An editor told me my Signal thread was 'too clean' and I changed how I talk about encryption

I was writing a guide for our local activist group about how to set up disappearing messages, and an editor said my examples sounded like a press release instead of real people talking. She said if I wanted people to actually use encryption, I needed to show the messy parts, not just the technical steps. So I rewrote it to include a story about a friend who panicked when her messages vanished mid-argument. Now I always include a concrete, flawed example of how encryption changes real conversations, not just the perfect privacy scenario. Has anyone else gotten feedback that made you totally rethink how you explain these tools?

2 comments

2 Comments

thomas29120d ago

Sent a screenshot of my friend's panic text to her boyfriend that disappeared before he read it.

taraw1620d ago

Nah i actually think @thomas291 did the right thing here, getting the screenshot to the boyfriend was better than letting that message disappear into thin air. If the friend was really in a bad spot mentally then having someone else loop in her partner could literally be the difference between getting help or not. Worst case scenario the boyfriend gets a confusing screenshot but best case someone catches a serious red flag early.