What I Would Do If I Ran Tarsnap

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."

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.

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.