3 ms·

I love how so many of the top comments are people telling him to make changes and that this isn't what they want. 100k users later...

iopuy 9y ago
Oh Ycombinator, such a bastion of encouragement you can be. Check out the top comment dropbox received when it debut on Ycombinator. "...you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
- petercooper 9y ago
  Don't forget the Slashdot response to the iPod - https://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-ipod https://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-i... : No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.
- oblio 9y ago
  It's nothing new, that's how we get cute quotes, such as: * the one misattributed to Bill Gates, about 640k of RAM being enough for everyone * the one by Thomas Watson about the worldwide computer market needing only 5 computers * or more recently, the Commander Taco quote about the iPod: "No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame." Hindsight is funny :) Edit: Oh, and I have to tell BrandonM, if he's still around: in no way is your solution trivial for non-developers, even 10+ years after your comment :)
  - mullen 9y ago
    Mark Twain's thoughts on the telephone when Alexander Graham Bell asked him for an investment to start AT&T. Twain thought he, his lawyer and couple of rich people would be the only ones to need such a device and he passed on being an early investor.
  - samfriedman 9y ago
    I think a big part of taking product criticism is understanding if the critic is commenting on the product for them, or for everyone. If the former, you can ask yourself if you're really building the product for that person, or if you can look elsewhere for more targeted feedback.
  - chriswarbo 9y ago
    > * the one by Thomas Watson about the worldwide computer market needing only 5 computers The interesting thing is, the context of that quote is building-sized computers being accessed by terminals over the phone network. Fast forward to 2017 and we have terminals (smartphones) accessing building-sized computers (datacentres) over the (wireless) phone network. We can be more charitable by treating all of a company's datacentres as one big, distributed computer. In which case, what's the world market? It's easy to pick 5 that cover a big chunk of it; e.g. Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon :)
  - curun1r 9y ago
    > Hindsight is funny :) So is survivorship bias. There's countless other times where the naysayers were spot on and their comments are long forgotten because the predicted failure happened. It's more a commentary on the wisdom of being a detractor. Unless it's going to be a truly spectacular failure, you're better off not saying anything since you'll either be right or remembered but not both.
  - bsaul 9y ago
    This should be pondered by the number of quotes of people believing their product is definitely the future. Well, if we ever find them, because nobody remember failed start up owners (until they become successful that is). We should however easily find quotes from demo of failed products, such as the Zune being the greatest thing ever...
nawitus 9y ago
So you love that people give feedback? Just because the application is now popular doesn't make that feedback invalid.

iopuy 9y ago

Oh Ycombinator, such a bastion of encouragement you can be. Check out the top comment dropbox received when it debut on Ycombinator. "...you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

petercooper 9y ago
Don't forget the Slashdot response to the iPod - https://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-ipod https://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-i... : No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.
oblio 9y ago
It's nothing new, that's how we get cute quotes, such as: * the one misattributed to Bill Gates, about 640k of RAM being enough for everyone * the one by Thomas Watson about the worldwide computer market needing only 5 computers * or more recently, the Commander Taco quote about the iPod: "No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame." Hindsight is funny :) Edit: Oh, and I have to tell BrandonM, if he's still around: in no way is your solution trivial for non-developers, even 10+ years after your comment :)
- mullen 9y ago
  Mark Twain's thoughts on the telephone when Alexander Graham Bell asked him for an investment to start AT&T. Twain thought he, his lawyer and couple of rich people would be the only ones to need such a device and he passed on being an early investor.
- samfriedman 9y ago
  I think a big part of taking product criticism is understanding if the critic is commenting on the product for them, or for everyone. If the former, you can ask yourself if you're really building the product for that person, or if you can look elsewhere for more targeted feedback.
- chriswarbo 9y ago
  > * the one by Thomas Watson about the worldwide computer market needing only 5 computers The interesting thing is, the context of that quote is building-sized computers being accessed by terminals over the phone network. Fast forward to 2017 and we have terminals (smartphones) accessing building-sized computers (datacentres) over the (wireless) phone network. We can be more charitable by treating all of a company's datacentres as one big, distributed computer. In which case, what's the world market? It's easy to pick 5 that cover a big chunk of it; e.g. Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon :)
- curun1r 9y ago
  > Hindsight is funny :) So is survivorship bias. There's countless other times where the naysayers were spot on and their comments are long forgotten because the predicted failure happened. It's more a commentary on the wisdom of being a detractor. Unless it's going to be a truly spectacular failure, you're better off not saying anything since you'll either be right or remembered but not both.
- bsaul 9y ago
  This should be pondered by the number of quotes of people believing their product is definitely the future. Well, if we ever find them, because nobody remember failed start up owners (until they become successful that is). We should however easily find quotes from demo of failed products, such as the Zune being the greatest thing ever...

nawitus 9y ago

So you love that people give feedback? Just because the application is now popular doesn't make that feedback invalid.