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Been seeing this a lot lately: someone posts a project or a company to HN, then immediately below it, the top comment negs OP and then goes on to explain how th

by tomc1985 6y ago

Been seeing this a lot lately: someone posts a project or a company to HN, then immediately below it, the top comment negs OP and then goes on to explain how their project is better. Is this not the epitome of douchebaggery?

nxpnsv 6y ago
It’s relevant context
- tomc1985 6y ago
  Sure, but is it something that members of a supposedly good, supportive community should be doing to each other?
  - nxpnsv 6y ago
    You are right in that tone and intent matters. I think there is nothing wrong in principle in mentioning related work though. It can be done in a non-douchy way.
  - foerbert 6y ago
    You mean leaving comments about highly related products/software/whatever with a different feature-set and approach? That sounds... perfect. It can spark all sorts of discussions and ideas about the decisions and tradeoffs made in both projects. All aspects of this - from the ideas themselves to the community response to them - can be very valuable to the original creators of both. It can also give the original creator more information about what's been done and how. Searching for similar stuff when you lack a very well-defined term can be annoyingly difficult. And it has what I think should be obvious value to the readers and commenters who are interested in originally posted product. Other similar projects may well serve any interested readers better than what was originally posted. Again, searching for this stuff can be difficult. Do you really want to remove this chance to discover a better-fitting product/project/whatever from all the readers? I see no problem with people posting similar projects. With the usual caveats of civility that apply to literally every other comment as well, these stand to be highly productive comments. I'm sure you're thinking of the more emotional aspects of this, and even here I disagree. The only situation I can think of where a poster is better off no even hearing about alternatives is if their main motivation is receiving praise on HN. And in that case, hopefully the situation will make it easier for them to realize that is what they are doing, and give them the opportunity to decide if that's something they want to continue doing.
ashkankiani 6y ago
Calling someone a douchebag is surely a productive means of steering the community to good, considerate feedback.
- tomc1985 6y ago
  Strongly worded insinuations, sure, but that is not name-calling. Kanye West hops on stage at the MTV Music Awards, steals the mic from "Best Female Music Video" winner Taylor Swift, and proceeds to tell the audience why he thought Beyonce should have won instead. It was an outrageous act widely panned as 'douchey'. Is this example much different? ps- Besides, a good community calls a spade a spade
  - eric_cc 6y ago
    > ps- Besides, a good community calls a spade a spade Exactly why every single reply to your comment has explained why you're wrong.
rendaw 6y ago
It is not. HN isn't a place that guarantees advertising or publicity. Readers and commenters will click on this thread thinking "is there a better way of writing markdown" or "I wonder if I should be using a different editor" which makes all editors relevant information. And honestly, if I see an advertisement _without_ any criticism, it sounds too good to be true to me. Seeing a comparison between these editors is going to provide a thousand times better information then just people talking about one or saying "hm, that looks interesting, I'll check it out sometime".
- tomc1985 6y ago
  Criticism, sure. But upstaging? That is something I would find seriously deflating. Enough so that it suppresses a lot of interest I might have to post my own Show HN one day -- why bother if some other schmuck is going to upstage me and drive discussion towards their work?
DocTomoe 6y ago
Historically, friendly competition was seen as a chance for inspiration from each others.
eric_cc 6y ago
> Is this not the epitome of douchebaggery? Not whatsoever. It's on-topic and allows the community to discover other related, competing projects.

nxpnsv 6y ago

It’s relevant context

tomc1985 6y ago
Sure, but is it something that members of a supposedly good, supportive community should be doing to each other?
- nxpnsv 6y ago
  You are right in that tone and intent matters. I think there is nothing wrong in principle in mentioning related work though. It can be done in a non-douchy way.
- foerbert 6y ago
  You mean leaving comments about highly related products/software/whatever with a different feature-set and approach? That sounds... perfect. It can spark all sorts of discussions and ideas about the decisions and tradeoffs made in both projects. All aspects of this - from the ideas themselves to the community response to them - can be very valuable to the original creators of both. It can also give the original creator more information about what's been done and how. Searching for similar stuff when you lack a very well-defined term can be annoyingly difficult. And it has what I think should be obvious value to the readers and commenters who are interested in originally posted product. Other similar projects may well serve any interested readers better than what was originally posted. Again, searching for this stuff can be difficult. Do you really want to remove this chance to discover a better-fitting product/project/whatever from all the readers? I see no problem with people posting similar projects. With the usual caveats of civility that apply to literally every other comment as well, these stand to be highly productive comments. I'm sure you're thinking of the more emotional aspects of this, and even here I disagree. The only situation I can think of where a poster is better off no even hearing about alternatives is if their main motivation is receiving praise on HN. And in that case, hopefully the situation will make it easier for them to realize that is what they are doing, and give them the opportunity to decide if that's something they want to continue doing.

ashkankiani 6y ago

Calling someone a douchebag is surely a productive means of steering the community to good, considerate feedback.

tomc1985 6y ago
Strongly worded insinuations, sure, but that is not name-calling. Kanye West hops on stage at the MTV Music Awards, steals the mic from "Best Female Music Video" winner Taylor Swift, and proceeds to tell the audience why he thought Beyonce should have won instead. It was an outrageous act widely panned as 'douchey'. Is this example much different? ps- Besides, a good community calls a spade a spade
- eric_cc 6y ago
  > ps- Besides, a good community calls a spade a spade Exactly why every single reply to your comment has explained why you're wrong.

rendaw 6y ago

It is not. HN isn't a place that guarantees advertising or publicity. Readers and commenters will click on this thread thinking "is there a better way of writing markdown" or "I wonder if I should be using a different editor" which makes all editors relevant information. And honestly, if I see an advertisement _without_ any criticism, it sounds too good to be true to me. Seeing a comparison between these editors is going to provide a thousand times better information then just people talking about one or saying "hm, that looks interesting, I'll check it out sometime".

tomc1985 6y ago
Criticism, sure. But upstaging? That is something I would find seriously deflating. Enough so that it suppresses a lot of interest I might have to post my own Show HN one day -- why bother if some other schmuck is going to upstage me and drive discussion towards their work?

DocTomoe 6y ago

Historically, friendly competition was seen as a chance for inspiration from each others.

eric_cc 6y ago

> Is this not the epitome of douchebaggery? Not whatsoever. It's on-topic and allows the community to discover other related, competing projects.