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cedws 6 seconds ago [-]
Why is astrology banned on the app store? If people want to believe in BS let them. Weird to police this but not say, any of the apps related to creationism.
Aurornis 4 hours ago [-]
> In an uncomfortable exchange between Beher and Godier on Bluesky, Beher pointed out that Godier’s Dark Hours had the same bug as Beher’s that routed people to “random fields in Mexico”.
Stealing an open source repo and launching it as your own app is a brazen move. Launching it with the same name as the original repo is just flagrant.
This guy thought he was going to ride this controversy to some free publicity for himself, using other people’s work. He flew too close to the sun and got caught out on every level.
Hate to see people fall for the “fewer restrictions == more Free” fallacy. Profit-driven entities love when smart people publish MIT code that they can feed off of without giving anything back.
Nor is the copycat project prevented from using the name without a trademark. For instance one couldn't repackage Mozilla or Blender under those names:
Can confirm. I used to hate when people published their code under MIT instead of GPL. But now that I work at a startup that competes with a few open source offerings, I love having Claude check in on their progress and port the content over.
swiftcoder 3 hours ago [-]
> Stealing an open source repo and launching it as your own app is a brazen move
Do you think he stole it directly, or an LLM reproduced it complete with existing bugs?
user43928 3 hours ago [-]
I very much doubt an LLM is going to do that without explicitly being prompted to do so.
oneeyedpigeon 2 hours ago [-]
Whether he stole it directly, by doing the 'work', or indirectly via an LLM, stealing it is wrong. If you generate something using an LLM, you have a responsibility to ensure you're not infringing on someone else's work.
ogou 7 hours ago [-]
And that is how you handle things like this. He ponied up and took the hit. More importantly, he gave the back story. After years of reading so many circular psuedo-responsibility posts (by others) trying to squirm out of awkward situations, it's refreshing to see his thoroughness.
ventana 6 hours ago [-]
This is the right way to handle the situation like that, and kudos to the author for writing the second post.
This is also a reminder that people lie or just hide some part of the story all the time, and we as readers should question every story if it only presents an opinion of one side, and not the other's.
That being said, hearing Apple's own opinion is probably not what we could reasonably expect.
user43928 2 hours ago [-]
When it comes to Google and Apple's mobile app stores, I generally assume the worst.
I have only published for Android before, and maybe Apple is running its store somewhat better.
Google is shameless. They extort a 15%/30% revenue cut from developers, and they do not hire competent staff.
Pay them $10k, and in case your app is rejected, get an automated email with a link to the TOS.
The appeal process? "Computer says No".
Admittedly I have not encountered this personally, but all reports I have seen paint this picture.
What I did face is when trying to close my Google Play Developer account: they will just not let me do it.
You'd think this would be trivial, but all I received from support were requests I update and bring into compliance a free app removed nearly a decade ago. In order to transfer it to a new account.
Only then will they graciously permit me to close my Google Play Developer account.
springtimesun 6 hours ago [-]
I have not that many things in life that I try to live by.
One is that when presented with contradictory evidence, evaluate it honestly and, if you evaluate it to be correct, in full or in part, change your belief freely and without apology.
The other is when you decide you have made a mistake, say so plainly and openly.
They often go together, but not always. I can’t speak to the author’s belief, but I will file this article under Epistles from Gruber to the internet because it is an inspiration to me.
1123581321 6 hours ago [-]
Good retraction. The plagiarism part further down in the article shouldn't be missed. The developer has significant character issues.
lapcat 4 minutes ago [-]
Terry Godier has just published a so-called "Mea Culpa" blaming Claude for cloning the open source app and denying foreknowledge.
There's no mention of or apology for how Godier deceived Gruber and the world about the astronomy/astrology App Store submission/rejection.
> Note: the original version of this post had a section here about an astronomy app I am working on that began as an astrology app and was rejected after having the astrology content removed. App store [sic] review reached out to me and let me know that they had apparently never been given the updated build and that the app should be fine to submit now.
So did the submitter submit the updated build, but it somehow never made it through Apple's process and thus was never looked at by the app store reviewer? Because that's also a bad look for Apple of "we rejected your app by mistake because we looked at the wrong version, not the new one you submitted".
Aurornis 4 hours ago [-]
Daring Fireball is doubtful:
> Whether Godier ever submitted a build of “Asterly” to the App Store that contained no occult horseshit and only the hard-science astronomy features that were present in his “Dark Hours” website that was available for the last week, I don’t know. But I have no reason to believe that he did.
His original submission was an astrology app. He then stole someone else’s open source repo, reskinned it, and tried to pass it off as his own app.
He is not a trustworthy person. He was trying to manipulate and deceive. I see no reason to point fingers at Apple for this.
He was trying to leverage anti-Apple sentiment for free publicity for himself and he thought nobody would notice that he stole the app and, brazenly, the name “Dark Hours” from someone’s open source project.
firasd 5 hours ago [-]
This is basically the Bill Clinton move ('is there a relationship' can be parsed differently from 'was there a relationship')...
Is there astrology in this app? No. Was there..? Yes. And the person complaining skipped mentioning that detail about their app
DonHopkins 4 hours ago [-]
As Wiggy Rockstone, teenage cavegirl and astrology enthusiast, would exclaim in her melifluously operatic voice: "Oh, my stars! Starrific!"
I worry there will be another retraction on this post since it seems like a miscommunication occurred rather than having someone outright lie.
Aurornis 4 hours ago [-]
I doubt it. Did you read until the end where it was discovered that the new web app this person put up was plagiarized from an open source repo? He even used the same name “Dark Hours” as the open source project. The original author called him out on it and identified a unique bug that came from his code.
This guy appears to be a serial liar.
addandsubtract 49 minutes ago [-]
Journalism is a art. Maybe, instead of taking tweets at face value, "journalists" can take 5 minutes to send an email or make a phone call to verify their sources. Otherwise, these articles are just ragebait. Good on him for posting this retraction, though.
joshstrange 38 minutes ago [-]
Did you read the blog post? He exchanged private messages with the person, had been talking/following them for a while, and even sent a copy of the article before posting.
The author was led astray and thought they had done their verification. It’s hard when your primary source is lying/misleading you.
We could only be so lucky to have main stream news offer such a full-throated apology/retraction when they get it wrong.
Stealing an open source repo and launching it as your own app is a brazen move. Launching it with the same name as the original repo is just flagrant.
This guy thought he was going to ride this controversy to some free publicity for himself, using other people’s work. He flew too close to the sun and got caught out on every level.
It's in poor taste for sure but let's not pretend that the chosen license is doing him any favors: https://github.com/mbeher2200/DarkHours/blob/813cf85/LICENSE
Hate to see people fall for the “fewer restrictions == more Free” fallacy. Profit-driven entities love when smart people publish MIT code that they can feed off of without giving anything back.
Nor is the copycat project prevented from using the name without a trademark. For instance one couldn't repackage Mozilla or Blender under those names:
- https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=75558938&caseSearchType=U...
- https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=85852073&caseSearchType=U...
Do you think he stole it directly, or an LLM reproduced it complete with existing bugs?
This is also a reminder that people lie or just hide some part of the story all the time, and we as readers should question every story if it only presents an opinion of one side, and not the other's.
That being said, hearing Apple's own opinion is probably not what we could reasonably expect.
I have only published for Android before, and maybe Apple is running its store somewhat better.
Google is shameless. They extort a 15%/30% revenue cut from developers, and they do not hire competent staff.
Pay them $10k, and in case your app is rejected, get an automated email with a link to the TOS.
The appeal process? "Computer says No".
Admittedly I have not encountered this personally, but all reports I have seen paint this picture.
What I did face is when trying to close my Google Play Developer account: they will just not let me do it.
You'd think this would be trivial, but all I received from support were requests I update and bring into compliance a free app removed nearly a decade ago. In order to transfer it to a new account.
Only then will they graciously permit me to close my Google Play Developer account.
One is that when presented with contradictory evidence, evaluate it honestly and, if you evaluate it to be correct, in full or in part, change your belief freely and without apology.
The other is when you decide you have made a mistake, say so plainly and openly.
They often go together, but not always. I can’t speak to the author’s belief, but I will file this article under Epistles from Gruber to the internet because it is an inspiration to me.
There's no mention of or apology for how Godier deceived Gruber and the world about the astronomy/astrology App Store submission/rejection.
https://blog.terrygodier.com/2026/08/09/mea-culpa-dark-hours...
> Note: the original version of this post had a section here about an astronomy app I am working on that began as an astrology app and was rejected after having the astrology content removed. App store [sic] review reached out to me and let me know that they had apparently never been given the updated build and that the app should be fine to submit now.
So did the submitter submit the updated build, but it somehow never made it through Apple's process and thus was never looked at by the app store reviewer? Because that's also a bad look for Apple of "we rejected your app by mistake because we looked at the wrong version, not the new one you submitted".
> Whether Godier ever submitted a build of “Asterly” to the App Store that contained no occult horseshit and only the hard-science astronomy features that were present in his “Dark Hours” website that was available for the last week, I don’t know. But I have no reason to believe that he did.
His original submission was an astrology app. He then stole someone else’s open source repo, reskinned it, and tried to pass it off as his own app.
He is not a trustworthy person. He was trying to manipulate and deceive. I see no reason to point fingers at Apple for this.
He was trying to leverage anti-Apple sentiment for free publicity for himself and he thought nobody would notice that he stole the app and, brazenly, the name “Dark Hours” from someone’s open source project.
Is there astrology in this app? No. Was there..? Yes. And the person complaining skipped mentioning that detail about their app
https://flintstones.fandom.com/wiki/Wiggy_Rockstone
This guy appears to be a serial liar.
The author was led astray and thought they had done their verification. It’s hard when your primary source is lying/misleading you.
We could only be so lucky to have main stream news offer such a full-throated apology/retraction when they get it wrong.