I think it could make sense to suggest (not recommend) good projects that are still in the development phase to help them attract more testers and/or contributors.
Some examples of such projects would be Accrescent, Aeon, Ladybird Browser, etc.
Thoughts?
It depends. Several projects that are on the site are in beta, but they actually have a good usable product. Ladybird isnât remotely in a state where it could be recommended to anyone, especially when the browser is one of the most important pieces of software that acts as one of the main vectors for malware and tracking. Itâs best to stick with the already established options until ladybird is more developed.
In general we do not recommend projects which do not hit stable, the reason for this is is that its often unclear if the project is in a usable and secure state, and if it stays that way. Betas can break at any moment, and you cannot call devs out on it as thats what betas are for.
Sadly not everyone who reads the site comes here often, so we tend to want to only suggest software and services where we know they will be there for a long time.
This is for example where we dropped the ball with Skiff, and which is why we are taking a longer look with forward mail.
What are those projects?
I wasnât talking about recommending these projects, but about suggesting or mentioning them.
For example:
While we currently do not recommend Accrescent, itâs something that you might be interested in.
Or something along those lines.
Recently I was looking into FreeTube which is still in beta. Accrescent is also recommended already as an install method even though itâs still in beta. Iâm sure thereâs more if I go looking.
Didnât know that FreeTube is in beta, interesting.
@fria and @Niek-de-Wilde provided excellent points that I agree with completely, but Iâll also chime in from a contributing/writing perspective.
These short mentions or âshout-outsâ of projects in development are tricky because I donât think that they do them enough justice. That is, I donât think they represent the advantages and upsides of such projects (e.g., Accrescent).
In the same veinâŚ
Such a mention necessitates at least the following explanations:
The answer for the first question must be very clear, otherwise readers might jump to conclusions. The answer to the second question would already be a part of the description for Accrescentâs listing when it reaches stable and is recommended.
Another reason why I hesitate with suggesting tools in development is directly related to this sentiment expressed by @Niek-de-Wilde.
After GrapheneOS mirrored Accrescent in the GrapheneOS App Store, there was a post in the GrapheneOS Discussion Forum that expressed a degree of disappointment at the number of apps available from Accrescent and its (slow) growth[1].
Personally, I donât want to place pressure on these developers by listing them on the site with a shout-out. Listing a new tool on the site does bring more eyes on the added project, which can be a net positive most of the time (for the reason you provided), or a potential negative, as the developer of Cromite points out here:
if it is possible, i would ask you to be patient with your publication, until issue uazo/cromite#710 is resolved.
to date I have some doubts about the legality of the distribution of my executables, regarding the support of aac and h264, due to the lack of a licence that it will not be possible for me to purchase it due to the high costs
Although I am not aware of how many installations my browser has, under 100,000 I can be comfortable, but a higher spread that might happen after your change. could bring me legal problems.[2]
People who are willing to test or contribute to a project would probably do more than just read the suggested/recommended projects here. Maybe instead, we try to build a community thread here in the forum spotlighting projects we think are cool, like the ladybird post I made when Futo gave them a grant, but as a more ongoing thing. Similar to how the Techlore forum has a weekly privacy wins thread, we as a community could make a weekly project spotlight thread and advance discussion and attention that way?
I like your idea and the essence of the topikstarterâs intent. For example, there is a project that Iâm watching closely because of its potential, for if it goes stable, its very simple but incredibly important privacy functionality could easily help novice users fix one of the hidden problems that they donât consider.
While the option via terminal is much more elegant, most beginners donât immediately come to this level of implementation.
I really like this idea over directly listing unstable/fast moving software since in my experience, a big complaint of end users new to privacy seems to be instability and scarcity of features.
It will bring attention, but will not give seed to the idea that you should shift to it immediately. Maybe even embed a section in the regular blogs PG is planning to restart instead of website or forum (since we already have project showcase).
Like at the end of the blog a few projects are highlighted with their websites linked and why PG feels its worth following.
thats what we have the project spotlight for 
It looks to be more targeted at devs and content creators doing self promotion of projects than specifically for community discussion right now. However the idea would fall into the Product Showcase category.
Edit: It even says Iâm not allowed to post in the catgory as a whole right now. âYou canât create new posts here. If youâre working on something you want to show off, read the pinned topic for details.â At the top of the category.
In the same post you linked:
You must be a member of @ developers to create a new post here. If youâre working on some software/hardware project, send a membership request to that group!
Thats good and well needed/desired/wanted.
Its also advisable not to speed-up review proccess. This may lead to many unwanted things.
@Lukas as of projects that are under (heavy) development: basically 99% of projects hosted on platforms like Git(Hub/Lab), BitBucket, etc. Unless being archived (that equals to +/- 1%)
YeahâŚI was skimming the surface to make a fast point. Thatâs my bad. Still the point stands, if the category is for creators only then its not a community driven spotlight area for projects the community thinks are cool but that arenât recommended like Ladybird, Book Story, Futo projects and more.
I wonder if there is interest in us hosting an independent privacy tool directory/review site, where we just have a listing for every tool and let people leave reviews. Like Yelp for privacy projects essentially.
We could pin/highlight reviews from experts, give a badge to tools that are actually recommended by Privacy Guides so they stand out, etc.
@jonah thats something to discuss, maybe create a poll, and, based on userâs choice, work on it, or not ( = leave it as its now)
I know weâve just taken on our first member of staff, but IDK if this would be the best use of our time/money at the moment. That said, I wouldnât be against this sort of service if we had enough other people contributing to itâŚ
Doing a blog series highlighting upcoming projects we like the look of but canât yet list would be good. But if we launch a dedicated review site then it wouldnât be needed.
Interested in opinions from the rest of the @team
That would be cool, although I was more thinking like a dedicated thread done for the community to post stuff intermittently. Like I was thinking of setting a schedule and just creating them bi-weekly or something, but Iâd run out of projects fairly quickly on my own assuming I just do one each thread myself.