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Comment by parhamn | Hacker News Reader

Or, you know, it’s little cool window panes for the web and not a clone of Windows’ window system...

Does this person owe you something?

Are you suggesting that only positive critique should be allowed? If I was the developer I'd love to hear that user's honest take on my creation rather than the "oh, cool!" type of input.

Surely you’re not going to make me spell out for you why comparing a little window widget in JavaScript with features of the Windows operating system, isn’t helpful just because there was a soft analogy in the title. Surely, you could’ve seen more than that dichotomy you presented me with before you made me write this. But here we are.

This sort of “critique” common on HN and it’s a toxic culture. Not all critique is good critique. We should be against crappy critique like this because it’s not helpful, it’s mean spirited, and it’s anti-maker.

At the time I commented to the post, it was marked as "Show HN: WinBox – just like Windows, but for the web", implying the submitter was the project's author making sweeping claims about the software. The title has since had "Show HN" removed (had it been like that, I would not have written my original comment that way), and the inaccurate tagline removed as well.

Arguably I tend to be not only perfectionist and detail-oriented (whether on important or unimportant details), but even pedantic, or quick to judge, at times. Nonetheless I do not appreciate being having my writing called "mean spirited" or a "toxic culture".

It's more the way it's said. From the guidelines:

> Be kind. Don't be snarky. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Please don't fulminate. (...) Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work.

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