6 ms·

Hi Ben from Dropbox. You seem to completely miss the point. It's not about the feature itself, it's your way of "hacking" or "injecting" Dropbox features into p

Hi Ben from Dropbox. You seem to completely miss the point. It's not about the feature itself, it's your way of "hacking" or "injecting" Dropbox features into places the user didn't expect. This is not the first time that Dropbox ignores the system guidelines (or even permissions if the user explicitly disallowed Dropbox access to Accessibility features). Why are you ignoring the feedback concerning Dropbox' way of "hacking" itself into system areas like Finder?

saynsedit 10y ago
Pretty sure most people use Dropbox exactly because of its seamless Finder integration...
- evan_ 10y ago
  File system integration, maybe. Not finder integration.
  - acdha 10y ago
    To normal people, those are the same - and convenience matters more than some seemingly arcane technical nuance.
  - nik_0_0 10y ago
    Finder and Windows Explorer integration is great. This may be a bit intrusive, and it is a beta option, and it can be disabled. On Windows, immediately adding Dropbox to 'Favourites', and the icon integration to show sync status is an awesome feature. It is invasive for Dropbox to hijack your icons and overlay a checkbox? Yup. But incredibly helpful in my opinion. Maybe it isn't everyone's cup of tea, but the close integration with file browsers on multiple OSes is (was?) definitely one of the differentiating aspects of Dropbox, polarizing or not.
    - nxc18 10y ago
      Although I have mixed feelings about Dropbox's approach on Mac, there is one key difference to the Windows implementation that makes the situation incomparable: Windows explicitly provides APIs for file badges and other extensibility features.
      - kalleboo 10y ago
        So does macOS https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/General/Conceptual/ExtensibilityPG/Finder.html https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/Ge...
        acdha 10y ago
        In recent versions, yes. Dropbox has monkey-patched less over time but it feels like they were one of the user successes which lead Apple to prioritize adding new official APIs to remove the need for ugly workarounds.
  - nl 10y ago
    No, Finder integration. I rarely care about the underlaying filesystem, but always about the primary UI.
product50 10y ago
This is not true for everyone. I find Dropbox especially useful because of its Finder integration and the whole experience feels really intuitive and not something i didn't expect..
- stormbeta 10y ago
  Agreed - this kind of integration is part of what I like about Dropbox. I understand the original poster is upset the option didn't work, but he's also opted into the beta releases - is not finding issues like that kind of the point?
nl 10y ago
I completely and absolutely disagree. Seamless Finder integration is why I like Dropbox. Sure, this is an annoying bug, but I'd hate it if the stopped doing it.
- mistersquid 10y ago
  In 2011, a startup I was consulting with standardized on Dropbox (gratis at the time) to sync design files. Even back then, I was wary of Dropbox's ability to sync files at the level of the Finder/OS with badged folders. To me, the Finder integration was straight up spooky, suggesting an extraordinarily high risk profile. When my consulting gig was up, I uninstalled Dropbox precisely because of the Finder integration, and I have advocated against using Dropbox as a file-sharing solution in all subsequent consulting arrangements. I've also avoided using it as part of my day job, even though some of my teammates used it.
  - nl 10y ago
    Not entirely clear why you are posting this? It's clear that there is some diversity of opinions on this topic, but we already knew that. To me, your datapoint shows that Dropbox is right to behave the way they do: in 2011 you thought it was high risk, they have kept with that behavior and yet nothing bad has happened. I'm unsure if that was your intention, but that is how it looks to me. It is entirely unclear why you think this is particularly risky: If Dropbox can do it, then other malicious programs can too. Dropbox's behavior creates no additional security risk, but increases the usability of their software. If there really is a security problem here, then surely that is a problem with the OS, not Dropbox, and it is the OS that should be fixed?
    - mistersquid 10y ago
      My reason for making my earlier post is unclear because I buried my lede when replying to the GGP. That lede should have been something like "Finder integration is not necessarily a selling point to security-minded users." To my mind, the security risk comes in having multiple points of connection in the local file system that are tightly bound to files on an external system. In the case of inexperienced users (and even a few experienced ones), those points of entry could be scattered throughout the local file system. Consequently, these external files were effectively pipelines from systems all with unknown security profiles. This combined with the Finder integration troubled me enough to stop using Dropbox as soon as was practicable. EDIT: Clarify meaning in first sentence. Correct plural. Split last sentence into two. Change tense.
akhatri_aus 10y ago
If you don't want dropbox integration so much what do you want the client for? Use the browser instead. It kind of beats the point of a desktop client if its featureless.

saynsedit 10y ago

Pretty sure most people use Dropbox exactly because of its seamless Finder integration...

evan_ 10y ago
File system integration, maybe. Not finder integration.
- acdha 10y ago
  To normal people, those are the same - and convenience matters more than some seemingly arcane technical nuance.
- nik_0_0 10y ago
  Finder and Windows Explorer integration is great. This may be a bit intrusive, and it is a beta option, and it can be disabled. On Windows, immediately adding Dropbox to 'Favourites', and the icon integration to show sync status is an awesome feature. It is invasive for Dropbox to hijack your icons and overlay a checkbox? Yup. But incredibly helpful in my opinion. Maybe it isn't everyone's cup of tea, but the close integration with file browsers on multiple OSes is (was?) definitely one of the differentiating aspects of Dropbox, polarizing or not.
  - nxc18 10y ago
    Although I have mixed feelings about Dropbox's approach on Mac, there is one key difference to the Windows implementation that makes the situation incomparable: Windows explicitly provides APIs for file badges and other extensibility features.
    - kalleboo 10y ago
      So does macOS https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/General/Conceptual/ExtensibilityPG/Finder.html https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/Ge...
      - acdha 10y ago
        In recent versions, yes. Dropbox has monkey-patched less over time but it feels like they were one of the user successes which lead Apple to prioritize adding new official APIs to remove the need for ugly workarounds.
- nl 10y ago
  No, Finder integration. I rarely care about the underlaying filesystem, but always about the primary UI.

product50 10y ago

This is not true for everyone. I find Dropbox especially useful because of its Finder integration and the whole experience feels really intuitive and not something i didn't expect..

stormbeta 10y ago
Agreed - this kind of integration is part of what I like about Dropbox. I understand the original poster is upset the option didn't work, but he's also opted into the beta releases - is not finding issues like that kind of the point?

nl 10y ago

I completely and absolutely disagree. Seamless Finder integration is why I like Dropbox. Sure, this is an annoying bug, but I'd hate it if the stopped doing it.

mistersquid 10y ago
In 2011, a startup I was consulting with standardized on Dropbox (gratis at the time) to sync design files. Even back then, I was wary of Dropbox's ability to sync files at the level of the Finder/OS with badged folders. To me, the Finder integration was straight up spooky, suggesting an extraordinarily high risk profile. When my consulting gig was up, I uninstalled Dropbox precisely because of the Finder integration, and I have advocated against using Dropbox as a file-sharing solution in all subsequent consulting arrangements. I've also avoided using it as part of my day job, even though some of my teammates used it.
- nl 10y ago
  Not entirely clear why you are posting this? It's clear that there is some diversity of opinions on this topic, but we already knew that. To me, your datapoint shows that Dropbox is right to behave the way they do: in 2011 you thought it was high risk, they have kept with that behavior and yet nothing bad has happened. I'm unsure if that was your intention, but that is how it looks to me. It is entirely unclear why you think this is particularly risky: If Dropbox can do it, then other malicious programs can too. Dropbox's behavior creates no additional security risk, but increases the usability of their software. If there really is a security problem here, then surely that is a problem with the OS, not Dropbox, and it is the OS that should be fixed?
  - mistersquid 10y ago
    My reason for making my earlier post is unclear because I buried my lede when replying to the GGP. That lede should have been something like "Finder integration is not necessarily a selling point to security-minded users." To my mind, the security risk comes in having multiple points of connection in the local file system that are tightly bound to files on an external system. In the case of inexperienced users (and even a few experienced ones), those points of entry could be scattered throughout the local file system. Consequently, these external files were effectively pipelines from systems all with unknown security profiles. This combined with the Finder integration troubled me enough to stop using Dropbox as soon as was practicable. EDIT: Clarify meaning in first sentence. Correct plural. Split last sentence into two. Change tense.

akhatri_aus 10y ago

If you don't want dropbox integration so much what do you want the client for? Use the browser instead. It kind of beats the point of a desktop client if its featureless.