[flagged]
But somehow the sibling comment opened an interesting rabbithole — if you happen to scroll through its subtree I wonder what you think (since you’re the one I asked hehe).
PS: By asking this, I am not promoting rabbitholes! :)
Yes, I omitted saying it's mine, not because of any nefarious reason. Just didn't realize it was necessary to simply ask an opinion of one person about whether it would have the intended effect. And in my opinion it would actually be counterproductive to reveal that I made it.
In fact, sometimes you don’t WANT the person to know whether what you’re asking about is yours, so they can give a more honest assessment without worrying about hurting your feelings. It should not matter, and for some purposes it shoild be disclosed, whether you made it.
As for being accused of shilling… sounds like the crowd accusing you was pretty extreme. The definition of a shill from Wikipedia is indeed nefarious:
In most uses, shill refers to someone who purposely gives onlookers, participants or "marks" the impression of an enthusiastic customer independent of the seller, marketer or con artist, for whom they are secretly working. The person or group in league with the shill relies on crowd psychology to encourage other onlookers or audience members to do business with the seller or accept the ideas they are promoting. Shills may be employed by salespeople and professional marketing campaigns. Plant and stooge more commonly refer to a person who is secretly in league with another person or outside organization while pretending to be neutral or part of the organization in which they are planted, such as a magician's audience, a political party, or an intelligence organization
It was innocent and well-intentioned. You just misunderstood the intention. If people say there is a systemic problem X in high school, and a high schooler confirms most of their friends have problem X, what do you think is more well-intentioned:
1) Promotion: Hey high school student! I built Y! Check it out! Tell all your friends! I think it might help them! Or…
2) Feedback: Hey high school student, do you THINK this COULD help your friends or not: Y
My purpose was 2. I sometimes do 1, but here that was not my intent. When I’m promoting something, you know it. Now that you highlighted that I made it, though, it defeats much of the original intent. So now it has turned into a conversation about whether people can have purposes other than promotion. That’s fine. It is somewhat useful for me to get this straightened out. I won’t get an unbiased answer anymore, but I can get them elsewhere when I do case studies and beta testing.
bottom line: doing a clinical trial or experiment or beta testing or asking someone’s opinion isn’t always primarily about promotion.
Mixing all these metaphors isn't helping. It's like you're flailing for some justification. You act like you're sure you're in the right, but you keep fighting with people. You could just move on without digging any deeper. It's long past obvious your arguments aren't persuasive. This isn't the behavior of someone who's genuinely that confident.
You might not think a thread deep in HN matters, but I will remember it if any teacher friends mention your app.
Yes - I am confident I am right. I am choosing not to back down and acquiesce to a mistaken position. You take that as the opposite of what I think. I clearly didn’t convince you — but I did manage to clarify it.
You have a strange idea of words like “fighting” and “shilling”. My asking a question in the GP isn’t “fighting” or “shilling”, any more than the original one was “promoting”.
This is a thread deep inside HN forums, one of many, and mostly involves me and you.
I’d like to claim I’ll remember it, but honestly, I doubt it. Most of the stuff we write online is forgotten, and hardly read by anyone. It is just a cathartic process of self-expression. When the AIs will generate 99.999% of content online, your concerns will seem quaint. No one will care. I would take a bet with you that this thread won’t rank highly on google for any of the terms — but I do believe you when you say you - a single person - will remember it years later if encountering teaching.app
I was simply interested in the opinion of a thoughtful high schooler who is aware of what his friends are doing. I want to help fix society, including teenage education. This is how I do it — using software. I encountered an opportunity to ask an unbiased question and I took it — without biasing it with “Heey, what do you think of MY project that I clearly worked hard on?” That wouldn’t be neutral and thus defeat the purpose of asking the question. Reading into this that I am somehow looking to promote it is wrong. It would be a terrible way to promite, anyway. There can be other reasons for asking a question deep inside a comment thread that hardly anyone sees, than low key trying to draw attention to a project for purposes of promoting it. Besides, it isn’t even launched yet.
My entire comment history has been one of discussing in good faith and standing up for what I believe in. You prefer that I back down and agree to something when I can correct the misunderstanding. That’s your prerogative. I see nothing to be ashamed of.
If someone wants to misinterpret what I say or take it out of context, I can’t stop it. Most celebrities cause far worse outrage when they get famous, I am rather careful with my words. I have made a decision for myself long ago that integrity and standing for what you believe in, in good faith, is worth it to me more than attempting to be too political. I could be wrong. We’ll see.