What I Would Do If I Ran Tarsnap

I'm still reading and just looking at the screenshots and I have to say I very much prefer the Tarsnap design not the cheap template one which doesn't really look very trustworthy to me and is probably more suited for an online pharmacy.

Coudn't agree more. The current design of tarsnap is much better. It shows that tarsnap is serious about technology and security.

Exactly. The last thing you want is your website to look like a WordPress template when your target audience is the paranoid.

For geeks. Not for business people who have to make the decision to pay for it.

Of course, you don't make the change if you don't want to become the B2B mega secure backup business that patrick is pitching. But if you do want to grow into that then you have to re-brand into something a clueless supervisor is going to be able to authorize. That won't happen often with the current design.

If Colin doesn't want to make a big B2B business, which I'm sure we all believe to be true, then you can keep the old design and be happy. But if he wants to have a "real" business, then he should absolutely go with a standard bootstap theme.

edit: four to for. duh

Note that the whole essay retargets tarsnap as a secure backup business. Not paranoid geeks.

Out of curiosity, what's the biggest P&L you've had responsibility for in your career?

So Patrick says in so many words that

"Customers like typical HNers might like Tarsnap the way it is, but Colin should instead market to [such and such businesses] using [lots of specific and actionable advice] because [lots of reasons explained in excruciating detail]".

HNers:

"Oh, I like Tarsnap the way it is."

Yes, but you have to admit it does need a call-to-action link that's actually a button.

Doesn't change the fact that his redesign looks identical to the 100 generic free wordpress themes you see on lots of non-technical and spammy sites around the web.

Colin could spend one day and come up with something that didn't look super generic. My idea would be something dark and simple, like this: https://useiconic.com/

It's not just HNers, I would say that a lot of people who are involved with designing/building websites will tell you that this is not a great way to redesign the website (It's probably just a quick draft). I don't say the current design is great but it's better than the one he's proposing in my opinion.

And just by looking at his personal site he's probably not the first person to ask for advice on how to design your website. I'm not trying to offend the writer but there's a reason why there are web designers and UX people dedicated to the task.

I realise that this redesign is just a small unimportant part of all these suggestions (and I agree with some of them) but if he puts it out there it's worth giving feedback on.

I feel the same way. It reminds me a lot of https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/ where they pretty much say that they are server guys and suck at design. I respect that.

And the redesign in the article looks like someone grabbed a free theme and swopped some text and a image.

Patrick's actual advice was: "Here’s what I’d tell a contract designer hired to re-do the Tarsnap CSS and HTML [...] a visual redesign will probably cost Colin four to low five figures."

Then he supplemented this with: " let’s hypothetically assume it isn’t in the budget. In that case, we go to Themeforest and buy any SaaS template which isn’t totally hideous."

So don't complain that it looks identical to 100 generic free wordpress themes -- that was Patrick's point, and his actual advice was exactly what you call for: spending a day to come up with something.

It shows that Tarsnap is a very serious open source project, of a vaguely FreeBSD lineage. Since that's not actually what Tarsnap is, the site design is doing him an obvious disservice.

But patio11's redesign would actually appeal to the executives in suits who make the purchasing decisions, while you HNers would still trust it because it's run by cperciva.

I don't think that's out of curiosity.

Nearlyfreespeech's homepage is infinitely more attractive and professional looking than tarsnap's.

And, no, the redesign in the article looks exactly like someone grabbed a $20 theme and didn't bother to swap in the image.

It is. I'm curious because I'm interested in someone who has managed a large P&L but nevertheless thinks Tarsnap is the way to go for their org.

I am also curious because I believe most of the comments here on HN amount to not liking this article because it doesn't appeal to them as a customer without regard to what it means for Tarsnap as a business.