Across the board, pretty much everyone liked the new name better, it immediately got across what I wanted. The solution was to take the project to a big conference with a bunch of brand new users and ask them about it while I demoed. It was a very surreal experience, because I knew the old name was a problem and I knew the newer name better invoked the feeling I wanted, but all of a sudden I was seeing so much pushback from so many people that I wasn't confident any more. The existing community suddenly became really attached to the old name, and I had a number of people tell me that the new name was a mistake.Įven people who agreed that the old name was a problem were still telling me that they just didn't like the shift in tone, that they felt doubtful about everything. I went through the exact same thing on a smaller scale when I decided to rename an independent project I was working on. I spend most of my time in the composer it's the biggest bang-free-buck area for QoL improvements. Polari is the absolute gold standard here, and Discord is alright (at least, if you keep their godawful "preview as you type" beta feature, which messes up mentions the same way Riot does, turned off). I've nothing against WYSIWYG composers, although I prefer plain text (since I'm used to it), but if you're going to allow text-based formatting, then the composer window needs to act as (but not necessarily look like) 100% text. Making it function differently than the plain letters would is an exercise in frustration. Using a pill as a distinct visual style to indicate that the person I'm mentioning will see it as a mention is a good thing. I want to be able to put my cursor in the middle of someone's name, press backspace, and delete one letter, not their entire name. Total aside: The single biggest improvement you could make to Element, for me, would be to stop giving mentions special treatment in the composer. I'm kind of loathe to suggest a rebrand of the protocol, too, but. Two syllables with ending in x is a mouthful. So it's not "Element me, it's "Matrix me". If your goal is to encourage an open ecosystem rather than monopolize the market, not having your flagship client take up too much of the verbiage is a good thing. They don't say "handcent me" or "textra me" (or at least, not until iMessage came along). Now to turn this criticism upside down: I think you can spin this downside onto an amazing upside, by making the protocol the verb. Element is even worse in this respect, since I can't think of a phrase like "Send me an Element". Telegram has the same problem - "Send me a Telegram" is the closest you can naturally get "Telegram me" is too much of a mouthful. "Element" will never be a verb like Slack, WhatsApp, Snap, Signal, etc. However, there's one major way it's lacking: brevity. The turning point that took me from lukewarm to positive was when the phrase, "in my element" popped into my head, which I think is a pretty fitting theme for a messenger app using a decentralized protocol like matrix ( almost (but not quite) enough for me to wish matrix were branded something like "bond" - that which connects elements). The entire messaging of this OS is dystopian corpo garbage and then people are shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, that it's a monopolistic shitpile kicking your civil rights in the nuts at every turn.Generally I like the new name a lot. Ever noticed how the "what application you wanna use for this file type?" dialog pop ups every time any application is installed that can handle that type? Ever noticed how this dialog always has Microsoft's option at the top of the list? Ever noticed this dialog pops up after some updates because the Microsoft option has been updated so it's a Totally New Experience that You Really Ought To Try Now? Ever noticed how every few months you'll get a giant screen filling modal pop-up on login telling you to create a Microsoft account Right Now or Else? Ever noticed how Windows 10 shows a full-screen "Leave everything to us" banner during installation? Ever noticed the FOMO ads on the lock screen ("Windows brings you closer to what you love in life", "Don't miss any European soccer!")? Ever noticed the cringy "Just one more thing" and "Let's get you set up" system modals? Ever noticed how you have to lie to the setup wizard in order to not have a Microsoft account ("I don't have internet")? Microsoft is very consistent in aggressively promoting their own stuff at every turn.
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