Here's a breakdown of the key themes that emerged from the Hacker News discussion, each supported by direct quotes from the participants:
User-Focused vs. Developer-Focused Release Information
A central point of discussion revolves around the target audience of release information and the ideal balance between user-friendly announcements and developer-oriented release notes. Many commenters acknowledge the need for both, but disagree on the optimal approach for each.
-
Argument for User-Focused Announcements: The original post advocates for release announcements that highlight the user impact of changes. As "jeremy_k" notes, "It seems there may be value in product announcement geared towards end users and a release notes geared towards developers." The author, "mtlynch," echoes this by stating, "I think too many developers write about their software as if the readers are other developers... But for most software, the users are not developers."
-
Argument for More Technical, Direct Communication: Several users push back against perceived "marketing speak," arguing for direct, factual descriptions of changes, even if they're technical. "deanebarker" says, "To me, the examples in red are much more helpful -- they explain, in bare terms, what was actually done. The examples in green feel like a marketing exercise to me... 'Added 'duplicate' button to the event menu' is kind of exactly what I want to read." "lars_francke" agrees, saying, "So for me the perfect announcements would be the red ones."
-
The "Decoding" Issue: Some feel that overly-marketing-oriented announcements force users to translate the language to understand the actual change, as "JimDabell" shares: "When I read that, I feel like I am being sold to and I need to decode it to find out what the actual change is."
-
A Middle Ground: Some suggest a balanced approach. "pimlottc" argues: "I think there's a middle ground here that would be best. The 'bad' example tells you exactly what changed, but not why you might care. The 'good' example attempts to give lots of context but takes a while to tell you what actually changed. Just a small title change would help a lot: 'Create events 10x faster with new Duplicate button'."
The Role of Quantitative Metrics and Potential for "Spin"
Another recurring theme is the use of quantitative metrics in release announcements, with skepticism about potentially misleading or exaggerated claims of improvement.
-
Skepticism about Metrics: "awkward" cautions, "claims with a lot of concrete numbers should be handled carefully. Unsophisticated users can bounce off numbers rather than content. Sophisticated users might care about the numbers, but are able to recognize spin - 200x speedups are clearly a bugfix rather than an innovative new algorithm." "rao-v" also notes, “Just to add a nit to this, “10x faster” is noise and fluff. Save it for when you actually have a real measured metric that someone might care about.
-
Context Matters: "sjsdaiuasgdia" highlights the importance of accuracy and relevance: "If it were up to me to write that entry on a release announcement, I'd probably say something like: 'We fixed an issue that could cause a long delay when creating a new file.'" They add concerns about the "100x speedup" claim: "For the average end user, are they going to actually experience a 100x speedup? Or are they going to create a new file and notice effectively nothing different, and wonder what the hell you're talking about?"
The Definition and Purpose of a "Release Announcement"
The conversation also touches on defining "release announcement" and distinguishing it from other forms of communication, such as release notes. Notably, the original post lacked a clear definition, which was addressed early on.
- Need for Clarification: "MOARDONGZPLZ" pointed out "I read the whole thing and didn't know what a release announcement was until the section where you pointed to 'real world examples'," leading the author to consider adding a definition.
The Importance of Addressing Bugs and Building Trust
Several users emphasize the importance of transparency regarding bug fixes in release announcements, arguing it builds trust with users.
-
Transparency and Trust: "ednite" states, "Release notes aren’t just about excitement, they’re also about trust and value." He suggests, "Saying 'Saving large files is now 10x faster' is great, but if users were dealing with crashes or freezes, it’s more helpful, and more direct, to combine your idea of clarity with the actual user experience: 'Saving large files is now 10x faster, no more freezes for files over 100MB.'"
-
"Fixes" vs. "Features: "sjsdaiuasgdia" also highlighted bugs by noting "If it were up to me to write that entry on a release announcement, I'd probably say something like: 'We fixed an issue that could cause a long delay when creating a new file.'"
Balancing User-Facing Features with Maintenance and Developer Work
Some commenters cautioned against prioritizing user-visible features at the expense of necessary maintenance and developer-focused tasks.
-
Concerns About User-Centricity: "ukuina" argued that focusing solely on user-facing features is "short-sighted" and can lead to "marketing-driven development", where "thankless maintenance and stabilization tasks should be avoided." "miningape" agreed that "Focussing too heavily on user facing issues is a kind of myopia that actually leads to a worse user experience over time."
-
Author's Clarification: "mtlynch" clarified that the intent wasn't to eliminate maintenance, but to ensure a balance: "The lesson I learned was that when I have a maintenance-heavy release, I needed to ensure that we have at least some work that's user-facing that we can present to users in the release announcement."