Public vs shared distinction and confusion

[novoselt]

I think we have a concept collision with publishing/sharing files. We understand the different options and what exactly do they mean, but I suspect such phrases are highly confusing for new users: "You can now make it so https://cocalc.com/name-of-your-choice (e.g., https://cocalc.com/wstein) lists all of the documents you have shared publicly." Given that options for sharing are:

• Public (listed)
• Public (unlisted)
• Private - only collaborators on this project can view this.

It seems that EVERYTHING is shared, at least with collaborators, but then there are also two public options. From a linguistic point of view both are public sharing that would be visible on the vanity URL page. Moreover, the description for private is wrong - collaborators can view AND EDIT this file.

I think the term "shared" could be reserved for the middle option, unlisted publishing, although if that was the case it would be nice to have consistent URLs as well, i.e. /shared/ vs. /published/ This is perhaps too much work, especially with making sure that everything works as expected. But would it be OK to at least rename options to

• Public (listed)
• Shared (unlisted)
• Private

and then try to refer to them consistently in the documentation?

NOTE: the current documentation https://doc.cocalc.com/share.html uses existing interface, but follows the proposed shared/published distinction.

[williamstein]

Your argument for what terminology to use and/or change to would be more compelling if it were explicitly supported by what is commonly used in other very popular and similar software such as Google Drive, rather than just "I think..."

[novoselt]

The main problem to me is not the choice of terminology, but that the current choice and its application is unclear. Most of the documentation talks about sharing/publishing meaning listed publishing. "Shared publicly" then seems like a tautology. At the same time I think that both ways of sharing are important for their own use cases. I am trying to think how to improve the documentation and wonder if a tweak to UI is warranted as well. Scope-creep, perhaps ;-)

[novoselt]

Looked at my google drive - looks like "Share" is used exactly for unlisted publishing and in general I think the verb makes sense - you create a link that you have to share with some people to give them access. If you publish this link for everybody on the Internet, it is an extra step and that activity may very well be called "Publish"!

[williamstein]

Nice. I wasn't saying you're "wrong", just that looking at some actual conventions people see will help make your argument more compelling. Thanks!