3. As someone trying to upload using the GUI, I'm very confused.

As someone trying to upload using the GUI, I'm very confused.

  • S

    I posted this to the siacoin subreddit yesterday but got no responses, so I thought I'd have more luck here. Your help in explaining some of these issues/questions would be much appreciated

    I've uploaded a few files to test how this brilliant idea works and I have some questions.

    When the contracts are being created you have to allocate funds, but nowhere beforehand did it tell me how much was going to be spent on the contract creation, this needs to be visible.

    It doesn't tell me or give me an option for how long the contracts will last. (I've since found the duration in the command line renter allowance, but this should be visible before you allocate sc)

    I've allocated 500sc and the GUI tells me I've spent 418 of that even before I uploaded, but the command line says differently:

    Renter info:
	Storage Spending:  956.8 mS
	Upload Spending:   34.11 mS
	Download Spending: 0 H
	Unspent Funds:     431.5 SC
	Total Allocated:   432.5 SC

    Why is there a discrepency between the funds allocated originally (500) and this cmd line output, and also in the unspent funds in the GUI and the cmd line.
    The three spending values, is that per day, month, block?

    The GUI seems to be missing a large amount of necessary information, for example where is the total upload space and space left available left to use?

    A lot of this information seems to be available in the GUI, but the numbers never add up. Renter prices cmd states:

    Renter Prices (estimated):
  Fees for Creating a Set of Contracts:   508 SC
  Download 1 TB:                          214.2 SC
  Store 1 TB for 1 Month:                 713.7 SC
  Upload 1 TB:                            188.9 SC

    But I only allocated 500 and apparantly have 431.5 left unspent.

    Also what happens if my allocated funds run out?

    Suffice to say I'm rather confused.

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  • J

    I don't think I can help you but I will try to write up something the way I see it :).

    You set an allowance, so money that is to be spent on making contracts and all.
    That allowance (or a part of it) is then put in a 'reserved' state, so it's accessible to you, and basically gone from your wallet.
    See it as being in 'nowhere land' but the hosters can make a claim on it if they offer services (without you then cheekily denying the contract or anything).

    If you don't spend the money in your allowance, it will be returned to you in a certain amount of weeks (two or something I believe? It's stated somewhere in the manual / getting-started guides)

    So the moment you set an allowance and are making contracts, you will 'spend' a chunk of money but it will only be 'reserved'. If you don't use it, it will be returned. There's probably where the difference is coming from between commandline tools and the UI. One reports your entire allowance as 'spent' or 'reserved', the other just lists what is actually used.

    Also, don't forget that you pay for uploading data, storing data and downloading data. So if the UI decides to rent for example a few 100 MBs of storage on a host, it will assume you are going to at least upload 100 MB there so it will calculate that in the costs. But until you actually upload it, you didn't make any costs yet.

    That the UI takes some things for granted (like what to do with the allowance) and is not clear is absolutely true, can't disagree there. The command-line tools are in my mind a must to get stuff working (also because my UI just plane doesn't work) but also to really learn what's going on behind the scenes.

    In the other hand, uploading through the command-line tools is a pain-in-the-*ss so the UI serves it's purpose.

    Sia is clearly very experimental in this regard. So be careful with the money you're spending. You never know what the UI might do with it :S

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  • S

    @joris.mak
    Thanks very much for the response.
    It's good to hear that someone else thinks at least a little similarly to me regarding the UI and clear as mud info displayed.

    It's disheartening to begin learning that the developers haven't put a huge amount of thought into the overall user experience (I was hoping my issues were from me just being dumb initially). Don't get me wrong, I think Sia is great and a lot of good work has been done in a short time frame, but ease of use is very important when attracting and retaining new customers.

    It would be nice to get a response from a known dev to confirm that the problems are understood and likely to be addressed. Is there a more prominent place I should post this?

    I've invested a reasonable amount into this technology now because it's genuinely such a brilliant idea. It would be fantastic to see Sia become a world standard for safe secure cloud storage. Their success will be measured by how much the devs listen to end user gripes and ideas for improving the user experience.

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