Maybe I'm just a grumpy old man, but I really dislike this style of website that requires you to poke around for ages trying to figure out what it's about, or what value it would bring me to use it.<p>Examples:<p>+ The title of this HN post promises it uses Lidar data, but one of the three examples I looked at had nothing to do with Lidar, and the other two didn't mention Lidar at all.<p>+ That first example shows a drone-based measurement system, but it wasn't clear the measurements were done by the website, as opposed to the data's originator.<p>+ The second example I looked at purports to show a volumetric analysis of a concrete plant, but it has no description, and I don't see any actual analysis taking place. On the other hand, my laptop slows to a crawl whenever I'm on that page, so it must be doing something. The comments on that page did promise that I can "activate" a map, but gave no indication what that means, or why I should want to do so.<p>+ The "upload" page states that in three steps I can start measuring my data, but it doesn't give me any reason I should upload my data to somebody else's website, rather than just take measurements myself. What's superior about the website's tools? What formats are supported? No indication, and apparently no way to find out unless I sign up and start trying to upload data.<p>+ The "plans" page implies, without making explicit, that if I upload with a free account, I will automatically share my data with others, but not be able to measure it, nor be able to download somebody else's data. So let's say I get a free account. What can I do with my data? Conversely, let's say I pay for an account. What measurements can I make? How do I discover what data are available for me to download? And what indications do I have of the quality of the data (e.g., what's the spatial resolution, what are the errors in the measurements, and have the data been vetted in any way to ensure there were no processing errors)?<p>So where's the value?<p>Note I'm not saying there's no value here. Maybe there is. But the website doesn't do anything to make its value proposition clear -- unless I'm willing to poke around through enough of their examples, and the examples I looked at didn't show me anything useful.