The developer originally created sync for reddit. He had a subreddit you could visit to discuss the app and submit issues and ask questions. When reddit announced their API changes, the developer agonized over what to do, because keeping sync for reddit would become too expensive.

When he announced he was going to create sync for lemmy instead of staying with reddit, basically the whole sync subreddit members all created lemmy accounts and began getting familiar with lemmy. Most of us signed up for announcements theough the developer to be notified for the initial beta release of sync for lemmy.

The hype has been from all if us eagerly awaiting the sync release for lemmy. It's been really hard having to deal with less superior apps to browse lemmy. The developer had a really strong base from reddit who loved his app and refused to continue using reddit without it, and the hype train has been growing from there. :)