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so here's a fun thread about wire. I talk about wire a lot, i still use it every day (i use signal too, fuck, calm the goddam shit down for a minute, people can use more then one e2e tool). I have some rationale here that i feel like i need to explain.
when wire was first released, i created a chatroom and packed it full of twitter randoms to sorta "test drive the platform" with a crew of folks who could tow the line between adequately putting the thing through its paces, but keeping the mood light/playful
we IMMEEEEEDIATELY started discovering bugs. we started turning them in, and while it took, in some cases, a couple months for the bugs to get squished, we ended up with a pretty rad cadence for being able to discover wrinkles and expecting they'd get flattened
so months go by. we're dealing with bugs like "it takes the browser like 20 literal minutes to open wire because the decrypting was really dragging for some reason", and "sometimes messages appear under the wrong handle", but we endured. at somewhat of a cost.
i would find myself in snits with people who argued we should jump over to spideroaks thing, or to keybase, or another platform and i kept saying "no no no we have a direct line to leadership there and they listen to us, it would be stupid to leave"
and even through that, despite people timing out and going idle and leaving the group, a sorta core of maybe 15 remained. we kept lobbing in bug fixes but they got slower and slower.
i thought "hey, maybe if we show them value another way, they'd perk up.."
i thought "hey, maybe if we show them value another way, they'd perk up.."
and the timing there was great because i had just been tapped to be a consultant for the final season of mr. robot.
and after a couple months of back and forth, i convinced the show to use wire, even if only once, instead of signal, just for the sake of variety.
and after a couple months of back and forth, i convinced the show to use wire, even if only once, instead of signal, just for the sake of variety.
they went for it!
they even had me review scripts and make sure the text was correct and they were phrasing things right. it was pretty great!
so i emailed my contact at wire and said "DUDE GREAT NEWS"
they even had me review scripts and make sure the text was correct and they were phrasing things right. it was pretty great!
so i emailed my contact at wire and said "DUDE GREAT NEWS"
but never really heard back at all. so a couple months go by and i hear from the mr robot people "viss they didnt go for it"
.. what.
what do you meant "they didnt go for it?"
.. what.
what do you meant "they didnt go for it?"
"i mean we contacted them and made the pitch that we wanted to feature their tool on the show, and legally we have to get permission in writing from a company to do that sort of thing (tv. eyeroll), but they politely declined"
POLITELY DECLINED?
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?
POLITELY DECLINED?
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?
"hi we wanna give you free advertising to millions of hacker nerds who in many cases work in positions of power, or have the ear of the cio/cto/ciso and this is an instant 100% win, and you POLITELY DECLINE?!"
(it went away? i dwell in darkness without you and it went away?)
(it went away? i dwell in darkness without you and it went away?)
(willow zinger ;b)
so yeah - someone at wire had decided "mr robots audience isnt our intended audience. we want enterprise users"
GODDAMMIT YOU IDIOT WHO DO YOU THINK IS IN YOUR AUDIENCE?
so yeah - someone at wire had decided "mr robots audience isnt our intended audience. we want enterprise users"
GODDAMMIT YOU IDIOT WHO DO YOU THINK IS IN YOUR AUDIENCE?
do you think the fuckin killer whale trainer at sea world who handles shamu is sat at the edge of his seat over the in-the-weeds hacker details? or do you think its maybe the head of the soc at a fortune 10 whos hoping to find an out of band comms system for when sunbust hits?
so i sigh.
we learn months later that wire was acquired by an american holding company (there was news about this and it made people twitchy), and after that happened their "hi we wanna make friends with ever security nerd" approach literally evaporated.
we learn months later that wire was acquired by an american holding company (there was news about this and it made people twitchy), and after that happened their "hi we wanna make friends with ever security nerd" approach literally evaporated.
wire will only take bug reports and input from paying users.
okayfine - so i signed up for a paid demo account hoping that would edge me into their periphery enough to where they would at least LISTEN.
nope. every support request ignored.
okayfine - so i signed up for a paid demo account hoping that would edge me into their periphery enough to where they would at least LISTEN.
nope. every support request ignored.
fast forward to today:
signal explodes in popularity because whatsapps terms of service directly contravine its "mission".
signals steep rise in popularity literally overwhelms their backend and it falls over, for the first time.
signal explodes in popularity because whatsapps terms of service directly contravine its "mission".
signals steep rise in popularity literally overwhelms their backend and it falls over, for the first time.
and all i can think is
motherfucker, did wire miss like, a galactic opportunity. I tried SO HARD, for like THREE YEARS to tee them up for success.
but i guess we're not their target audience.
sigh.
motherfucker, did wire miss like, a galactic opportunity. I tried SO HARD, for like THREE YEARS to tee them up for success.
but i guess we're not their target audience.
sigh.
let me make one thing abundandly clear:
it is possible to use more than one platform. I actively do. I'm not suggesting that people abandon signal to go to wire. I'm saying, specifically:
"wow signal went down, wouldnt it have been great to have a plan-b?"
it is possible to use more than one platform. I actively do. I'm not suggesting that people abandon signal to go to wire. I'm saying, specifically:
"wow signal went down, wouldnt it have been great to have a plan-b?"
