Ever considered advertising syncthing as "mist software"?

I.e. why “mist”… well a cloud is far away and you can’t personally reach it, while a mist is still a cloud but you are in the middle of it like with syncthing the cloud is all your devices around you.

As a German: don’t

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Mist

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Apparently the use of the word mist was wrong as mist is not considered a cloud. A low cloud would be fog.

Unfortunately, fog & foggy also carry negative connotations.

If you’re going to criticise it’d be rude to not atleast provide evidence.

I didn’t think it was particularly controversial.

Unable to think clearly, confused and befuddled are not desirable properties of a piece of software, in my opinion.

That’s in addition to being cold, wet, a traffic hazard on land and at sea, and generally unpleasant to be in. :slight_smile:

Well “don’t” followed by another immediate no doesn’t exactly say “welcome to the forum”. The exact same could be said about cloud[1]. Not all fog reduces visibility to the point of being hazard[2]. There’s thunder clouds and rainclouds too, that doesn’t mean all clouds are.

[1] “(figuratively) A negative or foreboding aspect of something positive: see every cloud has a silver lining or every silver lining has a cloud.”, https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cloud#Noun
[2] “Depending on the concentration of the droplets, visibility in fog can range from the appearance of haze, to almost zero visibility.”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog#Visibility_effects

That was just a snarky tongue-in-cheek joke to be honest :wink:

Coining new terms is always a bit tricky because you’re dealing with language barriers, semantics and, at worst, explaining it to users.

The term “personal cloud” might be a bit easier to grasp IMHO.

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Hi @Wallby and welcome to the forum! :slight_smile:

I didn’t find @bt90’s first comment as being rude, maybe because I’m also from Germany and thought just the same that in German language a connotation with “dung” or “crap” wouldn’t be helpful for Syncthing. Even if just because of similar spelling in random words. But you’re right, it wasn’t exactly a polite welcome for a first-time poster. Sometimes we like to be brief and a bit sarcastic here, no insult intended. :wink:

For what it’s worth, I actually like being in the fog. Like driving along a foggy road through a forest in the dark, or skiing in a winter storm where you can’t tell clouds and fog from snowflakes, or from the snowy ground. Yes, dangerous it is.

And another personal opinion: All this “cloud” business is a very inconcise and nebulous (!) term used by too many people who don’t understand a thing about information architecture. And far too many technical problems seem to find “the cloud” as the only or optimal solution, while it’s in fact just one that’s easiest to design and to keep control over other people’s concerns. Because it is centralized and concentrates power in the hands of a few. I’m very grateful for Syncthing as a democratic alternative, with it’s perfectly symmetric relationships within the “anarchy” of linked devices and explicit, direct declaration of trust. Syncthing doesn’t pretend to keep control over information once it has been digitally provided to another party, which is usually an illusion.

I don’t think we need any more catchy phrases for marketing, it’s just a simple thing to do synchronization. Nothing nebulous at all. :slight_smile:

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