Counter opinion: I think of hn as a perfect example of a non-product. I can't think of anything positive about hn that isn't ultimately traceable to its nature of not being a product.
This statement would be needed if anyone thought HN was an example of good design and usability, I don't think I've ever seen a comment here claim that, it seems everyone acknowledges that HN was built to work (as in, do the very minimum it can to exist) and nothing more. The lack of polish with HN is part of the charm really.
The fact that this is unpopular convinces me that most HN posters don't work on real commercial products. Or if they do, then I don't care to use the products they develop.
I also want to add: HN is an especially bad place to validate this type of product because HN has the exact same interface as reddit. This post is popular because of its novelty, there is an incentive to upvote this post and say whatever OP wants to hear in order to get him to keep working on this project. Because "having alternatives never hurts". But it hurts the person developing the alternative. He already lost 4 years of his life to this. Hopefully he wises up and pivots before he wastes another 4 years.
I disagree. I think HN is good in some ways, but awful in many other ways so much so that it overshadows the good. Unfortunately the good can trick honest people like yourself into thinking the platform as a whole is good, but hey, you're entitled to your opinion.
Personally speaking: I love that they are open-sourcing more things. Great! Amazing!
I still hate them as a company, and would discourage the use of their software. I know it's complicated, but just because they do some good things (which should be celebrated) doesn't make them a good company overall.
The attitude I've seen on HN that I personally dislike is typically of the "No, they've totally changed! Look, they are pushing open-source software!"
But they haven't. Not if they are still strong-arming via patents.
HN is a place where people who are on or fancy themselves on the bleeding edge of tech congregate. It shouldn't be surprising that the opinion of that group, with the selection pressure it experiences, is dismissive of anything that's closer to "stable, mature project" than "hot new thing".
HN is not really a "new products for you to use" site, and I find it a bit strange when people read and reply to posts purely from the perspective of a user or potential user.
If you approach the post with a more open curiosity I think it will make more sense to you why the language is a relevant detail, even if it still doesn't interest you personally.
I'm curious as to why this is downvoting while the top-voted response has this exact same thing in it. Is HN just allergic to anything that isn't cheerleading the software industry?
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