Most replies are either about lack of evidence or someone’s alternative preference. I see that latter one a good deal.
- Insecurity. Criticism is the most acute and well researched on here with child prodigies, more so than any other topic. Since people here get their sense of identity from their self-perception of intelligence, knowledge, and capacity to build certain things, there are many vulnerability points.
- Wide, industry ranging experience with bullshit technology claims for most users.
- Class and ethnographic differences. Criticism will vary depending on whether the product in question is inherently appealing to adult high-income nerds, no matter its overall utility
I would say mainly it is just the need for some people to feel good about themselves that they know better, or to try to show that they are smarter than the author of the post (so that again, they can feel better about themselves).
Don't take the comments too seriously. A lot of people think they are smarter than they actually are.
And next time notice, whatever the post is, when you click to view the comments expect the top one to have a contrarian view.
EDIT: As an example, as of right now, this post is the top post on HN. The second top post on HN?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32800869
Title: "Build Your Career on Dirty Work"
Top Comment: "Really bad advice! Hard work does not pay"
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Upon further thought, looking at the bright side (less cynical), I guess this does help give a more balanced view of the topic as you get to quickly see both sides of a story. But it's still kind of funny that this consistently happens.
And of course, your things can be just fine, but without proof of that, claiming that they are just tells people you have no idea whether what you did was actually worth anything, and that undermines your effort.
The thing you made MIGHT actually be great! But it might also only be great for a super select few hyper-focussed people that you happened to ask for help (or not even, you might have purely relied on "your own past experiences"!), and be terrible in general.
Make tiny claims centered around tiny groups (e.g. "I/my customers needed something better so I made this"), not a problem. Make big claims involving "everyone" (e.g. "we made a typeface that improves legibility")? Back them up with proof. Show the studies where you've pitched it against a wide set of other typefaces, and have people of all visual impairment levels perform (also scientificially justified for this purpose) tasks that hinge on legibility.
(Because winning awards may be nice, but doesn't tell us anything. It just says "other people already liked this". It doesn't say anything about whether the thing you made is actually good)
Because most posts about a new product or project tend to make extravagant claims without anything to back it up. "The best", "the fastest", "the smallest", "the most legible", etc.
Highly, highly recommend reading Adam Savage (Mythbuster fame)'s book about creativity and skepticism, it is filled with good wisdom: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43319933-every-tool-s-a-...
If there is a complete lack of criticism/skepticism, you get a regressive world: https://fs.blog/chestertons-fence/
It makes perfect sense why these things are greeted with skepticism. Because Most things in the world don't succeed. Most things fail. Thus when you see things treated with negativity and skepticism that is MORE likely to be inline with the actual reality. Thus if HN is actually more negative then normal, then that means HN users have a more realistic view of reality.
>Most replies are either about lack of evidence or someone’s alternative preference. I see that latter one a good deal.
Why is the latter a good deal if it isn't true? If 99.999% of the world doesn't have this alternative preference it's biased to even bring it up. There's no need to be personally insulting but if you think something is genuinely bad then i think it's perfectly ok to just say what you think.
When someone asks for praise, or when someone asks for positivity in a way they are by probability more likely to be asking for fake opinions and white lies. I don't come to HN for that kind of thing. But I will say that Dang (the moderator) loves this kind thing; and the moderation culture he promotes is more inline with your attitude. If you see a negative post, you can flag it, and he will take a side.