I will no longer be working on Mlem.
I started it a year and a half ago when I needed to take my mind off pain from surgery. And I always intended it to be a personal protect that would help me relax.
With the current development of the app, I no longer find being a part of the project relaxing or fun.
I’m not doing any coding anymore, since it’s all done by much more talented and experienced people. If I tried to contribute to my app now, as an outsider, I would be rejected. I’m also not doing much project management. I feel like I don’t have much voice in the development anymore.
I’m also getting backlash for trying to make the app accessible to the average person as opposed to just tech nerds, and it’s not worth the stress. This is happening mostly in my DMs (the other developers are not doing this, so please don’t go after them. They are very nice and would never do this), since some elements of this and Mastodon community don’t have the balls to face me in public.
These are just some of the many reasons I found working on the app for the last few weeks frustrating. Ever since the app exploded in popularity and the community grew, I can say that even thinking about working on Mlem made me instantly angry, annoyed and just overall pissed off.
It’s just not worth it anymore.
The current TestFlight version will keep working for two more days, after which I will erase the app from the App Store. Until then, someone from the team will have given you a new link. I have also transferred the app’s source code to a new owner.
I have released a new version just before posting this, and it’s the last version I have any influence on. The community will continue working on the app.
I will focus on my other apps, which will hopefully not become like Mlem.
Enjoy life, and don’t try to contact me.
I had no idea you felt this way, and I’m so very sorry for anything I said or did. I wish so very much you had felt you could have told me-- us… any of this. I would have done anything I could to… accommodate any wishes you had, to get you to stay.
we’ll miss you vey much, David.
Sad to hear, but personal psychic health is important! Thank you so much for the work you have put in so far!
I’m really sorry to hear that… its really unfair for people to put so much stress on you for what should be essentially a fun project you do in your free time. I’m also hitting a high-score of unread github notifications (900+), and I have to take a ton of piano-breaks, and de-stress in any way I can.
Anyways, thank you for all you’ve done making mlem, put yourself and your own mental well-being first, and take care.
There is unfortunately a culture of entitlement and harassment that is absolutely pervasive on the internet. There’s a special kind of tech harassment and entitlement which emerged on the internet from stackflow, github and other major websites which put up with people grandstanding their ideals and shitting on other people who don’t have enough experience or are asking simple questions or demanding changes or hijacking reports to share one’s own ideals which lead to nice people like OP simply leaving these spaces.
Please think twice before demanding something of a developer, and admin, a moderator. Think about what you’re putting out into the world. There’s another human behind that screen, extend them a little faith. Ask yourself what you can do to help, before demanding something of others.
Even well-intended messages can be suffocating. All it takes is an explosion in popularity due to circumstances outside your control (like we’re seeing here), and suddenly you’re inundated with GitHub issues, PRs, conversations, important decisions, critical incidents that need a response and so on. Even if you’re full-time on it and salaried (which most open source devs aren’t), you simply can’t keep up with the volume - dozens, hundreds or thousands of other contributors trying to contact you, debating every aspect of your decisions, technical and social. The toll on mental health can be significant, especially to those personalities who like to stay organised and on top of things.
As a non-coding user on TestFlight / Memmy, I feel bad sending in errors and functionality requests, because I assume that the devs are busy people, and I’m just happy that they’re working on things. This stuff is all SO new that I can’t imagine it’s anything other than a passion project to produce an app like this.
As part of the silent majority of Jerboa users, thank you for everything you do. I appreciate all your work on the app beyond words. Its so awesome.
Oof that’s sad to hear, understandable tho. I wish you all the best!
Thanks for your work, much luck in the future!
I really hope that you can find some joy in your other projects. I sincerely wish you all the best in the future!
Oh man, I am so sorry the joy has been sucked out by others. I wish you all the very best for your physical and mental health.
Thank you for bringing Mlem to life! And wish you all the best on your other projects and ones to come in the future!
Thank you brother. The app is one of the reasons many people is able to switch. That’s a legacy you left behind that everyone should be proud of you.
Project direction and requirements change. Stress isn’t what you are looking for, moving on is the best choice
Take care of yourself first, stick around to and just be a consumer of the platform is also okay
See you around in the new world of lemmy
This is so true for me too. Mlem will always be a part of my journey away from Reddit and towards a more open mind.
Your words are exactly why Notch, the creator of Minecraft sold Minecraft, and stopped all of his ongoing projects.
Also the reason Eric, developer of Stardew Valley, said his new game Haunted Chocolatier isn’t coming to mobile, because the mobile community is so insanely toxic and entitled.
People suck.
Mobile in particular? Hmm. Are there perhaps relatively few children on PC? Is that why?
Yea, the mobile community sends him death threats because the updates take longer to come out on mobile. He’s been so beaten down by it, that he decided to not release Haunted Chocolatier on mobile.
Pretty much everyone has a phone, so I’d assume it’s mostly children who don’t understand development and think he just needs to push a button to release it to all platforms at once.
Mobile tends to encourage more Skinner box gameplay, priming those who will be more obsessed than other platforms.
Thank you for everything, and sorry it became a sour experience. Most of all though, thank you for handing it over to others to continue! Too many projects just die; hopefully this one will live a long life.
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Huge loss for the community 😢
the app worked great for me, thanks for having it available during the most needed time to switch over to the lemmy. and it feels like just a few days ago. :) best of luck on your future endeavors.
It’s open source, right? As a dev I’ve got no problems contributing and spreading some workload. I’ll go check it out.
