Preventing file and data loss on Dropbox

[Mongolovescandy17]

Time and again uninformed Dropbox customers think of Dropbox as if it were a "Simple Backup" system.  

(note: I use quotes to merely emphasize a word or concept. 

And I capitalize on occasion, not to scream, but merely to emphasize.  So don't freak out about it.

Then they find out that the files on Dropbox and the files on their own lap or desktop are linked together, in a manner similar to "accidentally on purpose quantum entanglement".   That is, if you delete one file on your own local Dropbox, the other in the "non-local Dropbox" gets deleted as well. I sincerely doubt that Dropbox ever explained this fact clearly enough.   Where is the warning pop-up that spells this out?  Nowhere!

I suggest the same system which Microsoft Outlook (the online version) uses.  What do they do? 

The way I understand it, you have to delete a Microsoft Outlook email message "THREE TIMES", to ensure it is really gone.

At first, that file or message sits in the database, where all your other Outlook messages are also located

If you delete it the FIRST time, that message now ends up in the Deleted Items Folder (Database).   You knew that.

Within 30 days MSFT deletes the files in the "DELETED FILES FOLDER".  So, first off, you get 30 days to change your mind on your deletions. 

You also knew that.   Like a patient teacher I review what you already should know, ok, so don't get antsy.

But, you ask, what happens, if you are 100% sure the file or message needs to be gone, and you deleted it yourself, the SECOND TIME out of the "Deleted Items Folder" ?  

That's where I have to give Microsoft Kudos for having the foresight to know that people who are 100% (even 120% or an unknown Republican percentage) sure they're right, can still be wrong, because, tadaa, Microsoft moves the deleted file/message from the DELETED Items folder into a secondary FOLDER OF deleted files, where it sits now,  (I don't know how long) long enough to recover it in case the 100% sure person figures out in time that they were wrong and the file is needed after all. 

You can access that TWICE deleted file/message in the "SECOND DELETED FILES FOLDER" which is named "Recover items deleted from this folder".  Once there, you can decide to recover the file or message, of you can decide to delete it a THIRD TIME.  Only then it is really gone.

If you think about it, this is the concept Dropbox should apply to its system. 

Anyone working at Dropbox should get a simple Microsoft Outlook online e-mail account, and prove out for themselves that this is how the Outlook system works.  Whether Dropbox would/should decide to "disentangle" the files from each other when they are saved a second time, that I don't know.   

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The rest below is just my opinions, so don't read it if you don't have an open mind.

What I do know is this:

The Quantum loves me,

this I know, for the

science tells me so.

Why? Oh, just to gently force science to give me a warm, soft, fuzzy feeling every once in a while. Don't worry about it.

If you observe yourself and three billions of computer & software users:  I first try to use the software without reading any instructions or manual, and if that works, then both I and the software creator are geniuses!  Yes!!

If it does not work, then I am still a genius, and I might read something, try something, but generally the software creator is 'obviously'

an evil devil trying to destroy my life and the life of billions of other innocent people. And then I complain loudly and bitterly.

Seriously, "if they'd only assume zero knowledge" among software users, Dropbox could make software better and more useful.

Dropbox should consider that approach sometimes, because so far they are still among the "We are always right,

and the customer is always wrong" camp.   I stopped using Dropbox, because they are not listening to me, and

because they do not sufficiently explain their terms to the user.  Basically an unwillingness to communicate.

The building of the Golden Gate bridge saw lots of deadly accidents, until they installed a net under the area where workers were present.

Hardly anyone fell into the net, because the mere existence of the net made people less nervous.  Anyone who's ever been nervous knows

that errors, mistakes, multiply simply because of being nervous.   That's why the above makes sense.  Because software is made for people,

not for robots.

[Walter]

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