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I've read similar sentiments before. After reading between the lines it's often clear that the developers have not brushed aside a concern or ignored a request.

I've read similar sentiments before. After reading between the lines it's often clear that the developers have not brushed aside a concern or ignored a request. Sometimes they've actually explained their side, but a user has not bothered searching and reading forum history, they've simply sprayed their keyboard into a text box with unreasonable and rude remarks. If I get a terse reply that says "We know this is a pain point, we're working on it!" then I take that in good faith and leave it be. But some find any reply an excuse to fuel their ranting. There are definitely some areas, particularly those of principles, where the foundation makes a hard line clear. Even if this goes against what I think is best, I respect their clear message that this is their stance and it's staying. Lastly I feel your remark that the team could be nicer is flagrantly unfounded. I have never come across any user being treated unkindly and without the attention one can expect from such a skewed user:resource ratio. I'm dismayed you've taken something I wrote for good and blemished it with an unfounded reprisal.

wl 6y ago
The two biggest issues with Signal have been a) Using SGX (brushed aside) b) Inability to export and backup chats (ignored)
- DavidSJ 6y ago
  I also am extremely frustrated by the inability to export and backup chats. In combination with mobile/desktop sync problems, it means that I have lots of personal memories on one device, with no way to get them off and protect them. There was no warning when I first installed Signal that the usual phone backup mechanism (via iTunes, in my case) would not backup this data, or that mobile/desktop syncing problems might mean that hundreds of messages just don't get synced to my other devices, and that this is expected behavior. So I'm angry, and I can't recommend Signal to others for this reason. And the devs just don't seem to care. I appreciate that it's an open-source project, and the developers have no obligation to develop new features. But this isn't really a feature request; certain sharp edges in a product are actively destructive if you don't warn the user about them. It's like someone handing out free food which turns out to be poisonous, and then saying, "What are you all complaining about? The food is free!" If any Signal developer sees this, I would personally be happy to have a discussion about compensating you for your time to fix this problem for the community. My email address is in my profile.
  - crznp 6y ago
    > So I'm angry, and I can't recommend Signal to others for this reason. And the devs just don't seem to care. Could have just been: "I can't recommend Signal to others for this reason." I read the "Please be nice" post as a request to leave out the part about being angry or assuming that the devs don't care. It is understandable that you feel that way, but saying so doesn't fix your issue. It does make other people feel bad.
    - DavidSJ 6y ago
      I guess I’m just saying I don’t think it’s a reasonable request, and this was my way of politely explaining why. It’s okay for users to express anger over something like this. The fact that devs are doing volunteer work is great, but it doesn’t exempt them from certain responsibilities (see my food analogy).
- marci 6y ago
  b/ https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007059752-Backup-and-Restore-Messages https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007059752-Ba... Don't know to what extent you can export, but you can at least make backups
  - wl 6y ago
    If you have an Android phone, yes, I suppose you can backup. But I don't. There's no backup procedure for iOS. There's a migration, but the phone you're migrating from has to be working at the time. So if it's destroyed, you're SOL. Also, it's really buggy and has never worked every time I've seen it attempted. The desktop instructions do not describe a backup. If you try to copy your old data over to a new machine in an attempt to preserve your chat history, you will break things. The procedure doesn't describe how to make things work, but rather how to unhose things once Signal has prevented you from doing what you want and blown up in your face to punish you. There is a way to export from the Desktop client, but it involves using sqlcipher and is an undocumented, unsupported, discouraged hack.

wl 6y ago

The two biggest issues with Signal have been a) Using SGX (brushed aside) b) Inability to export and backup chats (ignored)

DavidSJ 6y ago
I also am extremely frustrated by the inability to export and backup chats. In combination with mobile/desktop sync problems, it means that I have lots of personal memories on one device, with no way to get them off and protect them. There was no warning when I first installed Signal that the usual phone backup mechanism (via iTunes, in my case) would not backup this data, or that mobile/desktop syncing problems might mean that hundreds of messages just don't get synced to my other devices, and that this is expected behavior. So I'm angry, and I can't recommend Signal to others for this reason. And the devs just don't seem to care. I appreciate that it's an open-source project, and the developers have no obligation to develop new features. But this isn't really a feature request; certain sharp edges in a product are actively destructive if you don't warn the user about them. It's like someone handing out free food which turns out to be poisonous, and then saying, "What are you all complaining about? The food is free!" If any Signal developer sees this, I would personally be happy to have a discussion about compensating you for your time to fix this problem for the community. My email address is in my profile.
- crznp 6y ago
  > So I'm angry, and I can't recommend Signal to others for this reason. And the devs just don't seem to care. Could have just been: "I can't recommend Signal to others for this reason." I read the "Please be nice" post as a request to leave out the part about being angry or assuming that the devs don't care. It is understandable that you feel that way, but saying so doesn't fix your issue. It does make other people feel bad.
  - DavidSJ 6y ago
    I guess I’m just saying I don’t think it’s a reasonable request, and this was my way of politely explaining why. It’s okay for users to express anger over something like this. The fact that devs are doing volunteer work is great, but it doesn’t exempt them from certain responsibilities (see my food analogy).
marci 6y ago
b/ https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007059752-Backup-and-Restore-Messages https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007059752-Ba... Don't know to what extent you can export, but you can at least make backups
- wl 6y ago
  If you have an Android phone, yes, I suppose you can backup. But I don't. There's no backup procedure for iOS. There's a migration, but the phone you're migrating from has to be working at the time. So if it's destroyed, you're SOL. Also, it's really buggy and has never worked every time I've seen it attempted. The desktop instructions do not describe a backup. If you try to copy your old data over to a new machine in an attempt to preserve your chat history, you will break things. The procedure doesn't describe how to make things work, but rather how to unhose things once Signal has prevented you from doing what you want and blown up in your face to punish you. There is a way to export from the Desktop client, but it involves using sqlcipher and is an undocumented, unsupported, discouraged hack.