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Ask HN : What's the meanest thing that has been said about your startup?

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Re: Ask HN : What's the meanest thing that has been said about your startup?

#61

Post by mechanical_fish »

lacker wrote: post #49
motoko wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do intensely personal attacks start with "Nothing Personal?"

Because they don't really mean it personally, since they know nothing about the person behind things. They are not thinking at all about the founder/writer/developer. They are just thinking about how annoyed they were for the past 2 seconds.

Which is to say: We'd all be better people if, whenever we typed the phrase nothing personal, Clippy popped up on the screen with a message: "I see you're writing something that might be better left unsaid. Would you like to get some sleep before continuing?"

Re: Ask HN : What's the meanest thing that has been said about your startup?

#62

Post by kirubakaran »

SwellJoe wrote: post #60
kirubakaran wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, you mentioned that in http://www.paulgraham.com/newthings.html That explains the dismissive comments. The angry and really mean ones can be explained perhaps as people feeling threatened for whatever reason?

When in doubt, Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad theory probably applies: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/

I agree, but why do they do that?

Re: Ask HN : What's the meanest thing that has been said about your startup?

#63

Post by trapper »

pg wrote: post #43
kirubakaran wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understood why people were doing that. Many Reddit comments about your essays were extremely vicious.

I think the fundamental problem is that writing essays seems presumptuous to a lot of people. They're used to the old print media model in which the only people who got to publish essays were credentialled experts in whatever they were about. That restriction is now gone. Online anyone can publish whatever they want. But I think it still seems to a lot of people that anyone using the essay form is implicitly claiming…

You should try publishing under a different name next time and see what the response is. It would be an interesting experiment.

Re: Ask HN : What's the meanest thing that has been said about your startup?

#64

Post by DanielBMarkham »

pg wrote: post #32
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #28

I think this is the wrong question. Fake praise does a lot more damage than mean-spirited criticism. Because fake praise has nothing but well-meaning behind it, while mean-spirited criticism can actually point out things that need fixing. In addition, fake praise can mask a lot of flaws that should be fixed. I'm of the mind that the more mean criticism you get the better off you probably are -- people at least took t…

Fake praise does a lot more damage than mean-spirited criticism. I don't think that's true. Bogus praise is self-correcting in a way that bogus criticism isn't. If bogus praise gives you an unduly high opinion of yourself, you at least keep working, and the resistance of the medium may push your opinion of yourself back down to where it should be. Whereas harsh critism can discourage you from working, so you never ge…

It's not the opinion of yourself, it's the honest appraisal of whether your current efforts are worthwhile.

There are some that will tell you that you are doing a great job without thinking critically through whether you should be doing what you're doing.

I think the distinction here is whether you take the praise or criticism personally or just as a reflection on your current effort. If it's meant personally then sure, it's kind of hard to have too much praise.

Re: Ask HN : What's the meanest thing that has been said about your startup?

#65

Post by kirubakaran »

trapper wrote: post #63
pg wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the fundamental problem is that writing essays seems presumptuous to a lot of people. They're used to the old print media model in which the only people who got to publish essays were credentialled experts in whatever they were about. That restriction is now gone. Online anyone can publish whatever they want. But I think it still seems to a lot of people that anyone using the essay form is implicitly claiming…

You should try publishing under a different name next time and see what the response is. It would be an interesting experiment.

If he doesn't put a lot of effort into hiding his writing style, it should be pretty easy to tell.

Re: Ask HN : What's the meanest thing that has been said about your startup?

#67

Post by timcederman »

We got pretty chewed out about our acquisition by Monster.

http://www.cheezhead.com/2008/07/31/monster-acquires-trovix/

My favourite two parts:

"(Sidenote: Trovix ownership has to be farting rainbows and burping unicorns in complete bliss as I write this post.)"

and

"And as far as buzz goes - which does matter - Trovix is on no one’s hot list. Ever heard a company brag about its experience using this service? Me neither. They don’t exist. I don’t care how many company logos or Wall Street Journal clips Trovix puts on their site."

Re: Ask HN : What's the meanest thing that has been said about your startup?

#68

Post by jjs »

timcederman wrote: post #67

We got pretty chewed out about our acquisition by Monster. http://www.cheezhead.com/2008/07/31/monster-acquires-trovix/ My favourite two parts: "(Sidenote: Trovix ownership has to be farting rainbows and burping unicorns in complete bliss as I write this post.)" and "And as far as buzz goes - which does matter - Trovix is on no one’s hot list. Ever heard a company brag about its experience using this service? Me neit…

"Dear Sir:

If you wanted to discourage us, you probably should have done so BEFORE we became fabulously wealthy. Please remember this for next time.

Regards, ..."

Re: Ask HN : What's the meanest thing that has been said about your startup?

#69

Post by SwellJoe »

kirubakaran wrote: post #62
SwellJoe wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When in doubt, Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad theory probably applies: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/

I agree, but why do they do that?

I dunno. I figured I'd done my job in providing a link to a funny picture on the Internet. If you ask me any more hard questions, you're gonna get a picture of a cat fixing a computer. I don't think either of us really wants that to happen.

Re: Ask HN : What's the meanest thing that has been said about your startup?

#70

Post by timcederman »

timcederman wrote: post #67

We got pretty chewed out about our acquisition by Monster. http://www.cheezhead.com/2008/07/31/monster-acquires-trovix/ My favourite two parts: "(Sidenote: Trovix ownership has to be farting rainbows and burping unicorns in complete bliss as I write this post.)" and "And as far as buzz goes - which does matter - Trovix is on no one’s hot list. Ever heard a company brag about its experience using this service? Me neit…

I should note that when I say "we", sadly I was not a cofounder.
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