this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2023
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Sync for Lemmy
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While I am strongly in favor of this, I suspect going fully open source might be 'too much, too soon' for ljdawson, as I'm not sure how used they are to open source practices.
As a gentler stepping stone that doesn't feel like giving all control away, I would suggest sharing the source code under the PolyForm Noncommercial license: https://polyformproject.org/licenses/noncommercial/1.0.0/
In other words, a 'shared-source' license that makes the code available for review, contributions and even copying, but disallows unauthorized commercial use. This provides a middle road between the fully proprietary protections Sync is used to, and the new open landscape of Lemmy & friends that it is venturing into.
For Redditors coming here who are unfamiliar with open source, here's a comprehensive introduction for those who care to find out: https://blog.erlend.sh/open-source-explained
In short, it is an essential antidote to enshittification.
Is there a simple explanation of what Sync does that's so great, that e.g. RedReader doesn't do, and that isn't fairly straightforward for someone else to add to RedReader if it's missing?
The simplest way is to download it for yourself and compare. For me, the layout, font sizing, navigation, and features gave me exactly the Reddit experience I wanted. I bounced back and forth between it and like 8 other apps and always went back to Sync because nothing felt more comfortable.
I've tried RedReader when the Sync shutdown was announced, the UI is clunky and feels very dated. Sync is the best overall app I have ever used, and it's consistently gotten better over time, and at times when I thought improvements were simply no longer possible. It's that good.
Interesting, thanks. I believe I have old fashioned tastes in interfaces so maybe that's why I like Redreader. A quick youtube search shows several videos about Sync for Reddit, so maybe I will watch a few of them to see what I've been missing. I have some slight interest in Android programming, so maybe enhancing RedReader can give me something to play with.