Bit of an odd intro: I'm a carpenter, 42 years at the bench. I'm the type who can't stand making the same thing everyone else makes, so I've always chased the technical side too - CNC, laser cutting, and lately building software to run my machines.
At some point I wanted to send my own designs to people without them leaking anywhere, and I went down the rabbit hole of how messaging actually works. What got me was realising how much of the "free" stuff is paid for with our privacy. That annoyed me enough that I decided to build my own messenger, mostly to learn. It grew from something simple into a real thing. I called it Sherlock.
Two things I cared about: proper encryption, and NOT tying it to a phone number - I built a different system for that.
I'm not going to pretend I reinvented cryptography. I'm a woodworker who got obsessed. So I'd rather hear it straight from people who actually know this stuff:
- How much does the "no phone number" approach really buy you if I get the rest wrong?
- For a small independent project, what's the bar before any of you would even consider trusting it - open source, audit, something else?
Genuinely here for the criticism, not the pats on the back.
If I had a penny for every time I saw an AI written text about someone emphasising being a manual labourer of X years, talking about having built an App, in a post which is clearly written by AI, which use English not being their native language as an explanation for the AI usage, I'd have two pennies, which isn't a lot, but it's weird it happened twice.
Honestly, there's more mature projects that already do all that, and I wouldn't really see a reason to switch to a possibly vibe coded project, especially if I planned to use it for anything important. Also, most alternative messengers suffer from the network effect - most people won't switch to a new messenger if they're already using another, even if that other has clear deficiencies.
Also, this whole 'I'm a woodsman that wrote a word processor' thing feels like marketing copy. This isn't shark tank, you don't need a sob story. If your app is good, and you work on it consistently, people might join you in working on it and using it.
You might be right. I can see there are a lot of people here who simply don't like AI. I talk in my own language and AI translates it - I just read it and decide whether to send it or not. So when it comes out sounding like AI wrote it, fair enough - but the thoughts are mine, and I stand behind them.
I won't argue with you. Honestly, all these negative takes only make me stronger. It's a school too - it tells me to keep going my own way and reach my goal. That's the good part: a person shouldn't give up just because they hear a lot of negativity. I go my own way and I'll get there - and in some things, I already have.
Thanks for what you wrote, genuinely. Have a good day - or evening, I don't know where in the world you are.
(English isn't my first language - AI helps me translate.)
I mean can you ask AI to make your post not sound like AI? I feel like it has to be possible, right?
Yeah, you're right - you can tell any AI to write in a certain style. But look, the "problem" we're solving here is just: I translate my own language into English with AI. I could use Google Translate instead - and that's not a bad thing either. Tons of companies build online translators, earbuds that translate live calls in your ear - they all use AI too. Does that bother anyone? No.
Sure, I could tell the AI to talk like a teenager, or like a shepherd up in the mountains herding sheep. But come on. I came here to talk about an actual topic, not to spend every reply proving how I'm allowed to talk to you.
So honestly - let it go. If it bothers you that much, just don't write with me. Maybe someone will turn up who doesn't care whether I use a translator or AI or whether I'm just good at English. Maybe someone wants to talk in Portuguese or Luxembourgish - no problem. But that's not what this forum is even about.
I respect that you wrote to me, I do. But I came home from work to check for new replies, doing my own computer work in between, and honestly - this is a riot. You're solving a problem that isn't a problem. Not for me anyway. I genuinely do not care who translates my language into English. What matters is that I'm talking about something real. Instead we keep circling the same thing: AI, am I a bot, should it be this way or that. Ah well. Ah well.
(English isn't my first language - AI helps me translate. Still. :))