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> I can assure you that when my projects are ready to appear in Show HN, my write-ups will read very differently from this formula. It's always nice to see som

> I can assure you that when my projects are ready to appear in Show HN, my write-ups will read very differently from this formula. It's always nice to see something different. Your "Tell HN" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43496859 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43496859) had a structure very similar to the one you're tired of (that one is below), so I'm curious what your breaking point was, and what you believe will be more effective. - Problem framing w/ stakes - "To fight back, I built X" - Solution positioning - How it works/principles - Vague justification - The tech w/ buzzwords - Social proof - CTA

tailspin2019 1y ago
I would disagree that their previous TellHN has much structurally in common with the pattern they’re describing here.
zahlman 1y ago
First off, since it probably wasn't clear, several turns of phrase in my parody are meant to be understood more or less verbatim. The structure I'm trying to highlight is specifically about things like the abuse of bullet-point lists (and specifically, ones where a few sentences of puffery are labelled at the start), and about trying to get people invested in using a product (with the implication that this leads to signing up for an account somewhere and eventually paying money or watching ads). My Tell HN isn't intended to encourage people to use my fork of the project. I don't necessarily expect that anyone on HN was using the original in the first place. If anyone does care, I also explicitly point at alternatives. I don't say anything at all about the actual functionality of the library, because it isn't relevant; my contribution is to the packaging of the project. I'm also not trying to use buzzwords to describe what I've accomplished: I put a repository on GitHub so people can see some source code, and published a wheel on PyPI so people can install the code with the standard tools. None of this is "sexy", bleeding-edge stuff in the Python world and I don't pretend that is is, either. In fact, my submission wasn't really about `stringcase-new` at all. It was about a) what had actually happened with Setuptools; b) promoting myself as someone who can understand and solve problems like this on the fly, and then create comprehensive write-ups with abundant sourcing; c) promoting some of my sources ([2] and [13] are important information for all Python developers, in particular, and [11] did excellent work here and deserved a shout-out for it). Edit: forgot to mention — I also don't benefit from anyone downloading or installing the fork, unlesss you count the tiny ego boost (or not) from looking at https://pypistats.org/packages/stringcase-new https://pypistats.org/packages/stringcase-new (as I post this, the site seems to be down...).
- CharlesW 1y ago
  > My Tell HN isn't intended to encourage people to use my fork of the project. […] I put a repository on GitHub so people can see some source code, and published a wheel on PyPI so people can install the code with the standard tools. Ah! Cool.
  - zahlman 1y ago
    All that said, I applaud the instinct to try to hold OPs to their own standards.

tailspin2019 1y ago

I would disagree that their previous TellHN has much structurally in common with the pattern they’re describing here.

zahlman 1y ago

First off, since it probably wasn't clear, several turns of phrase in my parody are meant to be understood more or less verbatim. The structure I'm trying to highlight is specifically about things like the abuse of bullet-point lists (and specifically, ones where a few sentences of puffery are labelled at the start), and about trying to get people invested in using a product (with the implication that this leads to signing up for an account somewhere and eventually paying money or watching ads). My Tell HN isn't intended to encourage people to use my fork of the project. I don't necessarily expect that anyone on HN was using the original in the first place. If anyone does care, I also explicitly point at alternatives. I don't say anything at all about the actual functionality of the library, because it isn't relevant; my contribution is to the packaging of the project. I'm also not trying to use buzzwords to describe what I've accomplished: I put a repository on GitHub so people can see some source code, and published a wheel on PyPI so people can install the code with the standard tools. None of this is "sexy", bleeding-edge stuff in the Python world and I don't pretend that is is, either. In fact, my submission wasn't really about `stringcase-new` at all. It was about a) what had actually happened with Setuptools; b) promoting myself as someone who can understand and solve problems like this on the fly, and then create comprehensive write-ups with abundant sourcing; c) promoting some of my sources ([2] and [13] are important information for all Python developers, in particular, and [11] did excellent work here and deserved a shout-out for it). Edit: forgot to mention — I also don't benefit from anyone downloading or installing the fork, unlesss you count the tiny ego boost (or not) from looking at https://pypistats.org/packages/stringcase-new https://pypistats.org/packages/stringcase-new (as I post this, the site seems to be down...).

CharlesW 1y ago
> My Tell HN isn't intended to encourage people to use my fork of the project. […] I put a repository on GitHub so people can see some source code, and published a wheel on PyPI so people can install the code with the standard tools. Ah! Cool.
- zahlman 1y ago
  All that said, I applaud the instinct to try to hold OPs to their own standards.