You broke the internet. We'll make ourselves a GNU one • Hacker News Board

Re: You broke the internet. We'll make ourselves a GNU one

#11

Post by opendais » Fri, Oct 24, 2014, 8:34 PM UTC

That is just an awful page and there really, really is no excuse for the sheer terrible.

The idea is nice but the delivery is so bad that I think you should go back to the drawing board. If you communicate this poorly it'll never see real adoption.

No offense but you've made life difficult for:

1) Screen readers. 2) Colorblind folks. 3) Anyone with poor eyesight, really, by basically making the font a different shade of the same color on the background.

Please fix the site before you try to publicize this more. :/

Re: You broke the internet. We'll make ourselves a GNU one

#12

Post by lclarkmichalek » Fri, Oct 24, 2014, 8:34 PM UTC

I mean, was it ever not broken? The people who "broke" it were the designers, assuming we're following your definition of "does not provide strong guarantees about privacy" is broken.

Re: You broke the internet. We'll make ourselves a GNU one

#13

Post by tatterdemalion » Fri, Oct 24, 2014, 8:35 PM UTC

The security and privacy issues in current internet infrastructure are of course very serious, and a meaningful solution to them will probably need to be "full stack," but this project doesn't look like the solution we need. It doesn't seem like any serious thought has been put into how all these technologies will create an actual protocol stack; its just a list of a bunch of projects GNU people like.

Re: You broke the internet. We'll make ourselves a GNU one

#14

Post by steamwashed » Fri, Oct 24, 2014, 8:36 PM UTC

Honestly, GNU might have the world's worst marketing:product quality ratio.

I empathize with their goals, but the jargon limits this to an audience consisting entirely of the choir, and the tone is so preachy that not even the choir will want to listen.

Re: You broke the internet. We'll make ourselves a GNU one

#15

Post by jjoonathan » Fri, Oct 24, 2014, 8:38 PM UTC

Wyndsage wrote: post #8

rip747 wrote: post #5

I'm not sure what point they are trying to get across, but that page is just horrible to look at.

Just follow the project map, it's so simple.

BRB, checking Jackson Pollock's consulting rates.

Re: You broke the internet. We'll make ourselves a GNU one

#16

Post by MrZongle2 » Fri, Oct 24, 2014, 8:43 PM UTC

If something was broken, it was the designer of this page.

Re: You broke the internet. We'll make ourselves a GNU one

#17

Post by pessimizer » Fri, Oct 24, 2014, 8:48 PM UTC

_reality_check_ wrote: post #9

The name "GNU" and its abhorrent pronunciation has been such a branding failure on the part of the free software movent. Yet, the creators continue to wonder why those outside the tech world approach these issues with a high level of apathy. A movement filled with in-jokes and "geeky humor" will never gain the support from the general public desperately needed for real change.

GNU and the GPL entirely changed the face of computing. Your branding expertise is untested.

Re: You broke the internet. We'll make ourselves a GNU one

#18

Post by vezzy-fnord » Fri, Oct 24, 2014, 8:50 PM UTC

steamwashed wrote: post #14

Honestly, GNU might have the world's worst marketing:product quality ratio. I empathize with their goals, but the jargon limits this to an audience consisting entirely of the choir, and the tone is so preachy that not even the choir will want to listen.

I think it's always been this way. GNU is mostly known for its userspace base system. They have a few higher level applications like MediaGoblin, Health and Octave, but those are outliers. Then GNOME is practically a separate project these days, despite ostensibly being part of GNU.

It's the FSF that reaches the wider audiences through their guerrilla tactics.

Re: You broke the internet. We'll make ourselves a GNU one

#19

Post by newbish » Fri, Oct 24, 2014, 8:52 PM UTC

_reality_check_ wrote: post #9

The name "GNU" and its abhorrent pronunciation has been such a branding failure on the part of the free software movent. Yet, the creators continue to wonder why those outside the tech world approach these issues with a high level of apathy. A movement filled with in-jokes and "geeky humor" will never gain the support from the general public desperately needed for real change.

Agreed, if anything they already guaranteed failure of the project by attaching the GNU to the name.

Re: You broke the internet. We'll make ourselves a GNU one

#20

Post by AnimalMuppet » Fri, Oct 24, 2014, 8:52 PM UTC

"Theory and practice of a completely encrypted and obfuscated new Internet stack..."

OK.

"... enabling us to unfold a carefree digital living."

With completely untraceable digital harassers. Lovely.

The thing is, the problem they're trying to solve is real. Governments aren't angels; they're composed of human beings who are selfish, manipulative, and power hungry, and who are far too often willing to step beyond the rule of law because "the situation demanded it" (or because they really wanted to). But the rest of the problem is, the people aren't angels either, and if you give them a completely anonymous internet, they won't just use it against governments that overstep their bounds. They'll use it against each other, too, in some spectacularly nasty ways.