Re: [Tails-project] [Tails-ux] #8948: Reconsider the termino…

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Author: sajolida
Date:  
To: Public mailing list about the Tails project
Subject: Re: [Tails-project] [Tails-ux] #8948: Reconsider the terminology around "persistence"
Teqleez Motley:
> (IMHO, this discussion belongs in the UX list.)


I agree in theory. In practice, I decided to have it on tails-project@
because I know that more developers and translators are subscribed to
tails-project@ and that some of them would care about this discussions.
For example, I'm not sure whether segfault and moire are subscribed to
tails-ux@.

>> We also considered "Persistent Memory", "Persistent Volume", "Persistent
>> Drive", "Persistent Vault", and "Persistent Locker" but both Cody and I
>> preferred "Persistent Storage".
>>
>
> My2c - I think the term "Persistent" is good, but agree that it should not stand on its own. I almost agree with @sajolida's suggestion, but wonder if we should put in an extra emphasise that indicate 2 things: a) that the other folders are UNencrypted and b) that the persistent storage (folders) are in fact encrypted.
>
> IMO, could use "vault", "LUKS" or "encrypted", for example:
>
> - "Persistent vault" (indicates encryption, even for non-technical folks)
> - "Persistent encrypted storage" (least tech term)
> - "Persistent LUKS storage" (for Linux knowers, indicates encrypted PARTITION)


As I've written in
https://lists.autistici.org/message/20191212.135500.06a6b69b.en.html

I think that it's useful to keep in mind that such words don't exist out
of the blue but always in context. For example, the word "cloud" is not
in itself a very good metaphor to describe a place to store things,
still it works fine and people adopted it pretty easily.

In the case of Persistence, the fact that it is "safe" or encrypted can
be conveyed through context as well. For example, the word Persistence
will be introduced and explained on our website and, most importantly,
when creating one and setting up a password for it. To be able to use
Persistence users also have to enter their password every time they
start Tails and click "Unlock". The same button could be label "Unlock
Encryption" if we wanted to insist more on the safety of it. We might
find other similar tricks whenever needed to reinforce other aspects.

These are just some examples that lead me to think that it's better to
use a simpler term by default, while making sure that the whole concept
and its properties are also made clear to users by other means.

--
sajolida
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