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kafkaIncarnate | 3 years ago

Initially, I was pretty thoroughly perplexed by what this actually did since all I did was click the original link and didn't even see this post text. I figured it out through mostly the 2017 link above. I have a pretty good idea now and see its value.

That being said, when looking at your actual website initially with no context, I couldn't really figure out what it did. My first instinct was to hit the "Docs" button.

The "Don't README" header and the just download my code and run it and figure out how it works later mantra with regard to an end-to-end encryption software (or software in general) was very off-putting to me. I actually wasn't very interested in figuring out what your software did at that point, as it just was flashing red-flag in my head. Was it malware? Was it really end-to-end encrypted?

Just a suggestion, you might want to reword some of that front landing page of the Docs page. I understand your wanting to convey that it "just works", but you might want to convey a bit better somehow what exactly what is just working in the first place, and do so in a way that isn't screaming "don't try to figure out how it's working". Maybe also advertise a bit more clearly that it's open source.

The whole "unless you really want to" is a little weird, too. Every end-to-end encryption software you use you should understand fully what encryption is being used, especially when targeting developers handling core secrets for major organizations or what have you.

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danenania|3 years ago

Thanks for your feedback! I'm sorry that the intro in the docs rubbed you the wrong way. I wanted to make sure people realize that it's not a complicated tool that requires a lot of setup or research to start using, and I guess to have a little fun too, but perhaps the tone is not quite right. I'll try to improve this.

Edit: what do you think now that I've removed the (probably misguided) playful language in the headings? https://docs-v2.envkey.com/docs Better?

kafkaIncarnate|3 years ago

Yeah that's a lot better. Don't get me wrong, I love playfulness, especially in documentation. It's just that before you even really know what a product is or does it seemed like it was worded like "don't even try to figure out what we are doing here and execute untrusted code" or something, haha.

I totally understood what you were trying to do, I just think if I interpreted it that way at first, others might as well. I at least had your other stuff to go off of to eventually get me to figure it out, whereas people encountering your page on the internet wouldn't. Was just trying to help :)