this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2023
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Apollo - A beautiful app built for power and speed.
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Since many of us are trying to avoid giving reddit any traffic, this space can be used to discuss Apollo, our dreams of seeing it join the Fediverse, and to give our appreciation to @christianselig@mastodon.social for his incredible work.
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I can’t get behind this narrative. Honestly, how else do you market this product? On Twitter? On Facebook? Mastodon maybe?
Look, he’s updating an app that hasn’t been operational in months… nobody who still has that app has any illusions of it coming back. What do they expect when they open that app?
I won’t buy a plushie, since I don’t have a place for it, but I had many fond years using Apollo, and wouldn’t mind buying something like this at all, and I would have never known otherwise (except for people complaining about it online.)
This is where I am. I don’t get the narrative of Darth Christian abusing the populace. He’s an independent gig worker marketing his skills and products.
He’s a millionaire who made those millions from using Reddits free API. Now he’s just grifting.
Source on his net worth?
He has said that he made millions over the years from Apollo. I don't bookmark every comment he ever makes.
Only time he’s ever said anything close to that was a hypothetical.
https://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-ceo-app-founders-apollo-riff-made-millions-using-api-2023-6
Those yearly subscribers alone bring in half a mill a year.
When someone asks you to confirm that you've made millions of dollars and you don't deny it, it's generally because it's true.
Using your logic, if I sell lemonade at a stand for $1 a glass, and sell 1000 glasses, I’ve made $1000. Regardless of how much it costs to make the lemonade, the cost of the stand, the cost of the property the stand is on.
Are you intentionally ignoring the cost of developing and running the app? Or did you assume things like servers, bandwidth, licenses and more were all free?
His servers etc aren't going to cost much because he's not doing any of the heavy lifting. His app just uses reddits API. He's not storing any content from the API. He's not recording upvotes. He's not hosting anything from there. At most he has a server for his paying customers account details. He. Isn't. Serving. The. Reddit. Traffic. Bandwidth doesn't come into it, nor do servers. Licenses? What licenses? There is no cost of "running" the app. You're talking like someone that has absolutely no idea how apps work. None of the traffic from Apollo runs through Christians servers. It's all between the customers phone and reddits servers.
If you're taking in a minimum of $500k a year making a reddit app, you're making minimum $490k profit a year from that.
I would also like to add on that this pop up was shown to all sideloaded Apollo users as well.
Ah… so unofficial installations of an old app got a notification that was only intended for people who had a non-functional version of the app, because that’s what the official update was set as? The audacity!
In all seriousness, that’s like saying someone with a pirated copy of a game having a bug and complaining about it to the one who runs the server is justified. Actually, not even a bug, just a regular notification… that only notifies you after you open the app…..
You see how thin this argument is, surely?
The “product” is an attempt to get people who feel sad to give him more money. What other app tries sells plushies of its logo?
Many sell merch. For example, I play an idle game called Melvor Idle that routinely sells plushies of in game pets.
And you’re saying that that’s unethical because…?
I mean think about it. Why does any company sell merch? Is it unethical for them to sell it? Why or why not?
It’s not inherently unethical to sell merch. It’s however apparent to me that this seems to be a cash grab. The app died months ago. This is further apparent to me when acknowledging the greediness Christian has shown before. It is unethical to try and use your already dead app to try and gain even more money by selling a low-effort plushie.
Again I ask… what makes this a “cash grab” and other merch not? Is it because this service is no longer active? What if there was a new plush released for Phantasy Star Online, a now defunct but beloved game?
I’m not sure what Phantasy Star Online is, but yes it is because he is releasing merch for his defunct app months after the fact while also being radio silence towards the Apollo community. Christian says he wants to move on, but I guess that doesn’t apply to money making ventures.
I’m also more critical on this because of his previous more greedy behavior, which I outlined in my main post as well.