There have been multiple accounts created with the sole purpose of posting advertisement posts or replies containing unsolicited advertising.

Accounts which solely post advertisements, or persistently post them may be terminated.

lazycouchpotato ,
@lazycouchpotato@lemmy.world avatar

Targeted advertising is a huge no. No more of that.

Static advertising I can accept, but then who’s responsible for vetting ads? I don’t want scams displayed everywhere.

Devs definitely need ways to support themselves and sustain development. I’ve shared this screenshot from the app Secure Tether before:

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/286e4de9-4ad7-4239-a4e5-3e9c0cfd70cd.png

I like to chip in a few bucks to my most used apps/services that are donationware, but after all the middlemen take their cut, the devs are left with peanuts. This IMO is the biggest hurdle when it comes to online monetization. A less expensive way to donate will certainly help.

Additionally, there are people who cannot or will not pay for apps, and I don’t want to exclude them from being able to use an app/service they need.

Monetization like how Reddit Gold was and how Discord Nitro is are some of my favorites. Few extra perks and cosmetic features for paying users. Free users are still able to use the main product at no cost and you can gift them Gold/Nitro if they aren’t able to purchase it themselves. I don’t know how that would translate into an app store model though.

flop_leash_973 ,

But in order to create a solution that will be mainstream enough to make in-roads into the hold Big Tech has on the market

Firstly, I doubt their users asked them to be “mainstream”, only their want for a piece of the app store profit pie is asking for that.

Secondly, if the only way to make in-roads on big techs hold on the market is to become just like them, then maybe they should be trying to find a better way.

F-droid is not going to beat the Play store at its own game. And it shows how naive the maintainers of F-droid are if they really believe that.

zecg ,
@zecg@lemmy.world avatar

Ads, no, are not ok. F-droid can fuck right off if an ad appears, I’ll just get apks from github

jadelord ,

If it is a pay what you want model I am all for it. This would be similar to how elementary OS st

The problem with a fixed price is you have to always calibrate it according to the economy of the user’s geolocation. What is cheap for a person from a developed world may be unaffordable for a third world county.

Landless2029 ,

I would be totally down with a pay what you want model with most proceeds going to devs.

Basically a prompt to donate to the devs with 5-10% going to the package manager.

Some apps I’ve used are totally worth $1-$5

possiblylinux127 , (edited )

This is f*** up. I have no issues donating to my favorite apps. However what they are talking about it pure enshitification plus proprietary software

Also donations can absolutely work

blog.thunderbird.net/…/thunderbird-is-thriving-ou…

4tnGameDev ,

I’m a bit of a fence sitter on the actual issue, I love F-Droid as is and fear change, but I’ll say as someone who thinks they’ll release on Google Play in the general future, the thing that pisses me off most about Google Play is they have a “repetitive content policy” which disincentivizes you from releasing a full paid app and a demo app. The main issue is, I don’t want my app to categorize as “in-app purchases” if the only purchase is the “unlock full version”, because that doesn’t distinguish my app from any unethical whale-hunting casino-for-children microtransaction apps, and I don’t want my app to claim to be free if it’s just a demo.

At least, from a pro-user, communicate everything clearly, perspective, I feel that Google is compelling devs to dark-pattern-by-default on this subject.

LMK if I’m wrong about any of that.

MudMan ,

I'm not sure I can be as pliant as others here. Being less of an activist and more of a user of convenience, if I am making PayPal payments somebody better give me a reason why I'm not just using the same store that came in by default with my phone.

grue ,

What the fuck? Did F-Droid change ownership (sell out to a hedge fund or something)? Or did I somehow time-travel to April 1, or what?

possiblylinux127 ,

I really hope this is a poorly timed joke

garden ,
@garden@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Well, some members of F-Droid’s central board resigned nearly a year ago, citing issues that had been ongoing for a long time prior. Statement posted to Gitlab.

I’ve been slowly moving my app installations over to Obtainium ever since, and have been using NeoStore for the remaining F-Droid/Izzy installations.

leaky_shower_thought ,

i am good with the subscription and pay once approaches they mentioned.

the iffy portion is the in-app payment sdk. i hope f-droid will be the one providing those to have it standardized.

in-app ads are kinda okay. i won’t use said app, but if f-droid labels apps like those as how it labels apps with non-foss/features-you-may-not-like, it should be okay.

possiblylinux127 ,

In app ads are very much not ok as they are often targeted and serve no benefit to the user. I have no issue with a donate button popup with a link but we already have Google play for spyware.

cupcakezealot ,
@cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

i’m fine with it as long as the privacy labels remain front and centre when downloading; especially if they clearly mark which apps are ad supported, subscription based, etc and don’t prioritize them over foss/ad free

otoh, i use neo store so it probably won’t matter

vomitaur ,

pretty sure the venn diagram of f-droid users and adblocking users is such a huge overlap that this may not pay off too well.

possiblylinux127 ,

I might uninstall F-droid today…

mrvictory1 ,

If they added ads I probably wouldn’t even notice because of ad blocker lol.

yuuunikki ,

If anything this would just give me suggestions on apks of paid apps to sideload for free

possiblylinux127 ,

It should uphold free software and user freedom. If an app developer chooses to abuse user freedom the app should be pulled (and possibly forked) like Simple model tools.

sabreW4K3 ,
@sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al avatar

Apparently they don’t understand that the F in F-Droid is for FOSS.

I’m 100% all for adding a repository with paid apps, but it’s not and shouldn’t be marketed as F-Droid.

aard ,
@aard@kyu.de avatar

Paid and FOSS are not mutually exclusive. You can always build packages yourself if you don’t want to pay. A well executed implementation might allow some projects to drop or reduce their play store efforts.

wholookshere ,

deleted_by_author

    •
    Undearius ,
    @Undearius@lemmy.ca avatar

    And the “free” means “freedom”, it doesn’t mean “no price”

    rtxn ,

    Free does not mean “no payment, ever”. If the source code and build toolchain are openly and completely available, but prebuilt binaries are paid-only, it still satisfies the “free as in gratis” criterion.

    possiblylinux127 ,

    Unless the payment method involves proprietary software. Also online payments are service as a software substitute (SaaS)

    Spaniard ,
    @Spaniard@lemmy.world avatar

    youtu.be/n9YDz-Iwgyw?t=322

    PopOfAfrica ,

    I will download APKs off a website before I use anything with ads.

    sabreW4K3 ,
    @sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al avatar

    Paid and FOSS are mutually exclusive. Open source and FOSS aren’t.

    But how, you ask? Free means having the right to do whatever you want with your copy including make copies and redistribute. Thus, how can it be free while demanding a payment before allowing usage?

    That’s why I said, FOSS Droid? Nah! Open Source Droid? Knock yourself out. I’m actually looking forward to supporting some of the developers of apps I love.

    avidamoeba ,
    @avidamoeba@lemmy.ca avatar

    One of the things you’re free to do is pay for a copy of the binary. Therefore you haven’t shown that FOSS and paid are mutually exclusive. 😁

    sabreW4K3 ,
    @sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al avatar

    You’re right.

    folkrav ,

    The F stands for “free” as in “freedom”, not “free beer”.

    possiblylinux127 ,

    Stripe is not free software nor is any online payment system these days.

    Not to mention online payments come at the cost of privacy

    possiblylinux127 ,

    It stands for freedom as in protecting the 4 free software freedoms.

    sabreW4K3 ,
    @sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al avatar

    lazysoci.al/comment/11161130

    watson387 ,
    @watson387@sopuli.xyz avatar

    That’ll be a big nope, thanks.

    Edit: 20 years from now, FDroid will be worse than the Play store and we’ll have a “new” store that functions like FDroid does currently.

    db2 ,

    Don’t wait, install Droid-ify now.

    nokturne213 ,

    That sounds kind of ify to me.

    possiblylinux127 ,

    That’s F-droid

    db2 ,

    No, but it uses those repositories.

    narrowide96lochkreis ,

    Imagine they start blocking access to their repos for other clients… 🫠

    ExtremeDullard ,
    @ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

    Paid apps: no problem. If it’s good, I’ll pay.

    Subscription: maybe, if it’s worth it.

    Ads: F-Droid can fuck right off. If they do that, they’d be a miserable bunch of sellouts.

    sovietknuckles , (edited )

    If they were talking about Privacy-Preserving Attribution like Firefox is experimenting with supporting on MDN, that would be one thing, but it doesn’t sound like that’s what F-Droid is talking about.

    Not only are privacy and data protection founding principles for both Mobifree and F-Droid, the use of tracking-based in-app advertising poses a moral dilemma as well. If someone wants to gain access to an app, but does not have the financial means to purchase it, they can use it at a different kind of price - their user data.

    F-Droid is also considering ads that contain no tracking, which removes that moral dillema, IMO:

    It should be mentioned that it is possible to include in-app advertising without user tracking. However the lead conversion ratio drops dramatically, so the efficacy of this approach is not nearly as high.

    That’s basically what PPA is, advertising without tracking. If advertisers want to pay for it, then great.

    Edit: Downvoting without responding like lemmitor

    eco_game ,

    The first quote is taken out of context:

    Not only are privacy and data protection founding principles for both Mobifree and F-Droid, the use of tracking-based in-app advertising poses a moral dilemma as well. If someone wants to gain access to an app, but does not have the financial means to purchase it, they can use it at a different kind of price - their user data.

    For me this reads as them explaining and condemning that dilemma, instead of considering it as an option for F-Droid.

    sovietknuckles ,

    Sorry, I was trying to save space, but I can see how only starting the quote in the middle of the paragraph is misleading. I edited the quote to include the context.

    For me this reads as them explaining and condemning that dilemma, instead of considering it as an option for F-Droid.

    IMO, it read more like acknowledging concerns around ads but not explicitly condemning it. But I’m not going to form an opinion about it until they do something, or at least make their intentions clearer.

    possiblylinux127 ,

    Because ads in Firefox went so well…

    sovietknuckles ,

    ads in Firefox

    That’s a common misconception. For users like myself who use uBlock Origin, Firefox supporting PPA changes nothing at all (as pointed out by the Firefox CTO). The only users who would see an ad that uses PPA are users who would otherwise see ads that use tracking.

    That is why the EFF supports it.

    possiblylinux127 ,

    That is just dancing around the issue. The problem is them turning on baked in browser advertising by default.

    sovietknuckles ,

    Again, it’s not advertising, it’s a form of privacy protection. There are no ads in Firefox, and they did not add any mechanism for tracking users, so calling it browser advertising is advertising your own technology illiteracy.

    possiblylinux127 ,

    How does it benefit me in the least?

    ExtremeDullard , (edited )
    @ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

    F-Droid is also considering ads that contain no tracking, which removes that moral dillema, IMO:

    You assume everybody is okay with ads.

    I’m not. My brainspace has been highjacked since I was a little kid by stupid advertisers. To this day, I remember ads for products that have disappeared decades ago and that I never gave a shit about at any point in my life.

    Why are advertisers allowed to force their shit into my head?

    I hate ads. I’m utterly intolerant of advertising. I hate the tracking and the malware that come with ads, but I hate ads even more. There are no moral ads. The advertisement industry is a despicable leech that needs to die.

    If F-Droid springs this shit on me, I swear to god I’m gonna start having murderous thoughts…

    TheTechnician27 ,
    @TheTechnician27@lemmy.world avatar

    Yeah, as long as the payment method is FOSS, secure, and works as intended, I have no serious issue with pay-once software being introduced. There are apps from F-Droid I would pay a few dollars to use if required, and I’d be happy if it meant more and higher-quality software.

    I feel like the freemium model they mention with subscriptions is just begging for F-Droid to be enshittified. F-Droid would really, really need to prove themselves with pay-once applications first for my liking before moving onto something so much more drastic.

    And then ads are just a non-starter. Ads only exist to be psychologically manipulative, they’re obnoxious as fuck in the present day, they’re a privacy nightmare, and they’re a vector for malware. I would see it as a betrayal of what F-Droid does for me, and I would actively see F-Droid as being sellouts who are only marginally better than using Aurora at that point.

    federalreverse ,

    There are no FOSS payment methods. In fact, you’re probably lucky to find a payment processor that will handle FOSS stuff at all.

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