
Ask HN: Successful projects that weren't received well on HN? - johnx123-up
Motivated by this thread https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=19260700 that talks about Redis, Dropbox, etc
======
mettamage
I wouldn't know an answer to it, but it would indicate to what extent the
wisdom of the HN crowd is a wisdom one should follow.

Edit: I'm listing projects already talked about in the link of OP for
convenience.

Bitcoin first time:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=463793](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=463793)

Bitcoin second time:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=599852](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=599852)

Redis:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=494649](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=494649)

Summarizing from other comments (yep, I'm bored):

ReactJS:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5789055](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5789055)

AirBnB:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=426120](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=426120)

DuckDuckGo (arguably):
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=460877](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=460877)

Dropbox (seems to be received quite well? Hmm...):
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863)

Researched but turned out to have good responses:

Github:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=124553](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=124553)
\-- query:
[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=github&sort=byDate&prefix&page...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=github&sort=byDate&prefix&page=8&dateRange=custom&type=story&dateStart=1170288000&dateEnd=1234483200)

~~~
tspike
> Well this is an exceptionally cute idea, but there is absolutely no way that
> anyone is going to have any faith in this currency.

Not entirely inaccurate :)

~~~
jstanley
It's true that not everyone has absolute faith in it, but there are quite a
lot of people who have quite a lot of faith in it.

~~~
zodiac
The claim was that no one would have any faith in it though ^^

~~~
coldtea
"No one" in casual claims is not the absolute quantifier ("absolutely no
one").

It just means "very few people".

Else we could never say "no one" in casual conversation for anything, because
even the vilest/stupidest/most paranoid idea still has one/some proponents.

(And by "even the" I mean, "most", not "absolutely each and every
vile/stupid/paranoid idea has one/some proponents").

~~~
A2017U1
Arguing the semantics is a moot point in this instance. Bitcoin was once
transferring about $5bn on-chain daily and hovers over $1bn today. By
comparison Western Union moves $80bn in one year.

The original comment was unequivocally wrong. People obviously trust it.

[https://www.blockchain.com/charts/estimated-transaction-
volu...](https://www.blockchain.com/charts/estimated-transaction-volume-
usd?timespan=all&daysAverageString=7)

[https://corporate.westernunion.com/annual-
report/highlights....](https://corporate.westernunion.com/annual-
report/highlights.html)

~~~
coldtea
Each day ~5 trillion dollars are moved.

Doesn't that mean that Bitcoin remains irrelevant -- (and 5 times less
relevant today than when it was $5bn/daily).

So much for the future of currency...

------
meritt
AirBNB:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=426120](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=426120)

~~~
reading-at-work
> You know, I'm not a big fan of Facebook, but this site should use it for
> vetting. You don't know much from a name, picture, and some attributes, but
> in all honesty I'd be more inclined to trust someone (at least to not be a
> psycho killer) after looking at their drunk pictures and wall posts than
> anything any central authority could issue.

Quite a prophetic reply, I gotta say.

------
ams6110
HN is about as far from representative of the "typical user" as you can get.
No reason you should think that the opinion of people here means much with
regards to any specific project or idea.

~~~
tootie
If you ask me right now, I would still say that Twitter is a stupid product
that no one will use because I still don't get it.

~~~
satvikpendem
It's basically an RSS feed of people rather than sites. I get a lot of tech
and programming info from it, as well as networking with high profile
individuals.

~~~
dgarud
Please elaborate about getting the tech and programming info. I never thought
that was possible.

------
dreen
I dont know about HN but I remember CmdrTaco's famous review of first iPod on
its release in 2001: "No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame."

For those who don't know, CmdrTaco is the creator of Slashdot, the previous
HN.

~~~
dmead
hey, some of us still read /.

~~~
airstrike
Yes, all six of us who prefer to read news a day late

~~~
TomVDB
It'd be very interesting to see the financials of a dwarf star like Slashdot.

What does it take to keep it running? How many people are still employed by
them?

It has been over a decade since I last went there.

~~~
avinium
I tried logging in the other day. For some reason, the page linked from the
reset password email was completely broken. I reached out on Twitter, but it
remained like that for days. I’d be surprised if they had even one full time
staff for the site.

I’d say Slashdot is sustained purely on inertia. Pretty sure it’s just
drifting towards the Sun and destined to blip out of existence eventually.

It’s a shame, but HN has clearly supplanted Slashdot as a place for nerds to
congregate.

------
mhsabbagh
On just a small side note to remind our selves: Projects that didn't receive
well in HN doesn't necessarily mean that HN didn't find it promising/useful or
ignored it. It could have been posted at times when participation is low (e.g
midnight), for example, so nobody actually saw it. Or people simply just
forgot to upvote it, and it went unnoticed in the flood of too many other
submissions.

I remember that I posted an article that I wrote to HN someday, and it got
only 10 votes. Just a day later, some other guy posted MY article and got
around 320 votes. I think it's just luck sometimes.

~~~
imhoguy
Sometimes just title rephrasing does wonders.

------
no_one_ever
DuckDuckGo was roasted when it was initially introduced to HN (mainly for the
thought-to-be silly name IIRC).

~~~
http-teapot
I love DDG but I think it's a bad name for a brand.

Saying "DuckDuckGo" in a conversation takes time and using the acronym "DDG"
makes it sound like some kind of arcane product that only tech-savvy people
uses. It's a bigger problem with internationalization.

I wonder why they haven't rebranded to "duck" since they purchased "duck.com".

~~~
avinium
It might feel weird to say out loud, but it’s definitely memorable.

Everyone I’ve referred to DDG could recall the name instantly a few days
later.

That kind of recognition is important.

------
dustingetz
React.js. OMG what a shitshow that was.

~~~
citrusui
For the lazy, mind linking to the thread when it first came out?

~~~
bhelkey
From another comment:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5789055](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5789055)

------
citilife
Define "success" and "didn't receive well in HN".

I'd argue most of the most interesting projects I've ever seen are actually
not successful. AKA they were received well, but weren't successful.

I'd argue, in most cases, the least well received are actually solving
problems and not "cool". Take an enterprise product that automates some
process, wont be well received, but may be worth billions.

------
bootsz
I'd guess the majority of them weren't initially received well. It seems it's
kind of characteristic of truly good & innovative ideas that they at first
seem like terrible ideas to the majority of people (as once noted by Paul
Graham / Sam Altman or some other famous entrepreneur, can't remember who
exactly).

------
tootie
It may have been a reddit thread, but I remember saying that GitHub seemed
like a terrible idea and I had no idea how it could be a viable business.
Honestly, I'm still not sure why anyone pays them for their enterprise
services.

------
amped
Adblock Analytics:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10662793](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10662793)

------
Volt
Precisely what are you looking for? Projects that were negatively received, or
projects that nobody cared about?

~~~
mettamage
It seems to be both, when I look at the discussion he gave as an example.

------
davedx
Redis

Dropbox

~~~
mettamage
How is Dropbox received badly? The second most upvoted comment said: "This is
genuis."

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863)

~~~
modwilliam
Some of it is negative, though, like the first. Although I think the main
reason people bring it up is because the first point of the first comment is
pretty funny/infamous:

> For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite
> trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and
> then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem. From Windows or Mac, this
> FTP account could be accessed through built-in software.

------
qubex
Gosh, that’s some awkward phrasing. “Popular projects that weren’t well-
received by HN” would sound much less jarring. To see “received” being used in
the active voice is far too royal.

~~~
drecoe
No need to be harsh, they might not be a native English speaker.

~~~
scrollaway
No need to be harsh even if they are a native English speaker.

