Marek FořtWait what, you can't use a *code* editor when you're under 18 now? 🤔
Jimmy@marekfort @Gargron I think it’s probably more that you can’t enter into a legal agreement like new ToS unless you’re 18 (in the US, at least…)
Lawyers ruin everything.
Techokami@jimmylittle @marekfort @Gargron ...why do you need a Terms of Service agreement for *A TEXT EDITOR*
@techokami @marekfort @Gargron I repeat…
Lawyers ruin everything. đź«
@jimmylittle @marekfort @Gargron take a step back and reassess the question.
*Why* does *A TEXT EDITOR* require a ToS? What is the text editor *DOING* that makes this something that is even needed in the first place?
I looked into it, and apparently it's because this editor is filled to the brim with AI generative bullshit.
Why does such a thing need to exist?
Jeremiah Fieldhaven@techokami @jimmylittle @marekfort And telemetry. Why does a text editor need telemetry? *Excellent question!*
@JeremiahFieldhaven @techokami @marekfort Telemetry is in basically every piece of software. Is there a "Report Bug" button? Probably sends telemetry data. Crash reports? Telemetry. Product research on which features are used the most/least? Telemetry.
It can be used for nefarious purposes, tracking, and data theft. But it's also used for very important software quality metrics.
Cassandrich@jimmylittle @JeremiahFieldhaven @techokami @marekfort That is an extremely unserious take. No these are not "very important software quality metrics". Nobody needs metrics on that. It's explicitly invading people's privacy to avoid having to pay testers/QA or having to know how to ask questions and get feedback to be able to reproduce and debug an issue.
@dalias @JeremiahFieldhaven @techokami @marekfort Some of the products I work on have tens of millions of users. There’s no “asking questions to reproduce” at that scale, especially when we’re forbidden by COPPA from collecting any personal information. Anonymized telemetry, metrics, and crash logs make our products better.
@jimmylittle @JeremiahFieldhaven @techokami @marekfort You don't ask questions at scale. You let users report bugs, and then you engage with them to fix the bug, or hand off figuring out how to reproduce the bugs reported to QA/testing staff. You don't rummage through users' computers and their private data that happened to be in the core dumps or whatever without their knowledge or consent.
@dalias @JeremiahFieldhaven @techokami @marekfort Do you know what stopped thousands of bug reports (some legit, some just user error or confusion) coming in from tens of millions of users?
Fixing the bugs preemptively because it was reported to us by the software before the user noticed.
@jimmylittle @JeremiahFieldhaven @techokami @marekfort Yes, invading user privacy as a cost-cutting shortcut is how capitalism misbehaves.
@dalias @JeremiahFieldhaven @techokami @marekfort It’s not about cost cutting, it’s about providing better products.
Most people don’t give a shit about working with a dev to fix a bug or improve a product. They want their thing to work without thinking about it.
And some of us do it all without even tracking what city a user is in, let alone who they are individually.
Not all telemetry is bad.
@jimmylittle @JeremiahFieldhaven @techokami @marekfort Products are obviously, demonstrably worse than back when software shipped on disks and you had to get it right before shipping because there were no second chances to just push an update. Because back then, you actually had serious QA/testing.
I'm not suggesting you should make users do back-and-forth helping you fix bugs as the alternative to spying on them. I'm saying that if you should spend the money on QA teams rather than spying on users as a shortcut.
All telemetry is bad.