after abandoning sia a while ago i wanted to use this weekend to check in not really excited but definitely keen to give it another try i gave up after 30 minutes here is my journey before i start: two months ago the team promised to do and communicate better so lets see how the @siafoundation takes this feedback and if it will change anything i am starting fresh coz i rage uninstalled everything like two months ago so let me do this as if i never had any interaction with sia before.. on the website you cant find the downloads easily anymore as in... you go on the website and use the browser search to find 'downloads' nothing its hidden under 'getting started' then `software downloads` then when you end up there as a newcomer you have no idea what to download without reading the whole docs before you must know what renterd and the rest means but there is also an alternative path on 'getting started' you can chose between renting or providing data if you do that you land on the setup guide for renters guess what there is no download option at all instead you must click on one of linux/windows/macos then... you are redirected to the docs page with a wall of text before anything installing is mentioned then i found the installing part but... the renterd mac app doesnt exist there its talking something about brew and shows me computer commands but i dont want that i just want to store my data securely with the mac app so i went back to the download page because now i know that i need renterd if i want to backup my files there are two options the desktop and terminal application one is version 0.34 the other is 2.8 below is a setup link to the setup guide its for both downloads the same link alright let me download the desktop application first while it downloads the 880mb (??) i click on the setup link but that doesnt bring me to a setup guid it brings me to a general docs page so i read some things before i see the 'installing renterd' reference i click it and select macos again but wait thats again the site where it says something about computer commands like brew and nothing about the desktop app i am (still) downloading (as a very patient new user id prob be out here.... i am not so i pull through) when the download finished i open my spotlight and type sia but nothing shows up not sure why anyyyywayyyy i know where i downloaded it to ahhh its renterd alright let me install it.. drag drop done nice open spotlight and type sia tf.. still not there.. ok the installer name was renter something so let me search that.... success so lets open this a launcher window opens (i dont want to complain about every lil detail but while i am on it: its really badly readable if you dont have great eyes) so as a (pretended) new user its pretty clear what to do here and i understand it.. good (let me side track to the user who already has a recovery phrase.. there is no option for that and you must use the same flow as a new user... so you enter an existing phrase and password in te new user mask) ok so phrase and password is filled whats next? there is no 'next' button or something at the bottom where i would expect it anyway green buttons always good so lets click 'save and start daemon' (no idea what a daemon is) ah, dialog that tells me to copy and store the phrase somewhere (as the user who already had a phrase you are too forced too copy the phrase you just pasted) click it and get a confirmation dialog that.......... shows my phrase in plain text while it in the actual field is hidden i hopen no one in the coffee shop looked at my screen rn fml oki okiiii done. this thing opened finally.... so now the actual app opens in my browser... not sure why i downloaded a 880mb desktop app then but ok so now i need to enter my password that i just entered one screen before paste.. wrong. ah yeah, thats coz i had to copy the phrase in the last step let me rotate back to copy the password again done aaaand in! what a journey first things i see are... 1 need to setup my storage settings. there is a link, works, cool 2 the second step is 'Wait for the blockchain to sync 1....' no idea wht the '1....' means but there is a orange details button. aaaaah its not clickable, must be decoration 3 'fund my wallet 0.9%' what does it want to tell me here? what 0.9%?? 4 that auto pilot is disabled. not sure why i manually must activate this if it is required to run the software but okeee alrighty, whats next? not so sure. but the logo at the top shows a percentage so lets click that.. ah no opens a popup with infos percentage of synching 1.1% after 5 minutes ok will take a while wait wasnt sia supposed to be instant sync since the v2 hardfork last year?? ah, there is a version info at the bottom of the popup.. it shows 2.7.1 waaait, earlier the website showed 0.34 and 2.8 versions did i download something wrong? is that why it takes so long to sync? noooo idea.... alright this will take a while. i gonna skip this for now. might check back next weekend.. or dont sooo now you can see this as highly valuable user feedback or call me dumb but that is exactly the user experience a first time user has its crazy to me really that everything screams that they cant at all see things from a users perspective and its so sad as a side note... every openclaw user will have crazy storage needs and it is exactly the privacy oriented audience sia is made for. its the perfect match and probably the single biggest opportunity to gain traction sia had over the last few years but with things being like i described above i doubt anyone wants to deal with sia at all