zlacker

>>rexree+(OP)
I thought the headline meant that this was going to present Signal as an example of the bloat, but it's the reverse: the article says Signal has only 50 employees but still successfully operates a major communications service, where other companies have thousands of employees.

Apart from Signal just generally doing a good job here, I see a few other possible factors:

* Signal doesn't see user content, so it doesn't have a content moderation team

* Signal is designed in such a way that it can't comply with most kinds of legal requests for user data, so it doesn't need a large team responding to those requests

* Signal gets some amount of pro-bono legal help, so it might not have as large an in-house legal team as other organizations

* Signal isn't trying to directly profit from user activity, so it doesn't need to study user activity or engagement metrics with a view towards profiting from them; similarly, it doesn't need to manage relationships with advertisers

* Similarly, it doesn't need to try hard to grow its user base (that would be desirable, but it doesn't necessarily increase revenue much)

* Similarly, it probably doesn't need to try hard to expand into other business areas

(I think these things are generally great. Yay Signal!)

>>schoen+K2
These bullet points make me think of Signal as a utility; something designed to provide & facilitate, infrastructure that supports.

I wish we could see more of this! There's something so elegant about sustainable software, software not designed to grow & expand but to scale efficiently & effectively.