8
netikras
110d

Why are project/tool webpages so useless...?

I mean, whenever I hear of a new tool/project I google its name. Of course, its dedicated webpage pops up as result #1. And EVERY TIME I find them looking nice, but quite confusing, riddled with all the buzzwords, nice phrases, promises of a better tomorrow,... but I'm yet to find a tool's webpage that explains what's that tool for and how to use it at least half as concisely and clearly as that tool's README.md in its GH/GL repo.

I mean, I can read every single word in the webpage, look at every picture/diagram, every fancy gif and still in absolute majority of cases I have no clue what that tool does.
Then I go to its GH/GL repo, read the first 2 sections of its README.md (takes me what, 2-4 minutes?) and I know all I need to now about the tool.

What's the point of those fancy webpages apart from containing docs and an SEO-tuned link to a README.md...?

Useless waste of storage and computing power if you asked me.

Comments
  • 3
    e.g.:

    - https://kubeblocks.io/

    - https://github.com/apecloud/...

    README.md's "What is KubeBlocks" contains everything I need to know. 3 paragraphs / 6 sentences ==> dead clear understanding of what it is, how it works, what it supports and whether or not I need it.

    Compare this to the webpage's content....
  • 2
    You aren't wrong.. I've faced this problem of not understand the workings of the tool that I am trying to research and check the potentials of integration.

    I think it's done on purpose to describe it as vaguely as they want, so that you'd submit a "Demo" request to their sales team at which point you're more likely to buy the product.

    People who are not interested will walk away anyway, so the company doesn't see it as a loss.
  • 2
    @netikras omg, you don't even need to type in the tutorial. You click a button and it types for you. Whehehe
  • 1
    Reminds me of cmdk. Great tool but utterly useless documentation.

    https://cmdk.paco.me/

    https://github.com/pacocoursey/cmdk
  • 1
    I had similar problems with certain kinds of technical documentation as well. People fail to explain simple things in simple words in different ways depending on their own bubble.

    Marketing jargon, tech jargon, university jargon etc.
  • 3
    The thing I hate the most is having to download a product just to tell if it will do what I want it to.

    Why are websites designed like this? Please just have one section on your site that isn't full of buzz words, and animations where it just gives me the functionality.
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