[ncmncm]

So even looking around and following links, I still guessed wrong about what the hell it is.

Nobody asked for, or needs, a list of "all the features" in a release announcement. Saying what the project is (such as that it is some kind of "engine", and maybe even what kind?) would have been a completely different, and much shorter and overwhelmingly more useful statement.

What should motivate a reader who cannot even tell what it is to spend time groveling around to find out whether they might be interested in the thing? Hint: most projects are not interesting to most people. Forced to guess, the best guess has to be "no".

I am repeatedly astonished that such elementary reasoning seems beyond so many.

As it happens, for example, a game engine in C# is of zero interest to me, but one in C++ could be quite interesting. I dismissed it as a direct consequence of the failure of the announcement to give me any reason to pay it any more attention.

[nineteen999]

Good grief, don't look at the UE4 release notes for each release then. It's a C++ game engine, and the release notes go on for pages detailing the new features. You'll have a conniption.

https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Support/Builds/ReleaseNo...

https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Support/Builds/ReleaseNo...

Game engines this size often add many new features with every release, and the target audience (programmers and artists) want to know about all of them.

[ncmncm]

The release notes cited are models of clear communication. No one encountering them would need to look anywhere else to know whether UE might be of some interest.

[imtringued]

Things like release announcements require background knowledge. If you are lacking that background knowledge then ignore them or acquire it. There is no need to baby sit every potential new comer with a pointless introduction that will be skipped by 99% of the readers. Not every tiny blog post is trying to shill a product.

[DisownedWheat]

If having to click on the logo to go to the home page sends you into such an apoplectic rage then I don't know what to tell you. If you look at, for instance, the .NET Core 3.0 release notes[1] there is no mention in the first few paragraphs of what it is. You have to click away to see it.

"I am repeatedly astonished that such elementary reasoning seems beyond so many." Perhaps you're just wrong? If everywhere you go smells like shit you should check your shoes.

[1]https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/announcing-net-core-3-...

[dang]

Please don't do tit-for-tat flamewars on HN. They're angry and boring and go against the intended spirit of the site.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[ncmncm]

I realize that by now I should not be astonished, only disappointed. It is probably not your fault; education has been in decline for a long time.

I feel no slight temptation to look at .NET announcements, nor to draw conclusions on good practices from them.

But all of the apoplectic rage is clearly on your side.

[dang]

Please don't do tit-for-tat flamewars on HN. They're angry and boring and go against the intended spirit of the site.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[imtringued]

>education has been in decline for a long time.

Is this supposed to be a joke? The information exists but you didn't try to find it.

[ncmncm]

I was specifically offered no reason why I should have any desire to dig around and find out more. That is the problem.

It is the entire topic of my original post.

Really, what would be so terrible about a short sentence in an announcement so that people who don't already know all about it get some hint at what it is? No one has suggested anything like an answer. Instead, I find rage that I don't, what, just automatically go digging deep into project pages for every single new thing announced, just in case whatever it is might turn out to be interesting?

Everyone has a lot of demands on their time and attention. A person writing an announcement is necessarily trying to communicate and engage. Concealing the topic sabotages the effort, right out of the gate.