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teller ("Siim Teller") wrote:

I seem to have crossed the critical mass of active people I follow (119 total now) to make opening Mastodon entertaining and informative + provide enough content to fill a 5 minute break. Negative - need to watch out to not fall back into the infinite scroll addiction I had on the birdsite.

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

Modern App Stores are in 3 businesses (in descending order of revenue):

• skimming 30% from problem gambling behaviour via In-App Purchases in "casual" games (think Farmville+++)
• "oops, I forgot I was paying for that" subscription revenue
• selling adds for the first two

The last bucket fills app store managers with *intense* glee.

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

This might seem counter-intuitive.

Don't App Stores protect you from tracking and stuff?

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

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slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

Obvious to technologists, but opaque to normies: site keep trying SO HARD to get you to install their native app not because it's actually better, but because it's imbued (by Apple and Google) with MUCH better tracking potential.

The counter-argument is push notifications (which should be normalised this coming year as Apple is feeling regulatory heat), but I strongly suspect we'll see the same nonsense for a long while on the back of the tracking gap.

Reblogged by teller ("Siim Teller"):
waltmossberg@mastodon.world ("Walt Mossberg") wrote:

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evacide@mastodon.lol ("Eva") wrote:

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stephaniewalter@front-end.social ("Stef Walter") wrote:

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RollingStone@mstdn.social ("Rolling Stone") wrote:

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slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

I cannot stress enough how few businesses can thrive under the the thumb of 15-30% taxes on all transactions.

Giving up on the web is giving up on a future of computing that doesn't involve paying a license fee to write code that matters. We must do better, so capitulation is for the birds.

Reject the ReactNative (et. al.) siren song of "write once, be taxed anywhere". Links that end you up in an oligopolist's walled garden for proprietary software aren't worth a damn and never were.

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

Even if you don't put a pseudo-moral valence on the question, it's at least shitty craft to sell out one's own potential.

I suppose there's good news now; the dam is breaking and regulators are looking (finally) at the ways that Apple has broken the mobile web for its own profit.

If you want to be a real part of fixing the web for the future, reach out to @owa, who are doing the deity's work in effecting change on this level.

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

If you're making things on the web, and you (like me) think the web is a cultural artifact that we should not let go quietly into that dark night, then _have some pride_. Know that native platform owners _want to put you out of a job_. They are literally coming for you and yours.

If you don't fight back, if you don't do what is possible, you're complicit not only in the end of your own career, but your peers, and the prospects of your clients.

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

In consulting with teams, this has come through in several ways. The most dispiriting of them have been teams that, when presented with evidence that their JS-heavy, unusable site isn't working for users, bleat out some half-hearted nonsense about how native apps are better for mobile anyway.

No? Almost never? And if you're going to give up on your own bloody profession, at least have a modicum of creativity about it? Or the guts to actually jump ship to native yourself?

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

One of the most dispiriting trends of frontend's lost decade has been the capitulation: the idea that it's OK if mobile goes to native because native somehow has some superpower that HTML/CSS/JS lack.

It was always bullshit. It's more bullshit now than ever, and the only cases in which it isn't are due to Apple's abuse of it's monopoly on wealthy users (which, from a regulatory redress standpoint, at least has some positives in the US, UK, Japan, AU, etc.)

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jcgregorio@mastodon.cc ("Joe Gregorio") wrote:

fribbledom ("muesli") wrote:

Good news, everyone. The days are getting longer again.

Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
scrumble_eggs@mstdn.party ("Scrümbled Eggs :verified_red:") wrote:

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shelby@fauxzen.com ("Shelby DeNike") wrote:

bcantrill ("Bryan Cantrill") wrote:

@igb @ahl @oxidecomputer If you signed up for this event before ~20:15 Pacific on 12/21, note that the original event was erroneously deleted; please signup with this updated link:

https://discord.com/invite/3jSyYpGP?event=1055335241411215383

(The original post has been updated to have the correct link.)

Can't wait to talk with @igb on Monday!

Reblogged by teller ("Siim Teller"):
ekp@mastodon.cloud ("Ellen Pao") wrote:

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BalticVC@mastodon.world wrote:

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carnage4life@mas.to ("Dare Obasanjo") wrote:

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braedon@mastodon.nz ("Braedon") wrote:

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

Once upon a time I did the math, and for a relatively recent iOS & Android release cycle, in the trailing 60 days after the bits went to prod, iOS had upgraded more users *per day* than Android, despite having 1/7th the market share.

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

In this data set, Android 9 + 10 (together) have more share than 12!

Heads should roll for an ecosystem fsckup that tremendous, but I guess as long as you get to predate problem gamblers through Play In-App Payments, life is good?

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

Just got a copy of the Scientia Mobile Mobile Overview Report (MOVR)[1], and it's not the most important stat, but it's hilarious how I'm sure that Google's managers still think that releasing new versions of Android matters when, more than a year after Android 12's release, < 20% of users have it.

Like, stop? Just stop. It's not working. The whole model; totally broken, top to bottom.

[1]: https://www.scientiamobile.com/movr-mobile-overview-report/

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benjaminwittes@thecooltable.wtf ("Benjamin Wittes") wrote:

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craigsilverman wrote:

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slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

In multiple threads over on birdsite, I've had multiple tell me (when faced with actual data and traces) that it didn't matter if modern web apps were terrible because "everyone uses the native app for that"...and IDK, man, but like, isn't the point of all this to avoid sending users to native apps?

And if "modern frontend" is just a fifth-column for native, maybe it *should* be the enemy?

Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
ntx@hachyderm.io ("Nodir 🇺🇦") wrote:

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darius@friend.camp ("Darius Kazemi") wrote: