My App Is Dead in the Water
Edit 11/20/18: Hacker News Zero has been approved! It seems like the attention this article got had some sort of effect at Apple App Review HQ. Thanks everyone for your support!
About 5 years ago, I decided to write an iOS app. I wasn’t satisfied with the features of the Hacker News clients I had downloaded from the app store, so I decided to write my own. It was called Hacker News Zero (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hacker-news-zero/id764890985?mt=8)
It’s a pretty basic Hacker News app. You can only read comments (currently the API doesn’t support it), and you can view each of the other “sections” of the site like Ask HN, Jobs, etc.
After it was released, it developed a (very) modest following, and it actually ended up helping me get my first job as an iOS developer. I took the time to maintain the app in my spare time, adding things like iPad support and dark mode. I even re-wrote it in Swift this year.
But then one day, after submitting a small bug fix update, I got an email from Apple. My app had been rejected. The following is their first letter:
Guideline 5.2.2 — Legal
Your app contains content…
