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Comment by PurpleRamen | Hacker News Reader

Why does this smell like a cult? Talking about trust and having illusive pictures and designs..

And why do I need to login for an offline app? Where does the data really go? There is some setting remote storage, and some mb already used, so is in reallity an online-app with some offline-mirroring? But it seems there is not a choice to set the local storage-path, and the saved files are just your usual electron-blob-files. Seems there is no way to really access or control my files externally.

This doesn't give much impression to be trustable.

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> Talking about trust and having illusive pictures and designs..

it's one of the key features of the app that most other alternatives lack, it would be weird for them not to mention this

> And why do I need to login for an offline app?

it's not offline only, it can sync to your other devices over the internet

> Where does the data really go? There is some setting remote storage, and some mb already used, so is in reallity an online-app with some offline-mirroring?

it's stays on your devices, unless you pay for dedicated backups of your data

> and the saved files are just your usual electron-blob-files. Seems there is no way to really access or control my files externally.

your data is encrypted, which is why you can't just access it via your file manager

hope this helps :)

> it's one of the key features of the app that most other alternatives lack,

That's their claim, but it doesn't hold up much so far.

> it would be weird for them not to mention this

There is a difference between mentioning it, and using it as a selling-point.

> it's not offline only, it can sync to your other devices over the internet

There are many apps who can sync, most of them have it as an option, without a forced login and hidden sync.

> your data is encrypted, which is why you can't just access it via your file manager

So I can't even access my data and must trust in the app to not screw up, and have a well working export. Which considering it takes Notion and its poor export as inspiration, is not really a good sign

> hope this helps :)

Yes, thanks.

>That's their claim, but it doesn't hold up much so far.

are there any arguments?

>There are many apps who can sync, most of them have it as an option, without a forced login and hidden sync.

We don’t have any forced login. It’s just basic keychain that generated on your machine, that only can use, and can use off-line. It’s a way do deal with encryption. Where you see a forced login?

>So I can't even access my data and must trust in the app to not screw up, and have a well working export. Which considering it takes Notion and its poor export as inspiration, is not really a good sign

we have described our data format, so your data is yours, you can write any adaptor to read/write

> We don’t have any forced login.

Then how can I use the app without creating first an account and space which will sync my data without even asking? You talk about trust and offline-first, but the first thing you do is uploading data and don't even talk about it.

> we have described our data format,

Where?

BTW Don't reinvent menus. I just now realized that File->Close does not actually close the app, like in any other app. And for whatever reason, there was no information about the App still running. Kinda sus..

> Then how can I use the app without creating first an account and space which will sync my data without even asking? You talk about trust and offline-first, but the first thing you do is uploading data and don't even talk about it.

It's not an account you create in a classical way using a server. It's locally generated data wallet ( we need it for encryption and sync). We talk via on-boarding that your wallet will be synced, and that your data is encrypted only with the key generated on your machine. It's for people who don't want to mess with self-hosting. If you want you can make your build from GitHub, disconnect sync, or just self-host yours. This way our promise works.

> we have described our data format

we have a GitHub! here it is https://github.com/anyproto/any-block

> BTW Don't reinvent menus. I just now realized that File->Close does not actually close the app, like in any other app. And for whatever reason, there was no information about the App still running. Kinda sus..

good point!

I think the same. I was trying to find the "How to install the server" but here is no option. It just saves the data in their servers. There is too many wording about security and control, but only in their control.

Here is the link with the instructions https://tech.anytype.io/how-to/self-hosting

That's useless if the client also sends the same data to Any's node. You can't disable that for now:

  Self-hosting only without a backup node is currently unavailable

  The self-hosting-only feature is not released yet. If you don’t want to use Anytype node and instead use p2p sync between your devices, you can block Anytype network traffic (Anytype & Anytype Helper) via your firewall.

From https://doc.anytype.io/d/data-and-security/data-storage-and-...

The idea that you can compile apps with your network configuration, so it's not easy, but it works.

Thank you for the heads-up, we released the self-hosting ability yesterday and didn't update the docs. Now it's been updated; self-hosting is available: https://tech.anytype.io/how-to/self-hosting

Been following/trying Anytype since early Alpha. Congrats on this big shift. My biggest concern was that there was never really enough to promote/allow self-hosting up to this point. Excited to see where things go from here!!!

Thanks! A Docker image is sorely missed.

They seem to have only one "node" so far, because the software is still in alpha? That's what their docs seem to say[1].

  All your data primarily syncs to the encrypted backup node in the current alpha. For alpha testers, the application is always connected to the backup node and cannot be disconnected.

Their homepage could tell this more clearly. It doesn't look like it's in alpha.

[1] https://doc.anytype.io/d/troubleshooting/self-host-your-back...

We are in open beta now. We have a network of nodes not one node.

You should update your docs because this is not what they say. I seem to understand you just started the open beta -- congratulations. You should still mention your product is in beta on your homepage (or at the very least, your download page).

EDIT: How can I see which nodes are in the network? There's only one ID on https://networks.any.coop/ and I don't know what to do with it.

Thank you for the heads-up, we will review the relevance of all the docs.

Regarding the list of nodes: we don't show it in the interface now, but will add more network information in the coming releases with simplified self-hosting. For now, you can see the list of nodes in the code: https://github.com/anyproto/anytype-heart/blob/release/core/...

If you want to dive into the details, information about the underlying protocol and configuration formats can be found there: https://tech.anytype.io

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