So he made a social site, with a public API for third-party apps, and wrote his own app for it because it needed one. The app he wrote in React Native, a framework that lets you use JavaScript to make an app for both iOS and Android which uses native elements and sort of feels like a native app made specifically for the platform (it’s going to be slower and laggier, but not as much as a web app wrapped in a web view). The app was lacking in fit and finish (one gets the impression that he’s not primarily a mobile developer), with things like dark mode missing and annoyances such as navigation being a bit wonky, as well as the usual React Native jank. It works, but doesn’t feel slick or polished, let alone like the shot over the bow of Instagram it’s touted at. Which is understandable, and hopefully it’ll improve with ongoing development.

Then someone takes advantage of the open API for third-party apps and writes a native client that feels slicker and more polished. Dan takes it as a personal insult and loses his shit.

Lemmy had the same problems, mostly solved with some indexing and caching so far. It's gonna be fun when Lemmy needs to start partitioning and tiered storage, which it absolutely will when costs start to add up. Hosting an instance isn't getting cheaper