoord and then put in an announcement and link to the lemmy or kbin instance where the reddit mods proceed to do the rest of their rants. That would be an opportunity to get people who love drama to check out lemmy or kbin to lurk, and people who want to participate whether negative or positive would also then have to end up making an account to talk back to the mods.

imaqtpie Jun 22, 2023

That's another good idea, but I fear many of the mods simply don't care enough. But I do, and I can give you this meager reward

NightOwl Jun 23, 2023

Better than any reward I've ever seen. What a delight mouse? That is. Speaking of which I'm pretty blown away that lemmy supports in picture comments, since I've been so used to relying on needing something like Reddit Enhancement Suite to auto expand images from like imgur. And I never liked reddit redesign, so never knew if it ever did end up getting image comment support.

Altair Jun 22, 2023

You'll be surprised by how many redditors you can convince to join Lemmy by just mentioning Sync.

It's very effective. Understandably so; I've always browsed Reddit with Sync and it's probably the single best app I've ever used.

Here's a quick summary of Lemmy/kbin mentioning Sync and Artemis that I find to be very effective to copy/paste to threads with confused redditors. I suggest others to do the same.

A quick summary of events and what to do now... to copy/paste to any confused redditor and invite them to Lemmy or kbin. - Lemmy.world

In short, Reddit is killing off most third party apps and bots, like Apollo, which provided the moderation tools that let reddit’s feed not be full of spam and garbage, and are what made this site even usable on mobile. They’re doing this by charging insane amounts of money that no one will be able to pay (20 million dollars for apollo). They’re also straight up lying about and insulting the app devs. Here’s Apollo’s dev debunking those lies [https://reddit.adminforge.de/r/apolloapp/comments/14dkqrw/i_want_to_debunk_reddits_claims_and_talk_about/]. People protested. First, subs were closed and privated, but were forced open by admins, so now they’re protesting by only allowing John Oliver pics, or taking sub names literally. Alot of them them have moved to Lemmy and kbin, which are both compatible with each other. Reddit Sync’s dev is now working on Sync for Lemmy [https://lemmy.world/c/syncforlemmy] instead, and Artemis for Lemmy/kbin [https://tech.lgbt/@hariette/110562926792208789] is basically Apollo’s spiritual successor; will even be on android. Picture to explain simply how Lemmy and kbin work [https://lemmy.world/post/88856] and how they’re compatible; they are both part of the Fediverse. Sub.rehab lists subreddits [https://sub.rehab] that have officially moved off of reddit. Honestly, just ignore the few that aren’t on Lemmy or kbin. Just join the largest Lemmy or kbin community for full compatibility. There’s also Lemmynsfw.com [http://Lemmynsfw.com] for NSFW communities/subreddits (not listed in sub.rehab) that you can seamlessly access from any instance/server the same way explained in the picture linked above. Just join any Lemmy or kbin server/instance to access everything; doesn’t matter which because they’re all connected. Lemmy.world [https://lemmy.world], Lemm.ee [https://lemm.ee], vlemmy.net [https://vlemmy.net/], kbin.social [https://kbin.social], fedia.io [https://fedia.io] are all great for example. For subreddits you like that haven’t moved off of reddit yet, send a polite message to the mods asking them if they plan to make the subreddit/community in Lemmy/kbin. Copy/paste this summary from pastebin [https://pastebin.com/dagaNLuG] anywhere relevant.

jandar_fett Jun 23, 2023

I had never heard of Sync, but with the way people are talking about it and it's features, I think it could replace Bacon Reader for me (RIP) and this is coming from someone who uses reddit a moderate amount for niche subreddits, but isn't going to stand for this anti capitalist BS that Spez is pulling, so how I'm here. It wasn't hard, but I appreciate the fact not everyone is as plugged in or aware of social causes such as this or more importantly thst not everyone has the free time to put in a minimal amount of research to figure out how to move to an alternative.

fluxion Jun 23, 2023

Ditto, I'm a Bacon Reader man myself but have heard enough good stuff about Sync over the years that I'm pretty confident it'll be a solid replacement.

AnarchistArtificer Jun 23, 2023

I've been using the Lemmy app and finding myself quite unhappy with it, but stopping to ask "Is this app actually deserving of my ire, or am I just grumpy because it's not what I'm used to (i.e. not Sync)?". I think it's mostly the latter. Don't get me wrong, Jerboa is nowhere near the level of polish or functionality of pretty much any of the main 3rd party Reddit apps (yet?), it's just that I'm a creature of habit (and so are many others)

Altair Jun 23, 2023

Nah, I agree, Jerboa is just not there right now.

I prefer the even the webview over Jerboa on mobile at the moment.

isdfoa Jun 22, 2023

+1 this is a super good idea - [email protected]

rog Jun 22, 2023

I would respectfully disagree.

The people who were susceptible to coming over to lemmy as it is are already here. Those who think its too complicated or whatever will stay on reddit.

I think the key to wider lemmy adoption is by focusing on the product, not so much the marketing. While it obviously helps for people to know about it, which many people now do, it doesn't matter if they come check it out and its a confusing ghost town.

Getting these apps out and filling the platform with communities and content is, I think, much more important than trying to drag people here kicking and screaming.

As the platform becomes better, the people will come.

Spliffman1 Jun 22, 2023

I agree.... I think there is a huge mass of blind sheep who will never come right now, no matter how much "encouragement" they get , maybe later they would when it's more developed. And the ones who would come now are the type that would have heard about the fiasco from day one, and seen all the media articles and posts and already made the move, or planning the move on DDay. Numbers for numbers sake is not the way imo. Let's build this thing from within, and the numbers will come

Aeoneir Jun 22, 2023

"I'm going to be adding a preload Sync for Lemmy popup in sync over the weekend along with a shutdown notice."

Using Sync for Reddit as a marketing tool come July 1st is more urgent than building the MVP

I'm going to be adding a preload Sync for Lemmy popup in sync over the weekend along with a shutdown notice.

reddit

Prometheus Jun 22, 2023

Those fuckers

Foreverwinter Jun 22, 2023

Right?!

solidsnake2085 Jun 22, 2023

Funny thing is that I don't see this popup in sync.

nepenthes Jun 23, 2023

It only happens when you access a reddit link from mobile without a default app to open reddit. They are trying to force the shite app on everyone, which is amusing b/c all it does is make me give LJ more energy

༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ

PSA: get past it by clicking "desktop view".

bloubz Jun 23, 2023

That's the point. The mods are passing to NSFW because it's a pain to view such content on Reddit

bfr0 Jun 23, 2023

I think it would actually be pretty cool if somehow you could link configured subreddits that people have saved or subscribed to into a search for Lemmy communities.

Obviously we want to minimize time that distracts you from the Lemmy version, but I do think it would help people pivot into Lemmy communities away from their favorite subreddits.

🦥󠀠󠀠󠀠󠀠󠀠󠀠Jun 23, 2023

Imagine if it just seamlessly continued working after a short account signup and translated your Reddit subs to various Lemmy ones where it could.

Marxine Jun 23, 2023

That'd be magical, but isn't easily feasible.

llama Jun 23, 2023

Since we’re only talking about a week timeline here, would it be possible to update the sync app with a list of popular Lemmy instances and a way to view your favorite one from a web view within the app? That way people could still use sync in the meantime while native features gradually get rolled out.

Altair Jun 23, 2023

This is an amazing idea if possible!

redballooon Jun 23, 2023

I wouldn't do it. If the user experience is bad, they'll uninstall it "because they tried and it sucked". Then they won't even go back.

I like the suggestion from OP.

Spliffman1 Jun 23, 2023

I really don't think that "marketing" sync for lemmy to reddit users is more important than doing the mvp that we who are already here need. I really don't understand that reasoning. OK trying to get reddit users who don't know about lemmy and Fediverse informed so they can choose to come here that's okay. But a "marketing" campaign sounds so corporate and like the very thing we came here to get away from

Altair Jun 23, 2023

Alot of us, including me, wouldn't be here using Lemmy right now if people didn't market it to us.

Even people who otherwise would can't switch if they don't know about it.

Marketing is important; nothing wrong with that on it's own.