This isn't a company, I'm not trying to convince you to use it, this is more of a personal art project. If that doesn't vibe with you that's completely fine. You're happy to not use it. I'm happy whether you use it or not. It's all good mate.
(The first sentence in the docs page does explain what it is but if that's too much for you, it's all good.)
I had the same problem. I digged through it only cos it was #1 in HN so I knew something's up. If I had come across this any other way, I wouldn't bother looking past the home page. I don't think you have to be selling the project (financially or otherwise). But you will lose a lot of potential users cos you didn't add the description you have in docs right there in the home page.
> Ghostty is a fast, feature-rich, and cross-platform terminal emulator that uses platform-native UI and GPU acceleration.
Now after reading it, the name makes so much sense as well. GhosTTY. My first thought was alternative to ghost.org or something.
> You're happy to not use it. I'm happy whether you use it or not.
I think you misunderstood the OP. The criticism was about the landing page, not the project.
And fwiw, it's not unwarranted. Putting the words "terminal emulator" somewhere on the page would make less people bounce off. You may be fine with them bouncing off, but still, I think it was meant as constructive criticism.
But... don't you want people to use it? You seem passionate about it otherwise.
I'll admit, I almost didn't click past the animation either. I did, and the doc quickly answered "what is it?", but why not just put that sentence on the landing page? I don't get the unnecessary obscurity either.
Fair. And I'm not here to convince you to cater to everyone. The explanation might be on the first page of the doc, but unless you click on it, you won't know. My prior experience is that docs don't necessarily tell "what" but rather "how" which means that you need to know why you're there. Their weight also varies. Thus, I learned to not speculate how many clicks and real time it's going to take me to learn about the project. If the author doesn't want me to know it, I won't be digging into it.
I enjoy personal projects and if you're saying that this is your personal - all the best! Given high praise count it's likely very good.
I think the documentation does a very good job in the first sentence of describing the project. Not sure why the tone of the commenter was so offended they had to click on a single button to find that.
I would think, or hope, that this guideline is geared towards protecting a years-long effort such as writing a performant, feature-rich terminal emulator, rather than a comment which takes 5 minutes max to draft.
Not clicking on a documentation link on a technical project is the definition of a shallow dismissal in my opinion.
No. The rule is about protecting a culture. Having a brief description on the front page is an eminently reasonable suggestion. Mitchell's response was a shallow dismissal of the person (calls out "you" five times in six sentences) and was against site guidelines.
Which culture would that be? Starting off a post with “I hate things… this is one of them”?
I think the discussion here would be different if the tone was more moderated. Seems like you’re dying on a hill for the right to be abrasive without consequence.
The feedback provided wasn't helpful. You're absolutely correct in that shallow dismissals aren't kind, but you're wrong about who was shallow and who was not. OP didn't dismiss anyone, nor was their comment shallow. And they don't owe you or anyone else anything as far as "explanation" goes, and they can filter out whoever the hell they want. Click the link and look further, or don't.
Meanwhile, dr_ketyn's comment was both rude and not constructive in the slightest (here's a tip: starting feedback with "I hate this" isn't constructive or kind).
(The first sentence in the docs page does explain what it is but if that's too much for you, it's all good.)