Blogs

Last Week Last week was about the infrastructure underneath the release process. My old self-hosted GitHub runner had filled its disk with Docker leftovers, so I replaced the single persistent runner with a fixed pool of disposable runner containers on a larger Proxmox-backed Ubuntu VM. That made the CI/CD setup cleaner, less congested, and better suited for the heavier checks I want to keep adding around Shokken. The product goal did not change, though....

Last Week Last week was about configuration management and release control. The App Store review fixes were mostly done, but the next iOS submission was still blocked by a practical release-management problem: unfinished work inside the mobile binary cannot be cleanly hidden without feature flags. Android is already live on Google Play. iOS is still waiting on the third production submission, and I still expect to get that submission out by the end of next week once the remaining rough edges are cleaned up....

Last Week Last week I went through Apple’s second iOS rejection line by line and separated the feedback into concrete buckets: metadata cleanup, legal links, pricing explanation, short-duration paid access, account deletion, and general release-readiness debt. By the end of that pass, the shape of the work was clear. Most of the review items had either a direct fix or a direct answer, and the one large product requirement, account deletion, had already turned into real implementation work across the app and backend....

Last Week Last week was quiet by design, or at least quiet in terms of app progress. I had friends visiting, spent the week showing them around, and did not make meaningful progress on the iOS rejection. The useful part of that pause was that it clarified the next order of operations. First, I needed to come back to the App Store review feedback and handle it directly. After that, I needed to start treating marketing as real launch work instead of something I could postpone indefinitely....

Last Week Last week Apple came back with the second iOS production rejection, and the review moved from copy cleanup into product-shape questions. The earlier rejection had mostly been about explaining the business model and narrowing the privacy declaration to what the app actually does today. The second round was deeper: Apple questioned parts of the subscription setup, the pricing justification, and how the paid access model fits into the App Store’s subscription primitives....

Last Week Last week was the first real lesson in how App Store review works once an app is technically ready but not yet submission-ready. Apple rejected the first iOS production submission with two issues: one about explaining the business model more clearly, and another about how I had described data use in a way that implied present-day marketing behavior the app does not actually perform. I fixed both, resubmitted, and expected that the next step might simply be waiting for the queue to move again....

Last Week Last week was the moment the launch stopped being theoretical. Google granted Android production access, the public listing went live, and I started thinking much more seriously about the work that happens after shipping: better screenshots, better copy, better trust signals, and a clearer path from “the app exists” to “a real business can picture using it.” The iOS production submission was also in Apple’s hands, and I expected that side to be more demanding even if I could not yet see which part would trigger the first problem....

Last Week Last week I finally treated production like a real destination instead of a vague future milestone. I had already tightened the development loop by giving my workflow a way to drive the Android emulator for smoke tests, and I used that momentum to push the store-submission work forward. Google had the Android production-access request in hand, and Apple had the iOS submission materials in motion, even if I expected that side to take more iteration....

Last Week Last week was the week I stopped pretending private polish was enough. A context-free tester put Shokken through its paces, confirmed that the app was mechanically stable, and exposed a different class of problem: several workflows still asked too much of a first-time user. That feedback pushed me toward the obvious next move, which was to stop circling production and actually begin the store-submission process. I followed through on part of that immediately....

Last Week Last week was infrastructure week. I finally split Shokken into integration, staging, and production backends so I could keep building without treating real users like crash-test dummies. That work mattered immediately, because both the Android and iOS beta builds are now live in their respective test tracks. I expected this week to be more website polish: tighten up the marketing pages, improve the presentation, and keep delaying the uncomfortable part where strangers actually use the product....