Jake Williams6d ago
Dear app developers,
I have never had the desire to review an app. Prompting me to leave a review doe not make me want to do it any more. Making me click multiple times to dismiss your "nudge" and get back to using the app just makes me want to uninstall it.
Sincerely,
Every smartphone user ever
Show threadohir

@malwarejake
> I have never had the desire to review an app. Prompting me to leave a review doe not make me want to do it any more.

So you are helping the big corpos suffocate small independent app makers. Because reviews are the only way to have a few other people being given a chance to see this app name on their screen. The other way is to shell-out around a half a million dollars for ads and "promotions". App makers beg for reviews, because they are now are unable to outbid scammers.

May 26 at 11:20pmWeb
Show threadmathew4d ago
@ohir @malwarejake email spammers make the same argument. “I’m just a small business, if my email is blocked I can’t afford to compete with the big companies and their million dollar ad budgets.” Do you read their spam?
Show threadohir4d ago

@mathew
> Do you read their spam?

Strawman.

I do not _install_ spam messages for the features I want to use on my phone.

@malwarejake

Show threadmathew4d ago
@ohir @malwarejake You don’t get spam for things you’ve purchased? I do. And I get spam prompts from apps where I haven’t opted to purchase them or any in-app upgrade.
Show threadohir4d ago

@mathew
> You don’t get spam for things you’ve purchased?

Not a single piece now (for what I purchased). I am in Europe and I never in my life had opted-in to the spam. If I saw spam coming after a purchase I for my and my fellow compatriots benefit lent a 30m of my time to prepare GDPR report on that culprit seller. Each time. Two or three times a year it was, last case iirc past November.

The out of EU spam I do not see as it gets filtered (the whitelist knows whom I sent first).

> And I get spam prompts from apps where I haven’t opted to purchase them or any in-app upgrade.

You have not purchased but you keep them on your phone, so I assume these have a value for you. In which case why do you feel entitled to use their main functionality then balk on their devs proposal to return the favor by giving a few minutes of your time back. If there is functionality worth to keep, this functionality costed months of developer time.

@malwarejake

Show threadmathew4d ago

@ohir @malwarejake OK, so you admit you filter out spam even when it's about products you use.

Regarding "returning the favor", the App Store terms of service explicitly prohibit requiring a review in order to use an app, so you're trying to guilt-trip me to work around the ToS. That seems pretty shady.

Web site operators use the same type of argument: "You read our web site, so I assume it has value to you. In which case why do you feel entitled to read it but block the ads? Why won't you enter your email address when we ask? Why won't you share a link to this campaign on social media?"

I mean, do you enter your email address to get promotional email when apps and web sites demand it? Do you turn off your browser's ad-blocking and tracking cookie protection? Tracking you and viewing ads helps their business, and is part of the implied contract for providing you with the content, right? Sorry, but I don't buy any of it.

Yes, it sucks that indie app developers have a hard time getting found via the App Store. It sucks for me as a potential customer too, because it's impossible to find good one-time-purchase apps on the App Store. I waste hours trawling through web sites trying to find good apps for [whatever], because there's zero chance I'll find them through App Store rankings. But I don't think trying to game the ratings is going to solve that problem; I haven't seen any improvement in discoverability since everyone started putting in nags to review their app, and the ratings are effectively meaningless at this point.

I think it'd be better to try serving your customers, not being annoying or abusive, and relying on word of mouth. I'm old-fashioned that way. I promote small devs' apps on Reddit all the time — even ones I decided not to buy after a trial period but thought were really good.

Show threadohir2d ago

@mathew
> you filter out spam even when it's about products you use.

Nope. I filter out spam. I never subscribed to spam about what I purchased. I actively went after the sellers who tried to spam me without my consent (I never gave in the first place).

> do you enter your email address to get promotional email when apps and web sites demand it?

Never did, never will.

> but block the ads?

Touché. With a disclaimer: there are websites that I reward after deeming them briefly useful. I click the temp permission for ads after I read and am AFK, so website owners have 5 to 10 minutes of the revenue. Or had, the G killed their revenue, likely.

> I promote small devs' apps on Reddit all the time — even ones I decided not to buy after a trial period but thought were really good.

And this info is what the OP lacked. Respect! And thank you. Let's go back to fighting for #noai :))