Yesterday, I was outside and wanted to post a picture.
So, I tried out Ecency again.
I didn't like it.
pro:
- Shows all votes, even below the hivemind HP cutoff.
- Can send 'native' notifications to my phone.
con:
- Spams my phone's notifications for completely unimportant dust-votes.
- uploading pictures gives no feedback, it happens in background, and finishes at some point, no way of telling when.
This is the main reason I tried using it: quick/easy access to my phone's gallery and upload. - Markdown for code-blocks gets ignored and displayed as a set of code-lines.
This isn't the same. I posted a block for a reason:
this is this
meanwhile: peakd parses even these indented bulletpoints beatifully.this is someting different - When I click on an Ecency notification, it sometimes opens a totally unrelated link.
- This morning, Ecency bricked itself completely (see screenshot above... it froze like that)
This also happened last time I tried it, years ago.
To be fair:
- my Android version isn't up-to-date.
- my Ecency version isn't up-to-date.
Conclusion
The most annoying part isn't necessarily Ecency's fault: I can't type on a smartphone keyboard. It's a mess. I pity the people who write long posts with their phone. I don't even know how they do it.
When trying to delete passages, I always end up clicking (fat-fingering) the wrong letters.
Yesterday, I accidentally deleted part of the image link and there was no undo button, so I had to erase the whole link and link the picture again.
That aside, the experience was still clunky.
Just like liketu, I want to like the app, but it simply doesn't do its job.
(I tried liketu after Hivefest Amsterdam and it also bricked itself)
Maybe I am just not hip to this smartphone stuff. I hate it.
I am sick of how updating works and that every new Android release slows down my phone more.
That all being said, peakd is going crazy, too. They are doing too much.
Just look at the market app they built: The UX is overengineered so that even such a simple thing as an order book has me confused and I have to double-check everything.
(The other day, I confused buy and sell order side)
I have no better solution. UX/UI stuff is really hard, sometimes.
All I want is:
- upload picture(s)
- write title
- write some context
- check a preview
- send
I'll update all the software and give it another try, when I am not outside in the rain and in a better mood and more patient.
TL;DR:
I suck at using Android (phone) apps.
I wanted Ecency to simplify the experience not make it more annoying than it already is on desktop.
I'll try again, because it still is the best option for mobile (?)