Ask HN: To ask or not to ask?

4 points·Philomath··3 comments

I sometimes find myself in this situation where I have a very nice idea or I have some doubts about something and I'd love to share with people from hacker news to know others opinions but I am under the constant feeling that I will not get any response or just negative feedback (which is better than no response).

Am I the only one who is hesitant about posting on HN?

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You're not the only one who's hesitant. I actually tend to put a lot of thought into my responses because I know from experience that sometimes my ideas don't bode well with the community. Maybe they were bad comments, maybe they weren't well thought out, who knows. I've gotten better at this, but it's taken practice.

Sometimes you won't get any response, in fact the majority of mine don't receive any feedback whatsoever. I've learned to live with this, it's not a major problem at all. The battle for me was realizing that a some of the folks here are very critical (in a good, analytical way). It takes time and mistakes to learn, and trust me, you will learn as long as you try. This goes with anything, but I think the hacker news community is a truly remarkable one and has helped me grow in many ways.

Embrace the comments that give negative feedback, understand where the posters of the replies come from and try to step back and realize where you may have been in the wrong.

> I am under the constant feeling that I will not get any response

You might not, but consider that if you don't ask you won't get any response either.

What's so awful about posting something and getting no response?

In fact, what's so awful about posting something (especially on a forum that offers something pretty close to anonymity) and getting a negative response?

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