[Someone1234]

What a terrible name. So it is non-private private networking, great distinction there DO. I wonder why people are confused..?

What about "Shared Intranet" instead. Why has the word "intranet" fallen out of style? And why use the word private to describe something that is inherently non-private by design?

I actually think the addition of this free inter-droplet channel is amazing (and a potential massive cost saver), but the name sucks.

[danellis]

> What a terrible name.

It's not completely terrible. It's a private network in the usual sense of the word, in that it isn't part of the Internet.

> Why has the word "intranet" fallen out of style?

'Intranet' has other connotations that don't apply here. Mostly that it's an internal Web.

[jtymes]

Technically, I think they're correct with their definition[1]. However, they should be more explicit with the "Shared" part and have some better documentation rather than an announcement blog post[2], a community guide[3], and a moderator comment on that community guide [4]. Especially in today's privacy-conscious world.

Having said that, people who are concerned about privacy should always be validating their setups themselves. The maxim of "trust but verify" comes to mind.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_network

[2]: https://www.digitalocean.com/company/blog/introducing-privat...

[3]: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-...

[4]: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-...

[Someone1234]

> Technically, I think they're correct with their definition.

I never said they weren't "technically correct," I said the name sucked and confused people [0].

They could also just use "Data Center LAN." No confusion there.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy

[chrismarlow9]

Couldn't you technically call the internet a non-private private network? It's all networks. The private/public part depends on the context you're talking about.

An example is that a network at starbucks is private to the people at the starbucks, but public in a sense that anyone there can connect.