> keeping track of exactly which taxes apply and which don't to who, from 3,143 counties and 19,495 cities isn't a trivial thing to do.
I don't see this isn't a legitimate beef. If you can't comply with local regulations because you serve too many municipalities it sounds like you aren't a good fit to serve those customers. Perhaps the solution is to sell your infrastructure off to smaller, local companies who can comply. Or heck even just other equally big companies who are well run enough to manage such a problem.
FYI, I used to live in DC (and frequent the Reddit community) and I've never heard of the community you linked. Apparently it's a split from the original with only 8k subscribers:
I'd bet there's quite a bit of overlap between the group of users who felt they were over moderated on the original DC community and those that disapprove of these types of regulations.
I am an Android user so I don't know Apollo but I too am a huge RIF fan -- it's the only way I consume Reddit. I also agree with GP statement, I wish I could use the RIF app as a HN reader.
What makes Apollo a "truly special app?" in your opinion?
The TL;DR is that it's so good, it increased my time on Reddit by 10x or more versus using the website. I had to delete it because it was such a joy to use, it's all I wanted to spend my free time on.
More specifically, just a few things: 1) lovely UI design with proper adherence to iOS human interface guidelines, 2) useful customization, 3) flawless performance throughout, 4) gesture support which translates into being able to sift through a lot of content and conversations, 5) complex native (performant!) in-app support for many media types hosted on all types of 3rd party sites, 6) and just all around thoughtful and thorough support for the entire Reddit platform and its features.
All of this executed extremely well by just one person. Frankly, an inspiration and should be championed here.
Not to dunk on Apollo since it is excellent on iOS, but Boost on Android has all those things. It also has a tablet UI, moderator support, and a "gallery" masonry view that is a joy to use. Last I checked, Apollo has neither an iPad UI nor a masonry post view.
(I have also deleted Boost many times to control my usage.)
AFAIK, Apollo also has extensive moderator support (I'm not a mod so I can't speak to it but fairly confident it exists) but yeah, no iPad support which really sucks.
I took a look at Boost and it's really nice! Looks extremely similar to Apollo to the point that I think they may have just duplicated the Apollo app on Android and this is not a bad thing at all. I was considering doing the same for HN.
I believe GP was describing the [Land Value Tax](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax). The idea being that a government invests in the infrastructure that improves the value of the land and because it's _public_ money funding those improvements, the property taxes should reflect the value provided.
No one would be forcing people to live a certain way, just forcing them to either pay for the privilege of living in an area that was granted public funding for improved infrastructure, or live somewhere else that received less public investment.
As a thought experiment, I find it easiest to understand the arguments for the Land Value Tax if you imagine a local government building a new subway line. Obviously, the existing homes around the new stops would have their property values increased. After all, many commute times were just cut in half! The local government is interested in more people living near those lines, more people == more tax revenue after all. If the local government had a Land Value Tax implemented, the infrastructure improvements they made to the area would automatically be included in the calculation for the taxes owed by the existing homeowners near the new subway stops. $1M/yr may sound insane, and it would be for a single-family home, but because of the new subway line, local developers are lining up to purchase the homes around that line in order to build new higher-density homes. The existing homeowners can either choose to pay the high tax and enjoy their short commute paid for by other taxpayers, or sell at a nice profit to developers. New higher-density homes get built, more taxpayers move in, the city can now build more infrastructure to improve the city!
But now where did the idea that the land that is privately owned being subsidized by the public? That’s an arbitrary add on that doesn’t reflect any reality in the US. So again, it’s changing the system to match another’s ideals on how people should live.
>Everything about it says "throwaway add-on" that they haven't spent any real time on optimizing.
Maybe this is a little unfair considering it was only a beta. Isn't a cornerstone of agile to get an MVP in front of users and iterate on user feedback? It doesn't seem right to judge any software based on a beta experience alone.
I don't see this isn't a legitimate beef. If you can't comply with local regulations because you serve too many municipalities it sounds like you aren't a good fit to serve those customers. Perhaps the solution is to sell your infrastructure off to smaller, local companies who can comply. Or heck even just other equally big companies who are well run enough to manage such a problem.