FAQ maintenance

Doug Barton dougb at dougbarton.email
Fri Feb 26 19:41:41 CET 2016


On 02/26/2016 07:29 AM, Robert J. Hansen wrote:
>> Why is it more resource intensive?
>
> It's far more intensive of a much more limited resource: user happiness.
>   Normal users tend to find hexadecimal frustrating:
>
> "It's a *number*?  But it uses A through F."

This is something that only experience can fix.

> "I don't understand.  Why do I need the long ID?"

This is something the FAQ should explain :)

> "Wait, now I need to use the *entire* fingerprint?"

Ditto.

> "You can't be serious: I need to give a 40-character serial number
> whenever I need to identify a key?"

I'm not sure users care much how many characters they are copying and 
pasting.

> "What do you *mean*, future keys will be expanding to 64 characters?!"
>
>
> ... In all this discussion about what's mathematically optimal, I'm
> dejected to see how little we're talking about human factors.

... you might note that in my recent response I did mention a very 
important human factor. Consistent advice (always use the complete 
fingerprint to identify a key) is MUCH easier for users to remember than 
trying to teach them when they need it, and when they don't.

Doug




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