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by sgerbule 2054 days ago
It's technically not necessarily a "web world" template. The Nest.js backend can be used to build any kind of server side application, not just web based.
1 comments

> server side application

Certainly you understand my general sentiment, yes? Which is that the project page does not attempt to specifically define itself; Rather it assumes the reader understands it's purpose.

Server side application alone is a useful enough specifier.

The only relevant word in it's first few paragraphs is "stack" which has been claimed by the Web people ("full stack developer").

This is analogous to American's omitting the specifier that "America" because they assume all of their readers are also American.

I think the basic sin here is trading specificity for elegance. Your readme is very elegant, but it's not very informative for people from outside your target domain. This will include students and beginners to your target domain, which will ultimately hurt your adoption.

My point can be summed up as this:

"go-to template for the perfect stack" is jargon that only has meaning for a narrow subset of your audience.

"Perfect" is also overselling this thing. I respect tools that give me a clear idea of when to use it, and when not to.

This slogan ultimately says "Stator is a template"

What is a template? That term is far too overloaded to be useful.

I'd call this thing "an opinionated starting point for modern web applications". The most informative section of the document is the "Technical Stack" section.

Now what I'm trying to figure out is what aspect of this thing is not "glue" that holds these pieces together? Is it all glue?

Just to be clear, I think this repo has tremendous value. I'm giving you my stream of consciousness feedback in an effort to help you understand what the average developer's immediate response to this page is.

I think if you sent this link to any random developer on slack, their first response would be "what is it?". I think your readme can do a bit better job answering that question.

You are right that having a fresh eye on the project might be hard to grasp what it actually is. You easily become biased from working on a project, you make readers assumptions without even realizing it.

Although to your point that the jargon is too specific is a bit concerning to me. When I go on and discover a new project, if I don't understand specific terminology, I will go on and read about it to increase my knowledge of this topic. If you're not from the "web world" and you are not familiar with what full-stack means, you should go on and read on the subject simply out of curiosity!

Once again, I totally get your point that the project first few lines should be more informative as to what it is exactly and how it can be used.

I have in fact created an issue for it: https://github.com/chocolat-chaud-io/stator/issues/105

I appreciate you being receptive to my feedback.