First of all, thank you @[email protected] 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!

  • OtakuAltair@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    1 year ago

    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.

    • AnarchistArtificer@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      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)

      • OtakuAltair@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

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

        I prefer the webview over Jerboa on mobile at the moment; the higher flexibility outweighs the lower mobile-friendliness for me

        I can definitely see it getting great though! With more contribution.

        Edit: After using the new latest version of Jerboa (0.0.35), I think I do prefer it over the webview now.

    • jandar_fett@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      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@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        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.

  • imaqtpie@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    42·
    1 year ago

    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@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      all of us who still have our reddit accounts should be going over there and letting people know about Lemmy in a helpful way

      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”

  • Alex@geddit.socialEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    referencing users on Lemmy is not at all the same as reddit, since there are multiple instances.

    there’s no automagic function for it (at least not on the web there isn’t - that’s probably why you couldn’t find one), you just have to do it by hand.

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

    • OtakuAltair@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      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 its own.

  • rog@lemmy.oneEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    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.

    • OptimusPrimeRib@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      I disagree the more people that know about it the better. My friend is an avid reddit user but uses the basic app and regular reddit (not old.reddit) and he never heard of lemmy.world until I told him yesterday. If people know about its existence they will know its an option. He is considering switching as well after telling him.

  • llama@midwest.socialEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    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.

  • bfr0@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    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.

  • sabreW4K3@lemmy.tfEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I don’t think it’s a bad idea to say that Sync for Reddit is shutting down, if you would like to follow new projects by LJ, please click here for Patreon or here for Lemmy or something along those lines.

    • OtakuAltair@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Honestly, I think it needs to be more aggressive than that, as bad as that may sound.

      Something like:

      "Reddit’s new API policies has made it impossible for Sync for Reddit to continue.

      Click here for Sync for Lemmy, an alternative to Reddit, instead. You will be notified when it is out in [estimated time for prototype]."

      Would probably be more effective if the app remained the same, and you didn’t need to download a separate Sync for Lemmy from the playstore; do we know which one’s happening yet?

      I wonder if this would even be legal though.