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>I'm quite annoyed by the superficial critics that are currently overflowing the comments. Of course this is [...] academic research I'm guessing there would b
by jasode 7y ago
>I'm quite annoyed by the superficial critics that are currently overflowing the comments. Of course this is [...] academic research
I'm guessing there would be less readers' irritation if the following text that's at the bottom was moved to the very top so it's the 1st thing people see:
>secushare is a research project that hasn't reached prototype status, yet. [...] So if you truly want to get started with secushare, please read how you can help on the introduction page.
Many readers would prefer that above text to be shown before the following paragraph which is structured as a "teaser":
>Imagine Facebook, Whatsapp, Gmail and Skype rolled into one, without the centralized surveillance and control. Crazy? Well, it hasn't been tried before, at least not our way. So let's give it a try.
The "let's give it a try" is actually a request for more "researchers" instead of "users". Instead of a beta or even alpha system to experiment with, the current status is that they need programmers to help build it from nothing to a prototype.
There's nothing wrong with asking for help but it takes a whole page worth of text to get to that point. Even if a software project has moral goals, it doesn't mean readers will not be annoyed at the way the presentation's text is ordered from least important ("imagine if...") to most important ("not even a prototype").
The HN demographic is probably overwhelmingly working programmers instead of academics so they're already predisposed to prefer something concrete they can try out.
- dx87 7y agoThe front page currently has articles about Finnish babies sleeping in cardboard boxes, and the benefits of sleeping with a weighted blanket. Just because there isn't something you can try, doesn't mean it's not interesting.
- jasode 7y ago> Just because there isn't something you can try, doesn't mean it's not interesting. Please don't misrepresent what I actually wrote. I did not dismiss the project as not interesting. I made a very specific point in my reply to OP (lapinot) and the complaint of "superficial criticism": If one structures the project's landing page text so that it makes something sound promising at the top but then later reveal that the status is actually "not even prototype" at the bottom (after ~10+ minutes of reading), that "teaser" style of slow reveal is going to invite hostile criticism from some readers. (E.g. see this thread's other comments of "vaporware", "generic introduction on something that doesn't exist", and "this page uses a lot of words to explain almost nothing.") Yes, maybe those comments are unfair but consider if the text's obfuscated style of exposition triggered those responses. The lesson for project authors is: Yes, your project can have moral ethics, pursue ideals of privacy & decentralization, be "interesting", and other laudable goals, etc -- but you'll throw all that good will away if the project's text describing it disrespects your readers. There's nothing wrong with an interesting project that's looking for contributors to build something real.
- dvn0 7y agoAppreciate the feedback. There was never an intention to mislead. We can see how having a disclaimer upfront improves communication transparency, so we've change the front-page accordingly.
- no_identd 7y agoI'll abuse this comment to ask: Have the GNUnet developers considered joining forces with the RINA developers? I feel extremely tired of Beads-on-a-String networking which essentially still boils down to phone calls with extra steps which we falsely label as somehow constituting an Inter-Network capable system, despite neither IPv4 nor IPv6 in any way actually supporting internetwork communication. RINA addresses this issue completely, but it doesn't address the privacy infrastructure GNUnet addresses.