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by junto 3996 days ago
I tried this out with friends. Great idea but awful interface.
3 comments
steckerbrett 3996 days ago
That's always the end feeling with RetroShare. I'd love to use it, but the interface is completely unpalatable.

There's supposed to be a web interface[0] that looked significantly better but I don't think that ever went anywhere (last commit is in 2013).

[0]: https://retroshareteam.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/djrs_2013...

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nota_bene 3996 days ago
That's the sad part - we sacrifice what people like Snowden tried to save (by giving up their perfect lives) for eye candy.
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jvdh 3995 days ago
that's exactly the wrong way to think about this. If we want everybody else to use these kinds of tools, they have to look good, and be easy to use.
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nickpsecurity 3995 days ago
Easy to use, sure, but I've only known four GUI systems to be built to high assurance standard: simple components, small TCB, and clear interactions. Mainstream OS's don't use them. People adding beauty to their apps on such OS's also add attack surface in most cases. So, people wanting easy-to-use, secure communications must accept simpler interfaces or maybe text-interfaces depending on their threat profile.

I'll agree the interface needs to be easy to use regardless of how it's implemented. Most tools that aren't got that way due to lack of solid effort into UX. They can certainly do better. Yet, the result might look like a console IRC client or an old Win32 GUI app if it uses simplest stuff for security. Will users embrace that? Unlikely & didn't for many commercial products in this space. It's why the person you replied to is right: they won't make the smallest sacrifices to solve their greatest problems.

Has always been the case. Intel has lost over a billion dollars the few times they tried to market something more reliable and secure. It wasn't backwards compatible with crud X or support risk Y. So, market killed it off to buy stuff that causes problems. Trend repeats in all areas with few exceptions. It's why high security & reliability, even inexpensive offers, stay a niche market.

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cordite 3995 days ago
Not every user, technically inclined or not, is willing to trudge through clunky software with confusing configurations and awkward interaction.

I tried using this a few years ago with some friends, and it was really frustrating for one of my friends to import and export user public keys just so we could get started.

Although the file syncing was nice, it was also cumbersome to work with.

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aw3c2 3995 days ago
Even Snowden agrees that usability stands in the way of widespread crypto adoption.
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stefanix 3995 days ago
Same here, very functional but too cluttered. It feels messy even though technically it looks good. I have tried several times to get a group of people on it but failed because the UX was not met with love.

This project could really take off with a clean UX. Unite and place the chat and mail feature in the foreground, other features in the background.

I would love to see Retroshare go places ...

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