Johnny.Decimal

Raised as a usability problem by 9 people on Hacker News over 6 years (2020–2025), in 4 threads.

People raised many different problems with Johnny.Decimal, but no single problem has yet been raised by 3 people in 3 different months and threads.

Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.

The newest 9 complaints

Spent 15 minutes unable to find a simple list of the rules2025-02-22
Must remember document creation year or inconsistent month naming to find files2025-02-21
Too few folder levels, so items are harder to find2023-09-14
Items supposed to belong in several places at once don't fit the numbered scheme and it falls down2023-09-14
People must memorise which number starts each folder name to find folders2023-09-14
Numbered folders break alphabetical ordering, so people can't find folders by name2023-09-14
Navigating others' Johnny Decimal folders means clicking through many empty folders to find files2023-06-13
Can't find documents; numbered structure is hard to remember and navigate2023-06-13
Can't decide where to file things or find them again later2020-12-16