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Retraction: The App Store Rejection of the Week That Was a Correct Rejection
Thread for original post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49214863 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49214863
- decimalenough 2mo agoDiscussion of the original blog post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49214863 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49214863
- ogou 2mo agoAnd 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 2mo agoThis 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 2mo agoWhen 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.
- 1123581321 2mo agoGood retraction. The plagiarism part further down in the article shouldn't be missed. The developer has significant character issues.
- springtimesun 2mo agoI 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.
- haburka 2mo agoI worry there will be another retraction on this post since it seems like a miscommunication occurred rather than having someone outright lie.
- Aurornis 2mo agoI 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.
- gilrain 2mo agoBe careful — you’re a mark.
- firasd 2mo agoThis 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
- NetMageSCW 2mo agoIt isn’t even the same app so that isn’t available.
- Doohickey-d 2mo agoOne interesting thing: > 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 2mo agoDaring 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.
- DonHopkins 2mo agoAs Wiggy Rockstone, teenage cavegirl and astrology enthusiast, would exclaim in her melifluously operatic voice: "Oh, my stars! Starrific!" https://flintstones.fandom.com/wiki/Wiggy_Rockstone https://flintstones.fandom.com/wiki/Wiggy_Rockstone
- Aurornis 2mo 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.
- swiftcoder 2mo 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 2mo agoI very much doubt an LLM is going to do that without explicitly being prompted to do so.
- swiftcoder 2mo agoIt is what he claims happened: https://blog.terrygodier.com/2026/08/09/mea-culpa-dark-hours.html https://blog.terrygodier.com/2026/08/09/mea-culpa-dark-hours...
- user43928 2mo agoCurious. My money is on that guy lying again. If anyone ever had AI copy an entire open source project accidentally, I would be interested to hear it. Even the widely shared reports about specific snippets being reproduced relied on the user intentionally prompting for it.
- tiagod 2mo agoHonestly, after being caught lying already, it's hard to believe him.
- addandsubtract 2mo ago[flagged]
- joshstrange 2mo agoDid 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.
- neuroticnews25 2mo agoWait, are we all treating "astrology is banned on app store" as an obvious fact of life? Did I miss some culture war? Are religion-focused apps also banned? EDIT Thank you all, I'll now go search for something else to be triggered by.
- mplanchard 2mo agoSee the footnote in TFA
- Limb 2mo agoThe footnote in the article explains why astrology type apps are effectively "banned" https://daringfireball.net/2026/08/retraction_app_store_rejection_of_the_week#fn1-2026-08-08 https://daringfireball.net/2026/08/retraction_app_store_reje...
- goda90 2mo agoFootnote in TFA: >Regardless of one’s opinion regarding pseudoscience and occultist horseshit — pro, con, or indifferent — one might reasonably think it wrong for Apple to disallow or discourage such apps from the App Store. In fact, there exist plenty of such apps in the App Store, and Apple has even run “Best Astrology Apps” editorial features. Apple’s stance is basically that the App Store has enough of these apps (and I suspect they’re a common source of scams, given that by their very nature they target the gullible). Guideline 4.3(b) states (emphasis added): >> Certain kinds of apps, such as dating, flashlight, sound effects, wallpaper, simple timers, and fortune telling, are well established on the App Store and we will not accept new submissions unless they offer a meaningfully different or improved experience. We may remove these apps from the App Store going forward if they are not updated, improved, or do not attract customers. Other kinds of apps, such as drinking games, Kama Sutra, fart, and burp apps, are mediocre, low-quality, or low-effort and do not add value to the App Store.
- lapcat 2mo agoTerry 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. https://blog.terrygodier.com/2026/08/09/mea-culpa-dark-hours.html https://blog.terrygodier.com/2026/08/09/mea-culpa-dark-hours...
- robertjpayne 2mo agoHis word is worthless. Especially given that Gruber gave him a draft of the publication and he didn't feel the need to correct any details. Perhaps Claude did just find the repo and reproduce it without any prompt, but also the name? Yea hmm, like 99% sure Claude would've mentioned where the majority of the project came from.
- zbentley 2mo ago> like 99% sure Claude would've mentioned where the majority of the project came from. I doubt that. I’ve seen it produce thousands of lines of code or text with like a 2% string distance from something available online and not attribute it. Multiple times.
- gilrain 2mo agoAnyone who trusts Terry Godier after this is a fool.
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- cedws 2mo agoWhy 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.
- jdlshore 2mo agoIt’s because the category is saturated, not because of the content.
- owebmaster 2mo agoSo I guess browsers category is also satured and we just get to accept?
- nickthegreek 2mo agoThere are way more astrology apps than browsers. Like the numbers aren’t even close. I would love to live in a world with that much browser choice!!
- owebmaster 2mo agoExactly my point. Just safari was enough for Apple to call it saturated.
- springtimesun 2mo agoVery clever. You might have said "browser engine" to be more precise and avoid the child comments misunderstanding, but Apple deserves this burn.
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