Dropbox' Public/ folders will be phased out soon • Hacker News Board

Re: Dropbox' Public/ folders will be phased out soon

#81

Post by ableal » Fri, Jun 15, 2012, 4:14 PM UTC

tammer wrote: post #61

antidoh wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have helped a computerphobe (hates computers and Internet, clueless, but must use them) with Dropbox. She gets that her folders on various computers around town are synchronized. I had a very difficult time explaining to her that her same folders and files are available via the web interface. Those people are out there.

Most people (as in the majority of the population with access to digital media) have a very difficult time understanding that the filesystem is a hierarchy. I'm always espousing the necessity of backups to my friends/family, which means I've usually got the role of setting up a Dropbox account for someone without a technical background. When I say that their "My Documents" folder is a level above their Dropbox folder…

> a very difficult time understanding that the filesystem is a hierarchy.

You are obviously right. But people have been using hierarchies for millennia, e.g. the military ones. Illiterate peasants had no trouble with legion, cohort, centuria, contubernia.

I wonder if the cognitive problem is that the classic file system is an ungraded, unlimited hierarchy - all folders are equal, and you can not find a folders "grade".

Perhaps we would have been better off with an artificial limit of four or six named levels. Instead we're getting the hierarchy removed from general use devices ...

(Leaving aside the "use a hash, not a tree" possibility.)

Re: Dropbox' Public/ folders will be phased out soon

#82

Post by mnicole » Fri, Jun 15, 2012, 4:16 PM UTC

jncraton wrote: post #35

phwd wrote: post #6

Dropbox public folders for new accounts will be phased out. As mentioned in the link, all current users can continue to use it.

It seems like most people here seem to be missing this fact. From the Dropbox staff response: "All current users retain their Dropbox Public folder, and it's function continues." This news was intended for developers who rely on Public for app functionality. The public folder is not going away for existing users.

Grandfathered users have been burned many, many times before.

Re: Dropbox' Public/ folders will be phased out soon

#83

Post by kuroir » Fri, Jun 15, 2012, 4:17 PM UTC

Any Dropbox alternatives? I use Dropbox with an automatic script to upload screenshots / files / you name it, on Mac.

I'll stop using Dropbox when they release this.

Re: Dropbox' Public/ folders will be phased out soon

#84

Post by nightpool » Fri, Jun 15, 2012, 4:29 PM UTC

barik wrote: post #71

tammer wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people (as in the majority of the population with access to digital media) have a very difficult time understanding that the filesystem is a hierarchy. I'm always espousing the necessity of backups to my friends/family, which means I've usually got the role of setting up a Dropbox account for someone without a technical background. When I say that their "My Documents" folder is a level above their Dropbox folder…

"When I say that their "My Documents" folder is a level above their Dropbox folder, I get a blank stare." You might get a blank stare, because Windows itself has been trying (somewhat unsuccessfully) to move away from this hierarchical model, blurring this metaphor. Consider the Libraries feature, which can essentially collect many folders (My Documents, Dropbox\Documents) and can represent them as a single virtual l…

The dropbox folder can be chosen at installation time, so apparently he chose to put it inside the Documents folder.

Re: Dropbox' Public/ folders will be phased out soon

#85

Post by nodrama » Fri, Jun 15, 2012, 4:33 PM UTC

obilgic wrote: post #41

I always hated that folder.

:) The first thing I did when I installed Dropbox, was to delete that folder. After that, when I wanted to test how Dropbox works, I recreated it. I loved that all the public stuff was in... Public.

After using Dropbox for some time I realized that using Public was simple but limiting: I have a file that I want to keep in a specific Dropbox subfolder together with other files (organize things) and, at the same time, I want to share only that one file. So I have to copy it in Public folder too, which mean I have it in two places.

What they need to do it what they did: share anything but... add all the public stuff in one, easy to see place. Maybe softlinks in the Public folder with the same subfolder structure as the Dropbox folder. And when you delete a softlink or an entire folder, all the linked files will not be public anymore.

Re: Dropbox' Public/ folders will be phased out soon

#86

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jun 15, 2012, 4:34 PM UTC

nightpool wrote: post #84

barik wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"When I say that their "My Documents" folder is a level above their Dropbox folder, I get a blank stare." You might get a blank stare, because Windows itself has been trying (somewhat unsuccessfully) to move away from this hierarchical model, blurring this metaphor. Consider the Libraries feature, which can essentially collect many folders (My Documents, Dropbox\Documents) and can represent them as a single virtual l…

The dropbox folder can be chosen at installation time, so apparently he chose to put it inside the Documents folder.

[deleted]

Re: Dropbox' Public/ folders will be phased out soon

#87

Post by arihant » Fri, Jun 15, 2012, 4:42 PM UTC

I don't mind the splash page, but I do mind the obfuscated links. Previously, I could just tell the name of file to the friend who new my public folder address.

The 'get link' feature adds garbage in the link that nobody can hope to remember.

Re: Dropbox' Public/ folders will be phased out soon

#88

Post by kbolino » Fri, Jun 15, 2012, 4:44 PM UTC

barik wrote: post #71

tammer wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people (as in the majority of the population with access to digital media) have a very difficult time understanding that the filesystem is a hierarchy. I'm always espousing the necessity of backups to my friends/family, which means I've usually got the role of setting up a Dropbox account for someone without a technical background. When I say that their "My Documents" folder is a level above their Dropbox folder…

"When I say that their "My Documents" folder is a level above their Dropbox folder, I get a blank stare." You might get a blank stare, because Windows itself has been trying (somewhat unsuccessfully) to move away from this hierarchical model, blurring this metaphor. Consider the Libraries feature, which can essentially collect many folders (My Documents, Dropbox\Documents) and can represent them as a single virtual l…

On Windows XP, the Dropbox folder appears underneath "My Documents" by default. This is probably because prior to Vista, Microsoft treated %UserProfile% like a system folder, and so the only link most users would know is "My Documents". Even more confusing, pressing the "Up" button in "My Documents" would take you to the Desktop unless you navigated to the folder by specifying its actual path.

Perhaps also worth noting, in a clean Win7 install, the folder is initially labelled "Documents". It's not until you install a program that tries to access it by the "My Documents" link (there's actually a hidden link with that name) that the folder appears to rename itself to "My Documents".

Re: Dropbox' Public/ folders will be phased out soon

#89

Post by simonbrown » Fri, Jun 15, 2012, 5:01 PM UTC

marbletiles wrote: post #66

sidcool1234 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any reason why the marketing department would do it?

It drives recipients to the Dropbox website. Eg, right now I can put an image file in my /public, get the link and embed it in an img src tag without the anyone else ever having to know it's on Dropbox. This way, I can't do that. I can make a clickable link and paste that. Then people have to click to see the picture on the Dropbox website. Where Dropbox can constructively engage them in a dynamic exciting conversati…

They could just change the "copy public link" to no longer give a direct link, similar to the "get link" button.

Re: Dropbox' Public/ folders will be phased out soon

#90

Post by reneherse » Fri, Jun 15, 2012, 5:02 PM UTC

Houston, we have a problem.

Just about the only thing I use Dropbox for is the public folder. I've gotten many of my friends and collaborators to sign up for the service, based on the recommendation of this very feature. It's been a real boon for rapidly iterating front end mock ups.

Dropping support for what Dropbox evidently regards as "edge use cases" is not how you "build the next Apple or Google". The Public folder may not be used by the majority, but it is the domain of the geekiest, most hacker-spirited segment of users. Why trample that most creative segment?

The removal of my team's files from Dropbox and searching for a better sharing method begins now.