[momack2]

Hey IPFS person here. We actually made a change to ipfs-desktop back in Feb of last year to reduce the default connection limit to ~300 (https://github.com/ipfs-shipyard/ipfs-desktop/pull/828), and also to set desktop nodes into DHT-client mode (so they don't get lots of requests from other nodes for where to find content). If you've been running your node since back then, you can change your defaults in the desktop "settings" menu at the bottom of your IPFS config by setting '"HighWater": 300' (or whatever you prefer -- personally I like having ~600 connections). I run ipfs-desktop all the time (including on crappy hotel wifis) and don't find it gets in the way of anything.

You're right, there are a ton of great ideas and suggestions for how to make IPFS better that we haven't gotten to yet - we're working on making it easier to navigate and for more folks to help contribute. To that aim, we just created a new ipfs-docs site (in beta right now) to better explain the concepts and how-to of working in the ecosystem: blog.ipfs.io/2020-01-07-ipfs-docs-beta/ -- would love your feedback on how we can keep making that better!

[nullstyle]

Hi! Thanks for taking the time to respond and correct my outdated info. Unfortunately, It seems your info is also outdated: I just installed 0.10.2 for Mac and it's by default using (600,900) for the low and high watermarks and routing type is set to dht rather than dhtclient.

Since I've got you here, I'd be happy to give a little feedback: The constellation of websites for the protocol labs projects, their different visual styles, their different states of decay/maintenance, the interlinking back and forth with source files in github, and the undocumented status of all these projects really lend to a maze-like and poor learning/browsing experience. If it were my project, I would dump all the different sites and consolidate under one web presence. I never know if what I'm reading is current, or planned and not done, or old and out of date, or just bugged. As an example, there are even broken links on the readme at https://github.com/ipfs/ipfs. The number of TODOs or unresponsive links in README files in the various github repos (under the various github organizations) adds to the frustration of trying to learn your work. As an example, take the readme at https://github.com/ipfs/go-hamt-ipld : It's been recently worked on, and yet the entire table of contents are broken links and the examples section is literally just "//TODO". I think y'all should consolidate efforts, kill or privatize the projects that are unusable by the outside world, and in general start developing things to a more complete state before adding new stuff.

I've tried several times now to incorporate IPFS into my developer toolbelt and have aborted my attempt each time due to this or that rough edge that you don't learn about unless you spend time trolling through the github issues. It seems like each time I've come back y'all have added more unfinished stuff (congrats on the filecoin testnet!) and the rough edges still remain. As an example, I just added a 7 gigabyte file (an xcode disk image) through the desktop client: It peaked at around 15gb of ram during the process and the client offered _zero_ visual feedback while it was working. In fact, while the client says my repo is the correct size, the xcode image I added doesn't actually show up in the file browser. It's all very painful to work with. ipfs, ipld and libp2p hit the right notes in their promotional material to entice someone who wants to help the decentralized web grow, and I would love for these projects to be what they aspire and claim to be, but it all just seems to fall apart rather quickly when you actually start to use them for something beyond your tutorials.

[lidel]

> I just installed 0.10.2 for Mac and it's by default using (600,900) for the low and high watermarks and routing type is set to dht rather than dhtclient.

(600,900) watermarks suggest you had an old config (ipfs-desktop will respect pre-existing config and won't override values). Just change watermarks manually to (50,300) and restart.

If you run daemon via ipfs-desktop the routing preference from config file is ignored: Desktop runs daemon with an explicit command line parameter (--routing=dhtclient) to avoid DHT server traffic.

Hope this helps.

[nullstyle]

Thanks for the heads up. I didn't realize I had left the old config in place.

[woodandsteel]

>You're right, there are a ton of great ideas and suggestions for how to make IPFS better that we haven't gotten to yet

I love the idea of IPFS, but let me ask you the question, when is it finally going to be ready for people to easily deploy? A year from now, 3 years, 5 years? Or maybe you have no idea?

Don't give some vague answer about how you are working on it. Give me a reasonably specific prediction, or say you have no idea.

[singron]

Isn't this kind of an unreasonable demand? It's not like software isn't ready for anyone one day and ready for everyone the next. Considering just about nobody can give an accurate software development forecast for even objective milestones, it seems ridiculous that there would be any reasonable answer to this.

[charles_f]

Beyond the question of the possibility of giving a precise answer, did OP lose sight of basic courtesy?

As far as I know IPFS is an open system contributed to by volunteers. Making those kind of demands for deadlines in such an aggressive tone is way out of place.

[woodandsteel]

No, I am just asking for honesty. Either they have some sort of idea when it will be basically usable, or they don't. I am not saying they have to meet a deadline, I am asking when they think they are going to get there.

And why do they need to be defended by others? If I am being unreasonable, why don't they just say that themselves?

[bardan]

Who says they need to defend themselves? If I come across somebody making unreasonable demands I ignore them.

[woodandsteel]

I am not asking for an exact answer, just an approximate one. And if they honestly have no idea, then they should say that.

[TheColorYellow]

I want to call out this attitude as incredibly entitled and related to the exact root cause of all the open-source drama we've been seeing lately.