As someone who gave depressing feedback, I'd like to defend my actions: I've learned that attention is more important than appreciation. When you introduce a p

As someone who gave depressing feedback, I'd like to defend my actions: I've learned that attention is more important than appreciation. When you introduce a project, it's better to get people thinking about it, nitpicking and even questioning the point of your project, than to get a few replies of "Nice!" and be ignored in the long term. I've noticed another thing: most things of which I'm initially slightly dismissive fail to reach any success, but the things I'm very dismissive succeed. I've seen products get very harsh feedback and, a few months later, the products were successful, had better user experiences, and their users loved them. But the visceral reaction to his project may have to do with the kind of expectations we have from web use vs. installed software. I know some people install anything they happen by, and will try all one-line command line installs and random .pkgs they find, but most people who care about security are wary of installing closed source software from a not-very-known third party, or run arbitrary code in a virtual machine. When you browse the web, there's an expectation of not worrying about security and malicious code execution. Javascript blurs that line, but it's mostly kept away from the innards of the host. Installed software is more intimate; in some ways, it's like letting a stranger into your kitchen, but not into into your bedroom. Of course, they can do harm in the kitchen too, but the bedroom has implications that go beyond physical access. HN can be very negative sometimes, and seeing angry or snide comments makes me sad too. You can give concrete, actionable advice and feedback without being an asshole, and no, that's not pretending to be nice, it's simply not going out of your way to be rude. But if you take everything into account, it's better to get discouraging comments from HN and filter them for real information than to be ignored.