Christian squeezing Apollo for its last bit of money

3 years ago by UgandaSans to c/apolloapp

Christian has decided to squeeze Apollo again for more money, besides the wallpapers and asking people to decline their prorated refund. Christian additionally forced a pop up ad advertising this plushie.

This is just exposing to more people the greediness that Christian has tapped into recently. Recall that previously, Christian forced daily pop up ads to paid pro users to get them to subscribe to ultra, which was originally stated to only be for notifications since it required a server, but now had all new features attached to it, even very simple local features. Reddit did him dirty, but to be honest, he may have had it coming. He previously disabled ultra access to Jailbroken devices as well, even if they were valid paid users. Christian also didn’t provide refunds to lifetime users who bought it before all the API stuff. Speaking of that, does anyone remember how instead of stating the price was increasing (which happened all the time) he instead said it was “going on sale at the old price”? Kinda misleading.

TeckFire 59 points 3 years ago

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.)

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stolid_agnostic 36 points 3 years ago

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.

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UgandaSans 0 points 3 years ago

I would also like to add on that this pop up was shown to all sideloaded Apollo users as well.

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TeckFire 10 points 3 years ago

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?

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UgandaSans -8 points 3 years ago

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?

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JaymesRS 17 points 3 years ago

Many sell merch. For example, I play an idle game called Melvor Idle that routinely sells plushies of in game pets.

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UgandaSans -6 points 3 years ago

That’s a game, not a (defunct) social media app

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JaymesRS 12 points 3 years ago

You asked “what other app sells plushies of its logo?”

Melvor Idle has featured those pets in its logos and and meets your question. Your only response to that was to double down and drag those goalposts further down the field by changing the criteria.

I get that you’re super butthurt over this, but maybe you need to step back, take a breath, get some perspective and figure out why others actions that have no impact on your life bother you so much. How does this change your life? How would your life be different if this happened without your knowledge or never happened?

I bet your life wouldn’t be significantly different other than the amount of energy you’re exerting letting this anger you.

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TeckFire 12 points 3 years ago

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?

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UgandaSans -1 points 3 years ago

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.

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TeckFire 6 points 3 years ago

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?

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skeezix 29 points 3 years ago

Spez sucks.

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SpezCanLigmaBalls 5 points 3 years ago

Yes

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UgandaSans 3 points 3 years ago

True

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EsteemedRectangle 2 points 3 years ago

Yep

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ubermeisters 3 points 3 years ago
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UgandaSans 8 points 3 years ago

i only see this one

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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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