[HN Gopher] Nobody Reads Your Setup Docs
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       Nobody Reads Your Setup Docs
        
       Author : donutshop
       Score  : 20 points
       Date   : 2026-03-25 12:29 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (hanzilla.co)
 (TXT) w3m dump (hanzilla.co)
        
       | Brajeshwar wrote:
       | Isn't that the first one reads, when one wants to Setup? What
       | changed?
        
         | loloquwowndueo wrote:
         | The first one i read is README
        
       | regus wrote:
       | " And I realized my setup instructions weren't documentation.
       | They were a wall between my product and the people who wanted to
       | use it."
       | 
       | Assuming this was written by a human, I think it is time to
       | retire saying "this is not x it is y".
       | 
       | The moment I see that I think the text is AI generated and I lose
       | interest.
        
         | loloquwowndueo wrote:
         | It feels ai-written, for sure. The sentence structure and
         | idioms are very typical of ai writing these days.
        
           | cryzinger wrote:
           | Agreed; I don't think "Not X, but Y" is a reliable tell on
           | its own, but taken as a whole TFA set off my AI writing
           | spidey-sense big time. The intro takes three paragraphs of
           | fluff (ironically) to say "My product used to have long docs,
           | but after using a product with much shorter docs it made me
           | reconsider my approach."
        
         | dijksterhuis wrote:
         | i've noticed recently i actually do that fairly often. so i'm
         | consciously trying to edit after the fact to remove it for that
         | exact reason.
         | 
         | is annoying.
        
       | Forge36 wrote:
       | On a recent project we joked "developers can't read".
       | Occasionally we'd ask for help and be pointed to the docs "I
       | can't read".
       | 
       | I suspect there's two big parts to this:
       | 
       | 1. Users expect batteries included and that everything "just
       | works" the first time.
       | 
       | 2. The language you used differs match your audience. E.g they
       | search "gray" and find no results, however you've spelt it "grey"
        
       | Eisenstein wrote:
       | So, how do your users uninstall it when they don't want it any
       | more?
        
       | Titled86 wrote:
       | lol too true, learned this the hard way
        
       | quangtrn wrote:
       | The framing shift that helps: instead of "how do I get users to
       | read setup docs," ask "what would it take to have no setup docs
       | at all." Usually ends up being a better product anyway.
        
       | axus wrote:
       | I'm going to ask a lazy question, don't you need a good setup
       | document in order to write the installer that executes setup?
        
       | finthehuman wrote:
       | Claude reads them.
        
       | assimpleaspossi wrote:
       | >The wizard opens your browser to sign in, scans your machine for
       | installed agents, and writes the config to each one. It supports
       | over 30 agents. The user never sees a config file.
       | 
       | In this day and age, I find it interesting that no one is
       | screaming about security and privacy concerns about this which is
       | so prevalent on any social media platform including this one.
        
       | flexagoon wrote:
       | If a "developer" can't manage to read one paragraph in a readme,
       | maybe the "developer tool" is not for them. As much as I usually
       | hate gatekeeping, basic reading comprehension is a skill I'd
       | happily gatekeep at.
        
         | buescher wrote:
         | Just have an AI make a video out of it, I guess.
        
           | fc417fc802 wrote:
           | Replace the manpage with a tiktok clone. Every video clip is
           | a different section of the manpage. /s
        
       | NamlchakKhandro wrote:
       | Why do people keep creating MCP servers.
       | 
       | All you need is bash
        
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       (page generated 2026-03-28 23:01 UTC)