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Comment by smacktoward | Hacker News Reader

Communications pro tip: if you've got bad news to report, just lead with the bad news, don't try to soften it by wrapping it in a bunch of unrelated positive-sounding stuff. All that does is leave the reader with a feeling of whiplash and a vague suspicion that you were hoping they'd miss the bad news inside all the fluffy packaging. It's better to just report the bad news up front so the reader can get past it and then you can both move on.

(How this advice applies to this post will be left as an exercise for the reader.)

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And I'm sure there was an HN commenter waiting in the wings for the branch of reality where Purism did just that:

"Wow if their press release is this bleak, imagine how bad the reality is. Communications pro tip: explain up front why you missed the shipping date. Because after reading the I got the sense that they actually ran into some luck and didn't have to switch from their original hardware choice. Imagine what the shipping date would be if they had to move to the mini and essentially start all over."

"Communications pro tip: if you've got bad news to report, just lead with the bad news..."

If you've got a point to make, just make the point, and omit the useless "pro tip" preamble.

I have one pre ordered, I don't really consider that bad news. It's just an update about shipping. Hardware projects, even software projects are gonna move ship dates. The heating issue and video were more interesting to me, I glanced the shipping date as a good to know. Short of the project shutting down, I'm more interested in the progress.

What bad news are you talking about? The overheating that was solved by NXP releasing a new software stack for their chosen CPU?

That the ship date on the Librem 5 has been delayed (sorry, "adjusted") to Q3.

They wrote "the previous Q2 estimate is now confirmed for Q3 product shipping."

I haven't gone back to see what they said/estimated in the past, but going from an estimate to a ship date that's only off by 1 quarter seems acceptable to me.

It was moved from January 2019 (in the original kickstarter), to April, to Q2, and now finally to Q3.

That's a quite significant delay, but I personally don't mind as long as the final product arrives by the end of the year.

Yeah, that is a bit disappointing. I would probably be irritated if it went into Q4, but considering I wouldn't know where to begin if I were to build a phone from scratch, I can't complain... too loudly.

I answer here because I'm sure it's ommon amongst HN reader. If you think this :

>> I personally don't mind as long as the final product arrives by the end of the year.

Then it's useless to complaint that :

>> That's a quite significant delay, but

If freedom is at stake, then a few months later is of no importance.

>>If freedom is at stake, then a few months later is of no importance.

It didn't get delayed because of freedom though.

It's still an estimate.

Do you have a source? They said "confirmed". Of course you could say everything is an estimate up until the point it actually happens.

Not only is that acceptable, if they deliver a device that respects the user's software freedom, respects the user's privacy, leaves the user in control as much as they wish to pursue (with both software and user-serviceable hardware), and still deliver a device that can handle phone calls it will be far ahead of their competition. I'll be interested to see how far such an endeavor goes on those points.

That is how unique a privacy-centered tracker[1] is these days -- such a novelty when virtually all of the other comparable devices on the market routinely run proprietary code and lack the ability to physically disable connectivity completely under the user's control (and via hardware, not software).

[1] I call it a tracker because I believe that's a more honest name for what these devices do when they're enabled on wireless and phone networks -- they request their geolocation many times per minute (and, in so doing, allow others to track that location as well). Handling phone calls happens far less frequently.

They have attempted to weasel out of even saying that:

"the previous Q2 estimate is now confirmed for Q3 product shipping"

as if to say that the product, which isn't ready yet, has shipped in the future. Such mangling of logic doesn't inspire confidence in me that it will actually ship in Q3.

Unless you have never paid attention to alternative phones / OSes over the past... twenty? years... of course it was delayed. These are insanely huge projects to undertake, even for the largest corporations in the world, so anyone trying to make a fresh mobile hardware / software experience will always take way longer than anyone wants to admit.

I guess this might be "whataboutism" but Tesla for example has missed manufacturing production targets regularly. Innovation isn't 100% predictable, and I think most people understand that.

The first subheading in the post is 'Progress Report' and various details of progress in various areas are provided..

doesn't seem like spin to me.

I don't know is it really better? Obviously you'd prefer, and I think I would too, but the sort of thing you're complaining about might actually work. Apart from your personal feelings, is there anything else you are basing your claims on?

Someone who felt insecure about the matter decided this premature damage control was necessary. Why? I suppose we can only guess.

I don't see any damage control.

It's odd to me that people are nitpicking the negative news rather than the positive news.

They're making progress towards a privacy-respecting phone. I'm excited.

You can see this as damage control while still being excited about Purism's Librem 5 project. Heck, I am excited about the Librem 5 because it supports some ideals I find important. Despite seeing this news post as damage control, I still am excited about the Librem 5.

> if you've got bad news to report, just lead with the bad news, don't try to soften it by wrapping it in a bunch of unrelated positive-sounding stuff

Isn't this exactly what they did? The delay is in the title, you can't get anymore leading than that.

It's very unfortunate that this comment has been at the top of the thread for most of today. It has absolutely nothing to do with the Librem 5.

Yes. It is also needlessly condescending, while asserting a questionable opinion as if it were an established 'best practice.'

There is no substantial bad news in this article..

Also have a professional proofread your posts. 'Around the bend' is not the connotation you were looking for.

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