Agree on the offline ability, although PWA (progressive web app) can also support offline feature. Majority of users in Hong Kong seems not accepting WPA as much as native app.
About the revenues part. I take this as a voluntary process. If monetized, maybe will 變質
Browser base is very cost effective in development but discounted on user experience when coming to mobile devices. There are a lot more the app can utilize when talking to the OS directly.
Live Operations is pretty expensive. If the goal is to sustain a stable platform and/or a long-term alternative to an existing solution, able to operate continuously will be critical for user retention. There are multiple failures before. Development for an app is only 15-20% of the overall TCO in a 5yr ROI.
Commercial speaking maybe you’re right. I suppose here our first objective is to provide alternative platform to the society. We don’t have funding or incoming source. We hold this place in “best-effort” with our spare time.
If we do have a funding support, there maybe conflict of interest which may lead to certain censorship.
While the admin is providing this web forum as basic solution. I’m working on app version independently. If you have specific idea about the functionality or interface, feel free to raise out in this thread