I believe Gluon will not be available on the App Store from Sunday onwards until I manage to pay the dev renewal 🤣

@vincent I didn’t think they remove the app, I just thought you couldn’t post new versions.

@JoeCotellese I’ll find out next week 😋

@vincent @joecotellese Apple will remove the app if a developer account isn’t current. It’s really annoying for the longevity of old apps.

@manton "Only at Apple"

@vincent Do they not recognize how hostile this is? Not just to the developer, but to every customer of the app? Or maybe they don’t care.

Installed apps continue working, but I just lost several apps by buying a new phone. They don’t get backed up with my data. 😡

@fgtech Apple has, and always will be, hostile.

@vincent Modern Apple, yes. I have been around long enough to remember a kinder, gentler Apple. The company used to have a soul.

@fgtech agree with you there. That soul is gone… and it’s people like us that try and hold on to it, to see a better light at the end of that dark abyss.

@vincent How much does it cost? Isn't Gluon a free app for the user?

@Ron It's 99 USD per year.

@sod Thanks for the answer. So Vincent has produced free software for people to create & post to their blog on microblog and then he also gets to pay $99 to Apple on top of that. It seems to me that Manton would pay that for Vincent, as Manton is the only person who will benefit financially from people having a Gluon blog.

I would happily send money to Vincent, but I've never been able to get Gluon to run on my Android phone. I guess I could try again. All I get is a blank screen.

@Ron that's very kind and I really appreciate it. However it's ok. At the end of the day it is me that chooses to give away the app for free. I don't think it would be very popular if it was a paid one... Plus I'm holding off to charge anything as I'm awaiting regulatory changes so I can own the whole payment flow and not have to give up about 30% to the richest company in the world.

For me this arrangement is good, plus I get to work with Manton now a few days every month. So in that sense Gluon, indirectly, does make a little bit of money.

This slight problem I have has been coming for months and it's just a waiting game now (just the way client work landed)... I can only do so much and I don't want to loose the bigger picture of where I want to go. I am patient, I don't mind if I loose out for a few days.

@vincent Okay, as you wish.

But I have some good news. I'm writing this with Gluon!! I decided to try it again, so I did an update from the Google play store, or whatever they call it. When I was done with the update, I got the blank screen again. The sequence is a little vague in my memory, but somehow I closed the app and then clicked on the Gluon icon again and the microblog time line came up!!

I wrote you an earlier message but I did something wrong and my message in progress disappeared. I couldn't get microblog back again. So I put it aside for some hours and closed the Gluon window on my phone.

Now I came back and clicked on the Gluon icon again. At first I got the blank screen again, but I fiddled around with it and got the time line and started this message. I'm gonna send it off to you now and not push my luck. 😃 Ron