[blagie]

First of all, this is not an attack or intended to be negative. I often get attacked or downvoted for constructive feedback on Show HN (where that's what it's here for). This is intended as feedback. I give feedback to the best projects and to the worst.

With that out of the way:

Many of us have never heard of LoRa. There is no way to know in 60 seconds what this project does, or why it is useful. I would recommend adding a sentence to the effect of:

"LoRa is a low-cost long-range wireless communications protocol. This project provides hardware and software to allow zigbee devices to communicate over LoRa, allowing placement of such devices far from the zigbee hub."

That's a small but big improvement. Next improvements:

- Discuss maximum range / interference

- Add an English option to the project page

- Minor: Reorganize the page to be more directive about how to get started ("Buy X, do Y, etc. in a tutorial format"). This can even just be a pointer to the relevant pages ("Buy the hardware list on [this page]. Install the software per [this page]")

That's a first impression. Feel free to post again. Show HN is a nice place to get first impressions, which have a surprisingly big impact on adoption.

[oarsinsync]

It’s interesting that you draw the line after Zigbee, but before LoRa. Why is it presumed that LoRa is unknown, and Zigbee is known?

[blagie]

Good point!

I think my assumption came from two places: (1) My own bias (I use Zigbee) (2) Zigbee is big enough to have been sold in big box stores.

However, a rewrite which explains the global context would be even better, if it can be done concisely. You're right that many people won't know that. It's super-helpful to have a paragraph-length (max) description of any projects which is accessible to as broad an audience as possible.

[lurking_swe]

adding to this, as a software engineer casually dabbling in home automation, i’ve come across the word zigbee hundreds of times. I see zigbee products recommended all the time. LoRa? it’s my first time hearing about this…

[ha_ru]

Your points are valid. Especially the ones on educating an interested user about what the project is good for and how to get started. Thank you for the feedback!