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Here's an interesting reference, Drew Houston showing Dropbox to HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 Defini

by sskates 12y ago

Here's an interesting reference, Drew Houston showing Dropbox to HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 Definitely more negative comments on HN these days (although it's always been a skeptical audience).

yen223 12y ago
To be fair, there are many, many more Show HNs which wound up going nowhere.
- sskates 12y ago
  That's the hard part though, isn't it? Telling the difference between bad ideas and good ones. Even professionals at it (AKA venture capitalists) get it wrong all the time. So the questions is- knowing that you don't know whether you're looking at a bad idea or a good one, how should you behave?
  - lukifer 12y ago
    Even if it's a bad idea, I still prefer a community that encourages people to try anyway and make things for its own sake. HN culture felt much more positive and constructive when I joined a few years ago. While that ethos is still present, there's an unfortunate tendency for the snark to rise to the top.
  - 001sky 12y ago
    The responses in that Dropbox thread were pretty solid though. To all the naysayers, I mean. It's sort of a ritual format to test any new idea with the back and forth. That in and of itself isn't a problem. Real problems: Dismissive people who don't/can't/wont listen to good responses. Good founders/ideas but just really bad at communicating. Those are basically the type i and type ii errors of this format.[1] _____ [1] A grey area exists in some other areas too (some people just get 'lucky'; others for good reason can't disclose everything the key answers/insights for competitive reasons)
    - benbojangles 12y ago
      Why does it look like a Fracking drill? It looks like a Trojan horse.
      - 001sky 12y ago
        YC still uses that Dropbox application as a case study. Not sure if they also reccomend their show HN, tho.
mtdewcmu 12y ago
I thought Dropbox was a good idea until all the files I put there mysteriously disappeared. (I think what may have happened is that they started cleaning up the machine I used at a former company and it was still connected.)
- Joeri 12y ago
  Online syncing is not backup, just like RAID mirroring is not backup, but that doesn't make either bad ideas. Dropbox does however archive deleted files for 30 days, and you can pay extra to extend it to a year: https://www.dropbox.com/help/296 https://www.dropbox.com/help/296

by sskates 12y ago

yen223 12y ago

To be fair, there are many, many more Show HNs which wound up going nowhere.

sskates 12y ago
That's the hard part though, isn't it? Telling the difference between bad ideas and good ones. Even professionals at it (AKA venture capitalists) get it wrong all the time. So the questions is- knowing that you don't know whether you're looking at a bad idea or a good one, how should you behave?
- lukifer 12y ago
  Even if it's a bad idea, I still prefer a community that encourages people to try anyway and make things for its own sake. HN culture felt much more positive and constructive when I joined a few years ago. While that ethos is still present, there's an unfortunate tendency for the snark to rise to the top.
- 001sky 12y ago
  The responses in that Dropbox thread were pretty solid though. To all the naysayers, I mean. It's sort of a ritual format to test any new idea with the back and forth. That in and of itself isn't a problem. Real problems: Dismissive people who don't/can't/wont listen to good responses. Good founders/ideas but just really bad at communicating. Those are basically the type i and type ii errors of this format.[1] _____ [1] A grey area exists in some other areas too (some people just get 'lucky'; others for good reason can't disclose everything the key answers/insights for competitive reasons)
  - benbojangles 12y ago
    Why does it look like a Fracking drill? It looks like a Trojan horse.
    - 001sky 12y ago
      YC still uses that Dropbox application as a case study. Not sure if they also reccomend their show HN, tho.

mtdewcmu 12y ago

I thought Dropbox was a good idea until all the files I put there mysteriously disappeared. (I think what may have happened is that they started cleaning up the machine I used at a former company and it was still connected.)

Joeri 12y ago
Online syncing is not backup, just like RAID mirroring is not backup, but that doesn't make either bad ideas. Dropbox does however archive deleted files for 30 days, and you can pay extra to extend it to a year: https://www.dropbox.com/help/296 https://www.dropbox.com/help/296