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Official Hacker News T-Shirt

teespring.com

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Re: Official Hacker News T-Shirt

#211

Post by abstractbill »

zachinglis wrote: post #168
pg wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Complicated question. Dismissive comments about new things bother me partly because there's an asymmetry that seems unfair. It's so risky to create something new, and so easy to dismiss it. At their worst, the people making such comments are like schoolyard bullies picking on someone who tries to do something different. This particular case is very mild-- more confused than dismissive really. It just struck me as fun…

I think it was valid critique. (Something I am sure you give the companies you fund.) It's not always easy to provide critique without knocking the cause - But I understood that's how jug6ernaut meant it. If I were to buy a tshirt for HN, which I might possibly do - I'd want it to show off a message rather than it looking like it could be for anything. This doesn't feel personal to the brand to me – I could buy this…

We're adults here, if we can't take critique without crying foul - the internet isn't for us.

In my experience when people ask for a critique of something completely new, they're asking (usually without knowing it) for the high-bit: Does this completely suck, or should I keep working on it? Unfortunately people too often respond with only the low-bits, forgetting to add "but these are nit-picks, the overall idea doesn't suck, and you should keep working on it". At best that's frustrating, because you only hear low-bits when you wanted the high-bit. At worst it's a disaster, if you misread low-bits as high-bits and give up on something promising.

Re: Official Hacker News T-Shirt

#212

Post by DanBC »

pg wrote: post #154
lionhearted wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does that sort of thing bug you on some level Paul? I always had you mentally as pretty stoically philosophically detached from that sort of thing. But I've seen a couple of your comments where you seem genuinely bothered when people are catty or mean to others you care about. Would love to hear your take on how you mentally approach that sort of thing in general.

Complicated question. Dismissive comments about new things bother me partly because there's an asymmetry that seems unfair. It's so risky to create something new, and so easy to dismiss it. At their worst, the people making such comments are like schoolyard bullies picking on someone who tries to do something different. This particular case is very mild-- more confused than dismissive really. It just struck me as fun…

> It just struck me as funny to see it get upvoted so much.

I only upvoted it because you said it would be funny if it was the top comment. "Righto," I thought "up vote for that then."

Thinking about it that's a pretty dumb upvote, but I doubt I'm the only person who voted for that reason.

Re: Official Hacker News T-Shirt

#213

Post by Mz »

abstractbill wrote: post #211
zachinglis wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it was valid critique. (Something I am sure you give the companies you fund.) It's not always easy to provide critique without knocking the cause - But I understood that's how jug6ernaut meant it. If I were to buy a tshirt for HN, which I might possibly do - I'd want it to show off a message rather than it looking like it could be for anything. This doesn't feel personal to the brand to me – I could buy this…

We're adults here, if we can't take critique without crying foul - the internet isn't for us. In my experience when people ask for a critique of something completely new, they're asking (usually without knowing it) for the high-bit: Does this completely suck, or should I keep working on it? Unfortunately people too often respond with only the low-bits, forgetting to add "but these are nit-picks, the overall idea does…

It is possible to get good public critique but it has to be handled carefully. There is an art to it. And even if you know what you are doing, it can still go very wrong. But how you frame it matters. Having an account here and the ability to request feedback does not guarantee that one knows how to ask effectively.

Re: Official Hacker News T-Shirt

#215

Post by DanBC »

pg wrote: post #201
zachinglis wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it was valid critique. (Something I am sure you give the companies you fund.) It's not always easy to provide critique without knocking the cause - But I understood that's how jug6ernaut meant it. If I were to buy a tshirt for HN, which I might possibly do - I'd want it to show off a message rather than it looking like it could be for anything. This doesn't feel personal to the brand to me – I could buy this…

Like I said, the original comment is really more confused than dismissive. And I do feel kind of bad for making fun of the guy. I should have known that saying I wished it was the top comment might make it so. You're mistaken about the design though. It's both funny to make the design so minimalistic, and yet simultaneously a pretty bold assertion of brand power. And since we don't want HN to grow fast, we don't need…

There are already a bunch of mean comments in this thread. You're right that instant-dismissal and unconstructive criticism on HN is a problem.

Some people will like the shirt and buy it. Some people will not like the shirt, and will not buy and and not make any comment on it. Some people will offer some kind of critique, which is sort of fun but kind of futile (the shirt is made and being sold. It's too late for critique unless you're going to make and sell another batch in future.)

But what to do about the people who don't like the shirt and loudly tell everyone that they don't like the shirt in ways that are not interesting or useful? Do downvotes work for that?

Do you need to give a small group of carefully vetted people a super-downvote button? (This would be based on your knowledge and trust of those people, not on any karma scores). ((I've wanted to start a hoax about the HN secret pages for high karma users. I've resisted because that kind of meta drama can be pretty harmful, and there are other places where it'd be more fun.)

Re: Official Hacker News T-Shirt

#216

Post by kingnothing »

jessaustin wrote: post #94
avgarrison wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What color do you see? I never realized that the bar changes color.

With sufficient karma (trying to remember: was it 300? 400?), you can set the color you prefer.

Interesting. I never even noticed the option to change it.

Re: Official Hacker News T-Shirt

#217

Post by nvarsj »

This is really cool. I don't usually like to wear printed shirts of any kind, but this is nice and minimalist. Also I can never have enough black tees. And the watsi donation is icing on the cake. Thanks for doing this!

Re: Official Hacker News T-Shirt

#218

Post by wiwillia »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #147
wiwillia wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi from Teespring! If you guys wanted to collect a few UK orders together we'd be happy to ship them for free on us! We used to use a cheaper international shipping service, but things would get lost too often and we hated seeing people wait weeks for their tees. We recently upgraded to USPS Priority International.

There must be a myriad number of dye-sub printers in the UK that use AA shirts - wouldn't it be cheaper to simply commission them to print and deliver your shirts in UK and Europe with your [customers] branding? Shipping simple tshirts piecemeal seems so terribly wasteful to me.

We looked into this and surprisingly it's cheaper to produce the t-shirts here in the US. Their isn't the same level of competition on blank garment suppliers and screen printers, so the costs are significantly higher. Coupled with the fact you don't capture the bulk discounts it actually ends up a little more expensive!

We'll continue to look into it though, perhaps when we reach a certain scale we'll be able to command better prices.

Re: Official Hacker News T-Shirt

#219

Post by erickhill »

pg wrote: post #138
cperciva wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean no offense, and I realize that this is your site; but I really think jug6ernaut's comment added far more value than your response. I don't think jug6ernaut missed the point whatsoever, and I wouldn't characterize him as nit-picking either: The question of who is expected to understand the t-shirt and what its point is (as compared to an unbranded t-shirt) are perfectly reasonable. Personally I see nothing wron…

I feel like I'm trapped in an HN parody. It's precisely because I want HN to be a site where people engage in meaningful discussion that I try to discourage people from upvoting the first dismissive comment they come across. Even discourage is probably too strong a word though. I feel like someone standing in the surf, trying to hold back a breaking wave with his hand. (I didn't answer his question because other user…

I would take jug6ernaut's top comment up there and print it on the back of the shirt (with his permission, of course).

Re: Official Hacker News T-Shirt

#220

Post by DanielBMarkham »

If the top comment is going to be nitpicking and point-missing, then I want to make a point about how the site has gone to hell in a hand basket, dammit.

Obligatory pointless side note: going to hell in a hand basket is much worse than simply going to hell. Perhaps it is because hand baskets are flammable?

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