DjangoReinhardt

I agree with you that the jump from the quoted comments to my passionate statement ("If you don't like my work...") was extremely abrupt. It seems to indicate that I believed the criticisms to be ad hominems directed at me.

Refuting the ad hominem ad-hoc, without an example was childish behavior on my part and I would like to apologise for that bit unreservedly. I also realise that it is VERY ironic considering the nature and topic of my post but I hope the rest of the post still makes good points.

Nope, I am not ashamed about the 'appeal to emotion' because it wasn't an appeal to emotion. It is something I personally believe and I'd like to stand by it, please. I think that anyone who's created something deserves a bit of admiration/praise along with the criticism and in that regard the example fits perfectly, IMHO. Let us agree to disagree here?

I beg to differ about the 'honesty of the criticism' and the 'concreteness' of the three issues you mention - IMHO, they were disguised as insults. The same points have also been brought up by others in the same thread in ways that are far better at promoting a conversation and a learning experience, in general.

It'll please you to know that the original creator of the Show HN (TuringMachine) was a far better man than I and I was thoroughly impressed by his responses. I, OTOH, was quick to express my anguish in a public forum and I have received some very interesting criticism myself. Yours is definitely one of them, thank you.

My first few months of lurking on HN, I saw a lot of positive, encouraging posts & comments. Only when I started commenting did I begin to notice a few acerbic ones popping up here and there. I suspect I was looking at things with rose-tinted glasses and never quite readied myself for the 'darker' moments.

Ah well, I learn something new everyday. As an aside, I have been working on something on the 'create a spot' bit you mentioned - as part of my self-learning process - but it is still along way from being an HN or anything like it. :)

I didn't expect this post to polarise people so much but, in a way, I am glad it did. I have found some interesting conversation behaviors and patterns that will surely stand me in good stead when I post my very own "Show HN" in the (hopefully) near future.

As a quick thought, I'd like to leave you with this:

> What is this? Sorry, but I’m not going to watch shapes flying around my screen to find out.

OR

> [...]some people don't want a presentation, they just want text. Look at man pages - it's possible to improve the typography and the presentation, and include some graphics and CSS, but the information is what people want.

I'll stretch my neck out here and claim that both posts are offering the same criticism (somewhat). However, different people react differently to the two statements quoted above. For me, it is the second one.

Which one eggs you on more?

However, now that it is out there in the wild, I am taking notes for what to do (and what NOT to do) the next time I post something. The 'published in a hurry' bit happened because I accidentally clicked the publish button instead of the save draft button. I am not entirely sure how to unpublish on Medium - or if such a thing was even possible. So I went ahead and posted it to HN expecting - very literally - nothing.

One way or the other, I'm getting to learn quite a few things now! :)

Welp, I'd not considered that at all! Thank you so much for that perspective. I'll keep that in mind the next time I meet someone like that! :)

"I get knocked down But I get up again You're never gonna keep me down."

Right? ;)

Yup, you are right. I picked some poor examples to showcase my experiences and I should have drafted/edited my post better. I have nobody to blame but myself. Thanks for pointing that out, I'll keep this in mind for the future.

As for the lack of self-confidence, I am working my way through that. I kept thinking it was merely a manifestation of the impostor syndrome. Reading your comment, it seems I have over-estimated myself and I am actually suffering from a lack of self-confidence more than anything else.

To tell you the truth, as an utter newbie, I am never entirely sure if I am doing the right thing so I am cautious with almost everything. Unfortunately for me, the same does not seem to apply with my rants. I really should edit my posts better. My escapist brain tells me to excuse myself by saying, I never expected to get on to the front-page of HN. It is definitely a slow news day, I guess.

Also, the project that I chose as an example in the post isn't mine. I should have made that clear in the beginning itself. It just caused my anguish to bubble over.

The post was written as a single-draft rant and published in a hurry. In retrospect, I should have taken care to draft it better. Should I edit the post and structure it better? Is it right to edit your post once it has been published and commented upon? In any case, thanks for the criticism.

As for the irony, I would like to politely disagree with you on that one: I am not attacking people of HN in the post at all!

In fact attacking is the wrong word, IMHO. I am ranting against/criticizing HN-ers criticizing skills. I personally believe that, in the context of HN, your posts, comments & critiques are defined as "your work". So essentially, I am criticizing "your work", don't you think?

Also, I apologised for the rant going slightly off-topic in my last paragraph. I would like to believe that I did not stray too far off-topic but do tell me if I did: I'll take care to construct my future posts better.

Thanks for reading!

Also, does this mean this thread is invalid, then?

IMHO, I think he chose reveal.js because it was so highly regarded on HN just a few days ago. I don't think he would've expect that people would comment on that rather than his actual efforts, a.k.a. the bookmark storage and search.

When someone makes a website, they always base their designs around certain assumptions; his was to assume that people usually open new links in tabs. (I do, too.) Over time and after feedback is when these decisions are either vindicated or proven wrong.

I apologize for the passive-aggressive nature of my comment. It's just that the HN hive-mind has been quite snobbish towards budding developers of late and it has left a bad taste in my mouth. Personally, I believe that every developer who does a "Show HN" deserves at least one positive comment for every criticism they receive. YMMV, of course.

> The link opens to the presentation. I'd rather it open at the /engine/ and have a link to the presentation.

> Copy all the points of the presentation into a page and keep that handy for accessibility. Will probably help tone down the entitled, asshole-y comments a bit.

> Explain clearly where the data is being stored. Where does the bookmarks file that I exported actually go? Where is this database that you mention? On your server? On my local machine?

> Can you convert the independent page/tab so that it opens in a modal window instead? Will help me remember the context of the page. YMMV, of course.

> Convert the menu into a sidebar and delete the link/tab/button entirely.

Just a few thoughts/ideas/suggestions/opinions. YMMV. I like it but not sure how I can effectively to use it yet. Good luck!

1. CTRL+click

2. Middle-click

3. Right-click link -> Open in new tab.

One of them should (hopefully) work if you are using a browser that supports tabbed windows.

;)

EDIT: Almost forgot this one: If you are browsing on your mobile device, long-press -> "open in new tab" or "open in background tab" should (ideally) work.

This does not take away anything from the author, his entrepreneurship and his overall success, mind you. However, the points made by ~kamaal and everyone else in this thread are extremely valid. They represent the part of India that is not so 'shining'.

I myself fall in the same category as the author. I chose to drop out of my Masters in Physics (with an elective in Astrophysics) and went to work as a Radio Show host for a commercial radio station. It was made possible only because of an invisible fallback option that my parents provided. Without it, I would probably be working away at a 9 to 5 job writing uninspired code for some company rather than sitting at home trying my hand at programming with Python.

Wait.

Oh, shit.

YMMV. Discussions and arguments are welcome. Name-calling will be ignored. Trolls will not be fed.

----------

> Downplaying the timestamp attempts to make the content appear more evergreen.

This is dangerous.

Imagine a newbie developer landing on one of your old posts looking for directions on something. Unfortunately for her, there isn't any other relevant material available anywhere else on the web. Also, whatever you wrote in that post was was relevant only for a few weeks after it was written. Can you imagine the anguish you'd be putting them through because they tried to follow your directions and failed miserably?

Before you claim it to be an edge-case, I've fallen prey to the same situation many times in my search for such elusive knowledge.

Personally, this is one of the reason I HATE the non-availability of time-stamps, especially on tech blogs. What the hell are you trying to say? That your code is perfect and won't need to change ever? You aren't fooling me, rather, you are fooling yourself.

> RSS is dying.

RSS isn't dying, sorry.

Tracking google search trends isn't a good way to measure how popular RSS - or anything, for that matter - is. A simple explanation could be that because more people know about RSS today than a few years ago, searching for it is no longer necessary. Almost everyone knows about Hurricane Katrina, but they don't search for it everyday, do they?

The consumption of RSS has changed, though.

Until a few years ago, feeds used to be the ONLY way to consume RSS. Then mashups happened. Then APIs became ubiquitous. PubSubHubbub, JSON & JSONP have flourished in recent times. All of these were 'derived' (in a broad sense) from RSS.

Oh, and before you point to Google Reader, allow me to make an anticipatory point. Google shut down Reader because they didn't find it worth the effort to monetize - it had nothing to do with the consumption of RSS. Even till the very last day, there were people clamoring for Google to continue or hunting for a suitable GReader replacement. In what way does that strike you as the 'death' of RSS?

Almost every site out there, that updates regularly maintains a feed. Except Twitter, of course. But then, Twitter implementing an RSS feed isn't adding much anyway. Their existing consumption patterns and the ecosystem around them is robust enough to do without RSS and Atom feeds.

If anything, I agree that RSS is very unidirectional, but that's where I believe PubSubHubbub can make a difference. In fact, if I may be so bold, I'd say that RSS is evolving and PubSubHubbub is one of its evolutionary intermediates.

With the insane number of consumption platforms and our burning desire to instantly know everything, I wouldn't be surprised if, sooner or later, someone finds a new way to consume RSS & Atom feeds.

I have already begun this process for myself by building @updt_me - I now consume all my RSS & Atom feeds through Twitter. Yeah, that was a plug but hey, it also happens to be extremely relevant.

Happiness = Reality - Expectations.

The lesser the expectations and the greater/better the reality, the more the happiness. :)

(NB: I use this equation as a general rule for my life. In fact, I put it in one of my first HN comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5932133)

--SHAMELESS PLUG FOLLOWS--

@updt_me is an RSS reader/Twitter bot that allows you to 'read your feeds' via Twitter DMs. Any and all updates to blogs/feeds you follow are sent to you via twitter DM. There is no signup; just a twitter follow. Because DM.

I am currently using it to follow known infrequent/irregular blogs & feeds like xkcd, smbc, etc.

In case you are still reading this, the bot is [@updt_me](http://twitter.com/updt_me). There's also a basic microsite up at: http://update-me.herokuapp.com

Could you let me know what you think? Thanks, in advance!

    The Joke <-----}
                   }
                   }- The *whoosh* gap
                   }
    You <----------}

Thank you for the apology - it does mean a lot, given the circumstances. I saw the issue on GitHub and I am following it. As I mentioned in the other post, I sincerely hope (and would like to believe) that this wasn't intentional.

Please understand that, as a consumer and a newbie developer, I will (kinda) hold you guys to high standards. A large part of my learning process involves 'watching' you guys make stuff, which I eventually try to emulate.

Therefore, when something like this happens, it is quite unnerving. I hope you understand that, I am not holding a grudge; but merely being cautious.

Also, thank you for understanding and accommodating my outburst, as well as acting on it speedily. I sincerely hope (and would like to believe) that this was a one-off phenomenon and the resulting mess was completely accidental and unintended.

I would also like to request you to not judge me if I reserve my opinions until I am assured otherwise. I assure you I am not holding a grudge; I am just being cautious, that's all.

However, I can assure you that the email is intentional. Here's the text of the email:

> We noticed that you started signing up for Rackspace Cloud, but you didn’t finish. Your cloud is ready for you, and it says it’s getting lonely.

Apart from the cheesiness of the text and the language, one thing stands out clearly: The process that handles your form submissions knew that I didn't finish signing up.

> Don’t let your cloud be lonely and sad – finish signing up for Rackspace Cloud and start using it to spin up a website, an app, or any awesome new project.

> You can finish your sign-up HERE.

[ed. I have removed the link associated with `HERE`]

Again, ignoring the cheesiness of the text, this sentence clearly indicates that the email is triggered when someone (like me) DOESN'T finish signing up. While I appreciate your proactive attempts to acquire potential customers, this definitely veers into creepy...

> If you have any questions about signing up or our products, give us a call or shoot us an email. We're here to help!

One question: How do I ensure that my email is NOT added to any of your newsletters that I MOST DEFINITELY - NOW OR EVER - DID NOT SIGN UP FOR?

(Apologies for the all caps. I am a little unnerved by this. I never expected RackSpace to do this sort of a thing.)

You emailed me just because I semi-filled in your form? I didn't even click SUBMIT! o_O

Why would you assume that if I semi-filled a form I would probably go ahead and register? Maybe I don't want to register at this very moment?

Did you even consider that my NOT submitting the form was a conscious decision? Maybe I realized halfway through filling the form that my skill-set wasn't good enough to make me want to sign up now? Or my finances wouldn't allow me to maintain an account on your platform after six months? Or maybe, just maybe, I just didn't want to sign up right now?

Why would you take my email ID from a non-submit-clicked form and NOT tell me that you had taken it? Why? o_O

Even worse, why would you email me asking 'did I forget to take my cloud'? How do I know you are not going to spam me with your promotional offers in the future? How do Iknow you are not going to sell (or worse, 'inadvertently leak') my email address to some third party?

I'm more of a Django/Python guy myself and I've been running a few of my own self-learning projects on Heroku, too. So yeah, I know where you're coming from. :)

You might want to look into using Bootstrap Typeahead.js to auto-tag topics posted by users. I recently got it working with a bit of jQuery on one of my own projects by using Django Rest Framework to serve the corresponding JSON content. It may even help you auto-match users in the future! (I'd like my ESOPs now, please. :P)

I wish I knew how to Rails, but I've only just begun with Django, so I suspect I may not be of much use to you with the code. :(

Good luck, and may this project take you places! :)

Out of curiosity, what's the stack? I read Heroku & MongoDB. I'm guessing it is an Ember.js app?

EDIT: unhide not unidentified. Damn you auto correct!

Request: Provide an option to delete swaps. Once I've found someone willing to exchange help, maybe I wouldn't want to continue advertising the swap?

Just a thought... :-)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6310501

Links:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/nuke-anything...

Not sure if serious, or already registered with Google Helpouts...

To be completely honest, I haven't really thought about that. I haven't really really looked into that either.

However, I am basing this attempt on the belief that, if Twitter, TwitPic and Instagram can 'show' me your photos when I search for a particular hashtag, it automatically implies that each of them have acquired the redistribution rights.

At no point in the process am I claiming that I own these photos; in fact, all the photos link back to their original places. I'm merely collating symbolic links to them. In a sense, I'm (sort of) indexing them just the way a search engine would.

Am I making sense or am I being escapist with my answers here? Do let me know. I'd like to believe I am not breaking any laws or infringing any copyrights but IANAL, so I'm not really sure. :)

Thanks for the insightful question. You made me realize something that I had completely missed in my enthusiasm to code. :)