Goodbye, everyone
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.
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.
So sorry to hear that. Thankyou for your hard work
Thanks for everything. Wish you all the best.
Also sorry to hear this, it’s been a pleasure working with you and for what it’s worth I agree that the app should be designed for the general user first and foremost.
Thank you for creating the project and for bringing this herd of cats together, hopefully we can continue moving it forward and it doesn’t become only for tech-nerds 🤞
I hope that you stay well and get back to having fun on your other projects - if you ever want to catch up give me a shout, but I’ll respect your request not to reach out
Take care,
Best of luck with your other apps, and I hope you find fulfillment in your future endeavors ❤️ ❤️
Oh man that sucks. I’ve been using mlem from the beginning since it’s nicer to browse from than the website. I hope this doesn’t sour your experience of this growing community and I hope you recognize your contributions to it and how many people you’ve helped get here.
Really enjoy the app, I bet there’s a hell of a lot of work behind it all. I don’t think the growth/success of Mlem should be seen as a bad thing but fair play for handing it over and letting it evolve.
Thank you for your contributions to this community, it's a shame it got to be such a big stressor in your life. Take your time and relax for a bit, your mental health is important
Best of luck with your other projects.
Sad it had to get to a place like this
Thanks for everything you've done. All the best
Sorry to hear this, your personal health is always the most important thing. I hope you can find fun in your other projects and thank you for your hard work.
Mlem has been great for me. I really appreciate the work you have done. I think Mlem was pretty clutch in helping me move from reddit and get cozy over here. I hope you are proud. Best of everything to you on your next endeavors!!!!!!!
Thanks for all of the effort you put in. Much appreciated.
Every community will have its toxicity. Sorry you were a target for trying to do something useful and helpful. Take care of yourself, first and foremost.
I don't know what to say. Take care of yourself. ❤️
That you for your work!
Sorry to hear that, i really enjoyed using the app. Thank you for your work! All the best to you, i hope you find joy in another project.
Yeah if you don’t enjoy the work don’t do it! Open source leaves its own legacy. You built the starting framework and thanks for that work! Now go chillax!
Take care!
Good call on looking out for yourself! It’s hard to recognize when cutting ties to a project is for the best.
Oh this is so unexpected. The excitement I felt at seeing Mlem move forward so quickly with so much support from its users was one of the things that inspired me to believe in Lemmy and to start working on Limbo. Thank you for your incredible work, and well done for having the insight and courage to step back when you needed to do so. Please take some time to look after yourself.
Thank you for your time!
It's been a good run, and best of luck with future endeavors. Mlem established a good standard of design and usability for others to strive to attain.
Thanks for all your work. Unfortunately some people can be very demanding to volunteers. I hope you will have a better time working on your other projects and won’t stop enjoying programming because of other people’s actions.
Well thanks for everything my dude, you’ve made a good app. Best of luck with future endeavors.
Thank you very much for your work creating mlem, and I wish you the very best!
Thank you so much for Mlem! As a developer myself, I was blown away by how good mlem was for version 0.0.1. I would hope that in the spirit of federated communities and open source software that people would be understanding of the time constraints and challenges of working on a personal project for the benefit of everyone. I’m truly saddened that a small minority of selfish users soured an otherwise great start to a sorely needed app. I am looking forward to your future projects and hope that this and other thank you messages show how much we appreciate you and what you selflessly gave to us.
Thank you for everything you've done.
Thank you for your work. Sorry this has ended for you so badly. I hope this, no doubt difficult, decision makes life better for you.
Thank you for you work. This app has the feeling that Apollo does, it’s clean and sharp.
Thank you so much for that!
Sad to see you go, but when a personal project becomes a little too personal or infuriating it’s the right call to cut ties
I really thought we’d have more time to interact as I started contributing, I got really confused when I saw your last commit. Now it all makes a lot more sense
I wish you many more enjoyable projects (and even for the less enjoyable ones I wish they would be as successful as Mlem will or even more)
Sincerely, thank you.
Takes care man, no worries!
It's a shame that a few bad apples managed to make you feel that way. Nevertheless, thank you for making this app; it was amazing at what it did. Good luck on your future projects!
Thank you!!
I wish you all the best.
Sorry to hear this. I love the Mlem interface and thought it was one of the Lemmy apps that had the most potential for iOS. But thank you for allowing others to carry on your work. Best of luck.
Sorry to hear that. Really sucks to see a passion project turn into a source of stress. I hope you come back to Mlem again after things have cooled down a bit. Mlem is your creation, you should always have a say on it. You’re a bigger man than I am. I would have made my repository private instead of turning it over to somebody else. You don’t owe this community anything else.
Thank you very much for introducing Lemmy on iOS. That was one of the reasons a lot of people could start considering switching from Reddit to Lemmy in the first place.
What a huge loss for the community. The one thing we need now is simple and approachable to attract users. Wishing you all the best in the future.
Thanks for the hard work and keep well. Stepping away is always difficult, also when it is the right thing for you.
Sad to hear and let’s see how Mlem develops. I was not happy with some recent changes so let’s see …
Thank you for all that you have done for this community. Wishing you all the best in your future endeavors.
As someone that currently works in a typical nine-to-five that I loathe, I sympathize. Fair winds and following seas on your next endeavor(s).
Sad to see you leave the project. Very grateful you open sourced it and allowed others to carry on the work. It will be interesting to see how Mlem and Memmy compete to build better applications.
This is why I make my repos private till major releases, know the feeling
To add context here: it seems like this wasn’t even discussed with the other developers, Brooklyn seems just as confused and lost with this announcement
Then adding the line “don’t contact me” seems just a very strange way to close the message.
I’m all for protecting mental health and if not working on this app will help contribute to his well being then that is supported. The message itself, however, isn’t delivered well and could be handled in a more responsible manner.
Add to it that he stated the app would be live for another 2 days, then removed from testflight. And it’s already removed. With no real communication to the other developers, who seem to be hearing this only from this thread.
I understand where you are coming from. Having exit plans in place and knowing how to trigger them before it’s too late is a skill and a valuable one.
But not everyone learns this skill or that it’s important. I wouldn’t be surprised if most don’t, especially amongst that would benefit the most from it. I have learnt its importance the hard way and too late in life for it to really matter much.
I’m this case, it seems they were burnt out and trying to cope rather than pivot and so the end was calamitous.
It’s sad and destructive, but I’d ask you to try to respect that in all likelihood they probably did their very best to the point that it hurt them. And that jumping ship dramatically and unexpectedly, while annoyingly disruptive, tends to shake out well so long as they don’t take anything down with them (which, given the transfers, seems to be the case here). This, sadly, comes with the territory of people pushing themselves on voluntary passion projects for the rest of us to enjoy.
Is the author quite early in their career?
The reference to their code not being accepted screams imposter syndrome. Which is really common in junior developers.
The stuff about not being heard and not being involved in project management. Comes off as a junior who lacks the confidence to assert themselves or a senior who hasn't made the senior -> tech lead transition.
One of the big junior -> senior lessons is learning when to ask for help. A junior feeling completely overwhelmed not wanting to bother people is a fairly common problem.
Yo wtf?