The Loops app certainly feels like it. Not to diminish a solo dev doing something on his own, but it just seems like a standard video player with like, comment, follow. Search feature is only by user; when you type a comment, it doesn’t wrap the text, it just moves horizontally until you post it. I think the feed is literally just a chronological list of every video posted, and for some reason, most of the videos I see on it are just like…atmospheric videos. Still camera, nature background, rain in someone’s backyard. People love the concept, but I don’t see how it’s anywhere near ready to compete for users like other options are right now.
The web UI has been teased for so long, too. I’m losing trust with dan. I mean im glad he found success with pixelfed, and i wouldn’t even have a problem with how long it takes loops; but he’s just dishonest. If he was more honest, transparent and open sourced the code early on i would’ve had no problem. But this? what is this?
I’m not a big Fediverse proponent, like…the concept is good, if not still a little young (activity pub isn’t ironed out across mediums and is still a bit jank in my opinion) but it seems a bit like a cash grab to be the savior dev making all the X-equivalent of Fediverse, and just hopefully something sticks. With PixelFed blowing up, feel like Loops is gonna take a back seat for quite a while.
Of course, my problem is just that he isn’t being transparent, and is dishonest. If he actually made the code open source, and did not get himself into controversy all time i wouldn’t mind him being a solo dev :)
A few days ago he posted (then I think deleted) this, which among other things makes me extremely inclined to not believe anything he says:
In March 2019 I teased the Pixelfed mobile app.
The only problem was, I didn’t know how to write one.
So just like the original “federated instagram” post, I faked a commercial to build hype.
It was coming along well.
Then in mid 2020, I came out and put the app aside. It wasn’t until late 2022 that I found a Pixelfed react native app, and cloned it and tinkered.
In 2023 I released the first Pixelfed app, but it was slow. I rewrote it from scratch in May 2024.
From faking, to making!
Not even as a jumping off point? I’d have to get into it on my computer but it certainly looks like at least a partial build has been posted from poking around with my phone. Loops isn’t terribly complex.
Yeah, I wonder if he’s just taking his time or he’s trying to keep some stuff as closed? I’ll admit it’s been about a year since I even looked at code but I feel it, calling me to abandon all life except the glowing screen again.
Where’s the code? There’s only 9 commits to the backend and its only scaffold code. There’s not even activitypub?
Same with the app. Was this just a publicity stunt?
The Loops app certainly feels like it. Not to diminish a solo dev doing something on his own, but it just seems like a standard video player with like, comment, follow. Search feature is only by user; when you type a comment, it doesn’t wrap the text, it just moves horizontally until you post it. I think the feed is literally just a chronological list of every video posted, and for some reason, most of the videos I see on it are just like…atmospheric videos. Still camera, nature background, rain in someone’s backyard. People love the concept, but I don’t see how it’s anywhere near ready to compete for users like other options are right now.
The web UI has been teased for so long, too. I’m losing trust with dan. I mean im glad he found success with pixelfed, and i wouldn’t even have a problem with how long it takes loops; but he’s just dishonest. If he was more honest, transparent and open sourced the code early on i would’ve had no problem. But this? what is this?
I’m not a big Fediverse proponent, like…the concept is good, if not still a little young (activity pub isn’t ironed out across mediums and is still a bit jank in my opinion) but it seems a bit like a cash grab to be the savior dev making all the X-equivalent of Fediverse, and just hopefully something sticks. With PixelFed blowing up, feel like Loops is gonna take a back seat for quite a while.
Remember it’s a solo dev still. I guess a nice weekend project would be to create a new material3 app for it :)
Of course, my problem is just that he isn’t being transparent, and is dishonest. If he actually made the code open source, and did not get himself into controversy all time i wouldn’t mind him being a solo dev :)
A few days ago he posted (then I think deleted) this, which among other things makes me extremely inclined to not believe anything he says:
wtf? Thanks for sharing this, i didn’t know.
You’re welcome to grab the code and make something better.
the code he published is unusable…
Not even as a jumping off point? I’d have to get into it on my computer but it certainly looks like at least a partial build has been posted from poking around with my phone. Loops isn’t terribly complex.
not the backend, just boilerplate mostly
Yeah, I wonder if he’s just taking his time or he’s trying to keep some stuff as closed? I’ll admit it’s been about a year since I even looked at code but I feel it, calling me to abandon all life except the glowing screen again.