Retraction: The App Store Rejection of the Week That Was a Correct Rejection

Yesterday, I published an article titled "App Store Rejection of the Week: Dark Hours". However, I have since retracted the article due to its fundamentally incorrect premise. The title was also inaccurate. The original story is still available in plain text (Markdown) and PDF format, with a preface linking to this retraction. This is the first time I've retracted a post since starting Daring Fireball 24 years ago, and I hope it will be the last.

I first learned about Terry Godier in February through his interactive essay on RSS feed reader design, "Phantom Obligation". In March, I linked to another interactive essay from Godier, "The Last Quiet Thing". In April, I linked to a post about the App Store's 5-star review system. Around this time, I started corresponding with Godier via iMessage.

Yesterday, Godier posted "Browsers Have Standards, the App Store Has Judgment". Originally, the post contained two paragraphs stating that an iOS app he tried to submit for Dark Hours was rejected because it was astrology. However, these paragraphs have been removed and replaced with a note explaining that the original post's premise was wrong. The app, originally named "Asterly", was entirely dedicated to astrology and included a "Tarot card of the day" feature.

Despite this, I took Godier's word, both in his blog post and private iMessage conversations, that the rejection was unjustified. I showed him a draft of my post before publishing, but he provided no caution, only gratitude for drawing attention to the issue. I now understand that he likely submitted an astrology app to the App Store, which was correctly rejected by Apple.

It appears that Godier's "Asterly" app was named "Dark Hours" when the App Review Board upheld its rejection. After my article was published, Godier ported his astronomy version of the app to the web, launching it as "Dark Hours" at darkhours.io. Miguel Beher, creator of an open-source astrophotography project, noticed the similarity between Godier's and his own project, pointing out a common bug.

Godier subsequently took down his web app and redirected the domain to Beher's. I now apologize to all who read the original article for my mistake and my failure to correct it promptly.