When I read the subject line of the recent newsletter email I thought it was announcement that the business was unsustainable and you’d be shutting down. Given the considerable investment I’ve made in Framework laptops at this point, and belief in your mission, it was very disheartening. When I started to read the email and realized that wasn’t what it was about at all, I was pretty pissed off that you’d intentionally cause that kind of concern. Surely your marketing department didn’t miss the possibility of that interpretation of the subject line. Badly done Framework newsletter team…badly done. 
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We’ve read your feedback.
Now, speaking exclusively for myself, second paragraph is painfully clear in the intent. Versus the headline only.
Suggestion for twitter, include second paragraph with the url.
“We commissioned Fraunhofer IZM to do a detailed life cycle analysis on Framework Laptop 13 to help us understand where we are today and where we can continue to improve.”
Sets a positive tone immediately.
Again, speaking exclusively for myself only and knowing first hand how hard they worked to have a real conversation about where we from here and what we’re doing, your comment is heard, but, I wholeheartedly disagree. The headline was to get folks to read and noodle on an important topic.
If this was not made clear second paragraph in, boy, that gives me pause.
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If this was not made clear second paragraph in, boy, that gives me pause.
I made it very clear in my original post that I had concern about the subject line only. I never stated, and it’s an uncharitable reading, to suggest that I have a concern or misunderstanding regarding the content of the email.
The headline was to get folks to read…
My point exactly. We just disagree on whether or not the way they chose to implement that attention grabbing headline was wise and fair to their readers.
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Agreed, the title gave me quite a big scare.
While I understand the seperate meaning, I frown upon this slightly, as it honestly is a bit too clickbaity (but most of all almost gave me a heart attack :P)
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Maybe something to learn from the BBC:
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Yes!
Also something to apply to problem reports in bug trackers, forum posts (like here, reddit, others) etc. Posts titled “Problem with laptop screen” tend to be passed by. “Replaced bezel, now screen flickers when pressing Tab button” (imaginary example) is much better.
Am I the only one to never even had the idea that Framework could be shutting down?
I mean clearly after all the recent success it shows that demand is there and its high.
After reading the first sentence (and neither is any other device maker) it becomes instantly clear.
I dont think the subject is badly choosen, just provoking engagement which is good for such an important topic.
You see, it worked and at the bottom line, that is what matters to the planet.
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I knew what they meant right away upon reading the title, but that’s because I’ve been following them, reading their blog posts and forum posts. I knew that besides right-to-repair, sustainability was also something they work towards.
But, many others are going to think it’s referring to the company’s health / finances. It’s just not clear. And it’s possible that was the intent even, to get more people to read it. If so, that was a bad choice imo.
~edit~
See the Comment from Nrp a few posts down.
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When I first read the subject line, it definitely got my attention, and I thought that Framework was being transparent about how they were going to fail. When I actually read their message, I was relieved that wasn’t what it was about.
I do agree that it would be a better idea to make subject lines less frightening in the future. I could unfortunately see some people reading the subject line alone, and from that, think Framework would soon be on its way out as a company, and at that point, acting on misinformation. The subject line was definitely misleading.
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If FW was actually shutting down they wouldn’t be making announcements about AMD FW13 starting SMT production and final assembly and FW16 would’ve never likely made it to pre-orders.
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FWIW: here are two HN threads regarding the newsletter:
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37587748: three comments, all about the title
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37588374: fourth comment about the title being click bait
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I was surprised at first by this thread, because I read the subject line and immediately thought of environmental sustainability, but I can totally see how others may read it as economical sustainability.
I think it was a fair mistake on Framework’s part, and would have been much worse if they hadn’t had a detailed email to go along with the subject line to make it clear what they actually meant. It is a good example of how important it is to not judge a book by it’s cover!
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Comment from Nrp
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Honestly, whenever a company says the word “sustainable”, it just tells me they are going to be charging me much more for the same/similar product than other companies do. It’s just another one of those stupid corporate buzz-words that in reality means absolutely nothing because it only means whatever the marketing fool uses it to mean. It’s a consumer “pander”, an attempt to make you feel like it is worth spending more because you are supposedly helping the planet in some unknown way.
" Mission Statement" by “Weird Al” Yankovic always comes to mind here.
That said, I am glad it wasn’t some annoying explanation on why Framework is saving humanity. I buy things that I like and that I feel will better my life and the life of my family, which often does include things like repairable devices, rechargeable batteries, etc; not because some marketing student slaps the word “sustainable” all over it.
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based
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Yep, buy the laptop because it’s a good tool for what you need.
If you care about the ecological crises, take public transit and stop eating animals.
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We didn’t intend for it to be clickbait (nrp, HN)
It’s hard for me to fathom that no one in the marketing department who proofed the newsletter realized the email subject might have been understood as a statement of financial sustainability rather than environmental. But, I’ll take the statement at face value, and retract my assumption that they did it intentionally as click bait.
I despise that so much of the online world is a parasitic manipulation of some of the basic biological realities of human nature (e.g. click bait headlines). The only reason I made my criticism public is because I’ve appreciated the engineering first non-nonsense work that Framework is doing, even with its marketing. They are building tech and communicating about it in a way that demonstrates real and fundamental value. I thought that the presumably intentional click bait title was a disheartening departure from that. I am glad that was just a misunderstanding on my part.
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Strong disagree. Loved the little roller coaster that email notification sent me on. My mind did honestly go to the unthinkable, but I immediately caught myself and realized exactly what the email was going to be about before even opening it.
Maybe it’s just my sense of humor, or maybe it’s that I waste time at work by opening new Edge tabs and just scroll clickbait headlines so I’m rather desensitized, but I demand no apology. And I don’t mean that I don’t demand an apology, I mean I demand that Framework not apologize. It was cheeky at worst, self-deprecatingly honest at best. Loved it. More please.
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Yeah, same here. Why the hell does Framework decide to use that subject line? I almost skipped reading the newsletter with the impression that Framework is possibly shutting down.
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Yeah I definitely agree with OP on this one. Maybe one can see it as a harmless little clickbait title, but when you consider it in the eyes of someone that has invested a lot in Framework products and now learns by reading the subject of an e-mail that this investment would be losing support and future prospect, it’s one more drop of stress in someone’s day you really just don’t need.
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