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I don't mean to single out your comment, but it seems like a majority of the comments on hacker news are so negative now.

thrdbndndn 4y ago
I hated it but I can see way. If people are positive about something there usually isn't much to be said.
- aledalgrande 4y ago
  Maybe exercising to find positive things and describe them out loud would be a quality of life improvement.
- rhaway84773 4y ago
  Or maybe it’s reflective of the industry we’re in. I see a lot of positive comments when good things come out, for example. Setting aside the usual “do we really need to talk about every rust conversion” comments, nearly every rust article is followed by praising the language. Or when there’s a new software people might enjoy using. Many of the newer startups also get very positive comments.
- satvikpendem 4y ago
  I remember Product Hunt is like that, you are highly encouraged to only leave positive comments, so much that now I don't even read them or even visit the site because I know no constructive criticism will even be said, it's just all praise for every little thing.
mouse_ 4y ago
I think that discontent is good for software and hardware.
- jeron 4y ago
  maybe discontent is good for a product within a company, but if your end user has lots of complaints and is not having a great experience, that's not a good thing at all
- p-e-w 4y ago
  But it destroys society, which is infinitely more important than software and hardware.
  - satvikpendem 4y ago
    I don't think the discontent on HN is in any way representative of discontent in the real world.
    - p-e-w 4y ago
      Really? I have the opposite impression, and I have noticed a gradual shift in tone on HN during the past decade that mirrors that which has happened in the world at large. There was always some discontent and negativity of course, but in style and sheer volume, today's HN has changed almost beyond recognition compared to what it was like in 2013.
      - junofan 4y ago
        I dunno dude, it used to be worse I think [1, 2]. Also everyone was bitching about the TSA all the time. Maybe the flame topics are more mainstream now that the low-level IT people outnumber the startup people? [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1287212 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1287212 [2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1287573 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1287573
  - theferalrobot 4y ago
    I think the fairly mild complaining about software trends is fundamentally different than the societal level rage we see fomenting politically on the extremes. I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiment though.
  - pelasaco 4y ago
    One can argument that gamification and marketing destroy the society. Marketing specially.
warning26 4y ago
Are you new here? HN is known for its iconic negative comments. See also, my all time favorite; this comment about Dropbox from 2007: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 > "For a Linux user, 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. From Windows or Mac, this FTP account could be accessed through built-in software." Quite trivial indeed.
- satvikpendem 4y ago
  Yeah I was about to say, it's recency bias to think that only lately had HN comments been negative.
- pelasaco 4y ago
  tbh, I wouldn't expect something different from a site named "hacker news". Hackers showing their skepticism regarding start ups and software business led by "typical business people". Hackers don't care about eternal growth and gamification...
- LAC-Tech 4y ago
  Is that supposed to be some kind of "gotcha" because dropbox became successful? It was one users comment on how they felt about the app. I doubt it becoming popular changed it for them.
  - warning26 4y ago
    Eh, I'd argue Dropbox becoming popular is ancillary to the comment being an amusing example of a negative HN comment for a few reasons: 1. The comment categorically dismisses the entire product idea 2. As evidence for (1), the comment cites a rather complicated method that would arguably be out of reach for most users 3. The comment describes the method from (2) as "trivial" So even if Dropbox had failed, the comment would still be entertaining, IMO.
kurthr 4y ago
Unfortunately, I have to say that Duolingo in particular has really annoyed their user base. I won't be surprised if they see a significant drop in users after this rapid growth. I've used it for a particular goal, but that won't keep me there forever (even on a family plan). Yes, the reddit is full of kvetches, but there are a lot of very valid complaints as Duolingo removes major features (like stories) while people are learning from them or removes lesson choice and suddenly just drops you on "the path". And... there are the bugs. So many bugs. Things just don't work (literally UI buttons just DONT), answers are wrong, you get booted out of the app while running and have to restart. Feel free to file a bug nothing changes. I won't go into the fact that they support a desktop, android, and iPhone other than to say (since I use all of them) that they are all VERY different, and only somewhat linked (as in they can become out of sync). I suspect that's part of both due to their subscriber growth method and technical debt. Probably, they're trying to rationalize things behind the scenes, but as they do everyone who had learned how to use it on each platform suddenly loses things/options/tools they had before to that common denominator. They're not giving you a configurable superset! I get it, it's a hard problem, but don't be surprised when your rapid growth becomes unsustainable.
recuter 4y ago
I don't mean to single out your comment, but it seems like a plurality of comments on hacker news are so toxically positive now. No estas beuno. That... is probably wrong. You know why? Because Duolingo actually sucks. And so does this teletubby attitude. Le da una siesta.
pelasaco 4y ago
Maybe because people here are technical/skilled and understand that mostly such "growth hack" or "business oriented decisions" normally means gamification and therefore annoyance. Such "forever growth" expected by business people is just madness..
mFixman 4y ago
While I agree that Hacker News always hated technology, this article in particular looks like like self-parody. There are 0 mentions about language learning or course quality in a blog post about how to grow a language learning app. Instead, the discussion turns on the way you give gems to users, late-night notifications, and the maximum amount of emails you can send per day before people start unsubscribing. I get that this is a blog post about growth, but it says nothing about the product and you could :s/Duolingo/Candy Crush/ and the text would be equally valid. This looks like a fake blog post from Hooli in Silicon Valley.

thrdbndndn 4y ago

I hated it but I can see way. If people are positive about something there usually isn't much to be said.

aledalgrande 4y ago
Maybe exercising to find positive things and describe them out loud would be a quality of life improvement.
rhaway84773 4y ago
Or maybe it’s reflective of the industry we’re in. I see a lot of positive comments when good things come out, for example. Setting aside the usual “do we really need to talk about every rust conversion” comments, nearly every rust article is followed by praising the language. Or when there’s a new software people might enjoy using. Many of the newer startups also get very positive comments.
satvikpendem 4y ago
I remember Product Hunt is like that, you are highly encouraged to only leave positive comments, so much that now I don't even read them or even visit the site because I know no constructive criticism will even be said, it's just all praise for every little thing.

mouse_ 4y ago

I think that discontent is good for software and hardware.

jeron 4y ago
maybe discontent is good for a product within a company, but if your end user has lots of complaints and is not having a great experience, that's not a good thing at all
p-e-w 4y ago
But it destroys society, which is infinitely more important than software and hardware.
- satvikpendem 4y ago
  I don't think the discontent on HN is in any way representative of discontent in the real world.
  - p-e-w 4y ago
    Really? I have the opposite impression, and I have noticed a gradual shift in tone on HN during the past decade that mirrors that which has happened in the world at large. There was always some discontent and negativity of course, but in style and sheer volume, today's HN has changed almost beyond recognition compared to what it was like in 2013.
    - junofan 4y ago
      I dunno dude, it used to be worse I think [1, 2]. Also everyone was bitching about the TSA all the time. Maybe the flame topics are more mainstream now that the low-level IT people outnumber the startup people? [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1287212 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1287212 [2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1287573 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1287573
- theferalrobot 4y ago
  I think the fairly mild complaining about software trends is fundamentally different than the societal level rage we see fomenting politically on the extremes. I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiment though.
- pelasaco 4y ago
  One can argument that gamification and marketing destroy the society. Marketing specially.

warning26 4y ago

Are you new here? HN is known for its iconic negative comments. See also, my all time favorite; this comment about Dropbox from 2007: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 > "For a Linux user, 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. From Windows or Mac, this FTP account could be accessed through built-in software." Quite trivial indeed.

satvikpendem 4y ago
Yeah I was about to say, it's recency bias to think that only lately had HN comments been negative.
pelasaco 4y ago
tbh, I wouldn't expect something different from a site named "hacker news". Hackers showing their skepticism regarding start ups and software business led by "typical business people". Hackers don't care about eternal growth and gamification...
LAC-Tech 4y ago
Is that supposed to be some kind of "gotcha" because dropbox became successful? It was one users comment on how they felt about the app. I doubt it becoming popular changed it for them.
- warning26 4y ago
  Eh, I'd argue Dropbox becoming popular is ancillary to the comment being an amusing example of a negative HN comment for a few reasons: 1. The comment categorically dismisses the entire product idea 2. As evidence for (1), the comment cites a rather complicated method that would arguably be out of reach for most users 3. The comment describes the method from (2) as "trivial" So even if Dropbox had failed, the comment would still be entertaining, IMO.

kurthr 4y ago

Unfortunately, I have to say that Duolingo in particular has really annoyed their user base. I won't be surprised if they see a significant drop in users after this rapid growth. I've used it for a particular goal, but that won't keep me there forever (even on a family plan). Yes, the reddit is full of kvetches, but there are a lot of very valid complaints as Duolingo removes major features (like stories) while people are learning from them or removes lesson choice and suddenly just drops you on "the path". And... there are the bugs. So many bugs. Things just don't work (literally UI buttons just DONT), answers are wrong, you get booted out of the app while running and have to restart. Feel free to file a bug nothing changes. I won't go into the fact that they support a desktop, android, and iPhone other than to say (since I use all of them) that they are all VERY different, and only somewhat linked (as in they can become out of sync). I suspect that's part of both due to their subscriber growth method and technical debt. Probably, they're trying to rationalize things behind the scenes, but as they do everyone who had learned how to use it on each platform suddenly loses things/options/tools they had before to that common denominator. They're not giving you a configurable superset! I get it, it's a hard problem, but don't be surprised when your rapid growth becomes unsustainable.

recuter 4y ago

I don't mean to single out your comment, but it seems like a plurality of comments on hacker news are so toxically positive now. No estas beuno. That... is probably wrong. You know why? Because Duolingo actually sucks. And so does this teletubby attitude. Le da una siesta.

pelasaco 4y ago

Maybe because people here are technical/skilled and understand that mostly such "growth hack" or "business oriented decisions" normally means gamification and therefore annoyance. Such "forever growth" expected by business people is just madness..

mFixman 4y ago

While I agree that Hacker News always hated technology, this article in particular looks like like self-parody. There are 0 mentions about language learning or course quality in a blog post about how to grow a language learning app. Instead, the discussion turns on the way you give gems to users, late-night notifications, and the maximum amount of emails you can send per day before people start unsubscribing. I get that this is a blog post about growth, but it says nothing about the product and you could :s/Duolingo/Candy Crush/ and the text would be equally valid. This looks like a fake blog post from Hooli in Silicon Valley.