Admittingly, I have a technical background and bias, but in looking at the documentation available I believe it boils down the essentials to a pretty low level - down to the point I could hand it to my wife and she could setup a hub (she has no desire to, but that's another topic). What people have to understand is that the minute you add your first device or app your install is unique and you need to educate yourself on how to make it function best for you. This is where the community shines.
Where I see the major disconnect is with, let's call it a class of users (although some have none) that have been coddled their entire life and believe that everything should be given to them without expending any effort. At times these individuals exude such hubris and arrogance that they distance themselves from the very help that they are seeking by disparaging those attempting to render assistance; i.e. don't call me a hacker or a troll if I'm trying to help. This class of user also needs to understand that when someone in the community asks for information concerning their configuration, etc. there is more often than not a need to provide said information to either provide a solution or discount/eliminate a possible issue from consideration.
. Home automation thinking is a skill. The more you practice the better you get. But you actually have to practice and the quality of practice matters too.
Tim, it's always been that way. There are several wiki's on hubitat that are community maintained. Hubitat has enough on their plate and could not justify a projected like that.
There does come a point where people (customers) expect more than user-driven solutions. There's a certain kudos associated with user-driven solutions, but there comes a point where people expect a company to step in and put their stamp on a situation. The time they take can vary and people's acceptance of that time can equally vary,....
I think we need to be very careful with this idea. I was on that thread too when it got derailed by the OP and the personal attacks were uncalled for. However, sometimes it is helpful to take a step back and remember how most new folks end up with Hubitat. They start with Hue, Google, Alexa, Smartthings, or Apple that have polished interfaces and are designed for the masses. Those systems are intentionally designed to make it easy for a new user to get up and running. Log in, connect a different app via log-in, and see your devices. All of them have an automation tab and make it very simple to create something.
Eventually, something happens with the big players (usually a cloud outage or an inability to do something) and it causes the new users to seek something else out. This was me one year ago when the C8 was released. I came from Google and Hue looking for something else. Obviously, I'm very happy and have tried to give back where I can due to this amazing community. What folks do not know is that I bombed with a C7 about five months prior, returned it, and thought that Hubitat was not going to work. The interface is very difficult to understand coming from the big players. Even Basic Rules (which in some ways imitates the big players) can be difficult to a new user.
I guess I'll end this with saying that the OP is partially right and partially wrong. There is a balancing act that Hubitat tries to make work. It's not easy but I do appreciate the effort that is put in by the Hubitat staff, the community developers, and everyone else that makes this place such a wonderful site. To new users, keep plugging away at it! If you get stuck, do not be afraid to ask for help. It's okay as we have all been there. To everyone else, keep being awesome!
This reminds me of something we were reminded of all the times on the ST forums before i came to HE. Siimply put most users don't use their smarthomes the way we do here. It was talked about all over the ST forums about how the average user had less then 10 devices. It highlights how simple most people uses are.
Here with HE the sky is the limit, but that also means that when it comes to simple things like configuring a bulb there is allot more potential to sift through to accomplish tasks. Compare that to a highly curated rule engine like what is in ST post Groovy's demise there and it is easy to see how a user would get overwhelmed.
Could the UI be better ,certainly, but it is 100% useable.
That developer is great about helping out, if you have questions post them in the thread for the app. The same advice goes for any community developed app or driver.
However I would say that the numbers are small. The jump from homekit to HE is too great for the majority of people who prefer the ease of use and who are prepared to put up with the odd inconvenience (lets face it how often really does AWS or Apple's servers go down for extended periods).
I would say the biggest thing that would cause people to jump from Alexa / Google / Apple over to a true hub would be automation limitations. Not sure how many of you have actually tried to make automations in those systems, but you cannot do much. I was helping someone with some Kasa stuff we shared to Alexa. I think I was trying to have it so when one light came on (due to an integrated motion sensor) that it turned on another light, nope not possible...
. Home automation thinking is a skill. The more you practice the better you get. But you actually have to practice and the quality of practice matters too.
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