Is Fountain App broken? \ stacker news ~tech

567 sats \ 22 comments \ @BitByBit21 13 Nov 2023 tech

I've been using Fountain for a long time and it's become my go-to app for podcasts. I really like many of its functionalities as I can support podcasters, boost good content all while earning some sweet sweet sats and giving back some of it.

I know it's still buggy and their developer team is small so it's still far from perfect. However, I've recently noticed that some of their issues are persistent and don't seem to be properly handled.

For instance, I can spend days, weeks or even months without getting any earnings, even for promoted content. Also, their LNURL withdrawals almost never work for me, even for small amounts and using different wallets.

I've tried several solutions, such as reinstalling, logging out, turning off my VPN and even using a different account to no avail. I've tried to reach their support team but I I get no reply from them.

Is anyone else experiencing this kind of issues or do you have any piece of advice?

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4622 sats \ 10 replies \ @MerryOscar 16 Nov 2023

Hey guys - Oscar here from Fountain,

First off I want to apologise for any issues - we are a small team just me and one other developer and sometimes it can take some time to get to issues reported. For example we've had over 8000 support tickets in the past 2 years... 🤯

Anyway I wanted to address each point in turn but first I'd also like to mention for the past 3 months we've been working on Fountain 1.0 which is a complete redesign of the app to address design, ux, and functionality that will make the app even easier to use. The 1.0 release is almost ready - if you'd like to help beta test it before general release please join our telegram group here - https://t.me/+ZMnGthLREYQ3N2Rk

Onto the specific issues...

earnings - our earnings features are not some unsustainable marketing gimmick that we use just to attract new users. We strongly believe that users of Fountain provide amazing signal of what episodes are worth listening to and as such should be rewarded in a fun way and that's what the daily rewards are designed to do. Having said that we need this to be sustainable and as such the rewards are funded by our transaction fees and promotions fees. As we've grown over the past year we have had a lot more users and as such the pool of rewards per user is less which is why you've probably noticed less rewards. I'll also note that we have deliberately not focussed on building out the earnings features so we can focus on the listener experience, design, and ux to make Fountain the best podcast listening experience first - this is what the Fountain 1.0 release is all about and I'm really excited for you all to see it. Once Fountain 1.0 is out we are going to work on the earnings features some more and have some really cool ideas for how we can improve it and increase the rewards.

@BitByBit21 lnurl withdrawals - I regularly use the LNURl Withdraw feature although recognise that this being the only withdrawal option is not ideal. Can you please let me know the wallet you tried withdrawing to that failed?

@benwehrman forward/backward skip buttons are super lagged - this is fixed already and will be available in Fountain 1.0 which should be live in the next couple of weeks. Since it's such a big release some of the bug fixes over the past few weeks haven't been applied to the 0.8.x version that's currently live on the app stores.

@siggy47 my fear is the app isn't making it financially - the best thing you can do to support Fountain is sign up to our premium subscription. Only around 4% of our users sign up for premium and whilst we can probably increase this by introducing the kind of annoying feature-blocking features that Spotify use to push you to premium - we also want to make the free experience great. I believe between our premium subscription and transaction fees we have a solid business model - but again if we don't deliver an amazing listening experience we won't drive either of these and that's why we're so focused on it for Fountain 1.0.

@grayruby they don't seem to be getting advertisers anymore - we do have a large number of podcasters promoting their shows on Fountain and they are seeing great results.

@BitcoinIsTheFuture battery drain - this should already be massively improved in the current live version 0.8.6 - but 1.0 has even more optimisations to the underlying podcast library database on the device which should improve things even more. Are you still experiencing the battery issue on 0.8.6?

@nkmg1c_ventures does Fountain take any fees from streamers / tippers? - yes we charge a 4% fee for all boosts / streams. If you sign up to premium the fee is reduced to 1%. We also change a 20% fee for all promotions.

Thank you to everyone who shared feedback in this thread - it's really helpful and for anyone else that wants to share issues / feedback / bugs / feature requests - please reply somewhere on this post and I will give you my response and try and get what you want into Fountain 1.0.

Thanks again for all your support! 🙏

381 sats \ 2 replies \ @benwehrman 16 Nov 2023

This is awesome @MerryOscar, appreciate you taking the time to address all of these! Strongly second @siggy47's notion that we are all stoked to support your mission, and all of our feedback comes from a place of love 💛

Just joined the Telegram. Looking forward to updates!

One last question, as you mentioned podcasters' Fountain promotion is a big part of the advertising plan. Is there a plan in place for how affiliate links/referral program will work on Fountain 1.0? As someone who recently launched a podcast, I'd personally dedicate a lot more recording time + description space to promote Fountain if there was a clear reward for doing so.

71 sats \ 1 reply \ @MerryOscar 16 Nov 2023

Thank you really appreciate it 🙏

on referrals - this is definitely a big part of how we see the earnings features developing - as I mentioned we're focussed on getting Fountain 1.0 released and once that's done we'll look at referrals / earnings again more deeply - I think there's a lot of opportunity there!

105 sats \ 0 replies \ @benwehrman 16 Nov 2023

Awesome, looking forward to it!

201 sats \ 1 reply \ @siggy47 16 Nov 2023

Thanks very much for this lengthy, detailed response. I think I speak for many here in saying that we are rooting for you. Personally I continue to use fountain as my one and only podcast app. I look forward to the new release, and best wishes.

333 sats \ 0 replies \ @MerryOscar 16 Nov 2023

Thank you 🙏

105 sats \ 1 reply \ @BitByBit21 OP 16 Nov 2023

Hi Oscar. Thank you very much for taking the time to read and reply to all this questions in such a detailed manner. It really shows your commitment to this amazing project.

I'm happy to know that you're working on these issues and that you'll keep providing great value with your app.

My particular issue with LNURL withdrawals was using Blue Wallet and Thunderhub. However it would be great to have other LN withdrawals methods as well!

Keep up the good work and looking forward to trying the coming Fountain 1.0!

23 sats \ 0 replies \ @MerryOscar 16 Nov 2023

ok thanks will check these for you - my go to wallet is Phoenix which works really reliably for me

appreciate the support!

84 sats \ 0 replies \ @BitcoinIsTheFuture 16 Nov 2023

Thanks for taking the time to provide feedback Oscar.

84 sats \ 0 replies \ @grayruby 16 Nov 2023

Thanks Oscar. Appreciate you addressing these issues. My point about advertisers wasn't in regards to podcasts promoting their shows. I know you have a lot of those, I try to listen as many as I can to support the shows that are trying to support the value for value model. I was referring to the brands/companies that you used to have advertising. I even heard stacker news ads.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @nym 23 Nov 2023

The small team size might be a challenge for handling user feedback and technical issues efficiently. Engaging more with the user community for beta testing and feedback seems like a positive step towards refinement.

402 sats \ 0 replies \ @benwehrman 13 Nov 2023

Gotta give them props, I DM'd Oscar directly asking for 3x speed a couple years back and they added that specifically on my request.

But agreed there's work to be done. The main thing holding me back is the forward/backward skip buttons are super lagged--you can't press it 3 times quickly, you have to wait a half second in between presses. If you don't, sometimes it skips all the way back to 00:00, which is quite annoying.

But happy to be patient. I love what they're doing with LN, so confident the final product once all the kinks are worked out will be well worth the wait.

303 sats \ 4 replies \ @siggy47 13 Nov 2023

I was just thinking about this while listening this morning. A week or two back they had a double earning weekend. That was the first sats I earned there in a while. My fear is the app isn't making it financially. I don't think they can afford much in the way of earnings any more. I hope I'm wrong. I also hope this isn't a reflection on the whole value for value model.

189 sats \ 0 replies \ @grayruby 13 Nov 2023

They don't seem to be getting advertisers anymore. They still have promotional episodes but I haven't seen an ad in awhile when there used to be ads to listen to daily. Not sure if that is by choice on their end of lack of interest by advertisers.

66 sats \ 1 reply \ @BitcoinIsTheFuture 13 Nov 2023

This. I think that is what’s going on. The battery drain issue is still there too. I don’t think they have many staff

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nkmg1c_ventures 13 Nov 2023

Does Fountain take any fees from streamers / tippers? Is it an operating funds issue?

42 sats \ 0 replies \ @BitByBit21 OP 13 Nov 2023

Hopefully not.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @carlosfandango 13 Nov 2023

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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @fm 13 Nov 2023

I use the app daily with almost no bugs.. truth is the rewards have dropped a lot, but there are few tricks to catch the sats

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @td 13 Nov 2023

Agree, it's good and like concept but very much on the brink of going back to something reliable.

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @BitcoinIsTheFuture 13 Nov 2023

I think so same issues. Can’t remove sats. App keeps crashing barely any sats streamed when the app doesn’t crash. I’m done with it until they fix it

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @BitByBit21 OP 13 Nov 2023

Yeah, constant crashing is a big issue as well.