
Ask HN: Fastify has 13k stars on GitHub, but no traction in HN. Why? - volument
Fastify [1] has been submitted to HN for several times [2], but it has never gotten more than 3 upvotes. However, it is hugely popular in GitHub. Can anyone explain this? I have no clue. Thank you!<p>[1]: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;fastify&#x2F;fastify<p>[2]: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;hn.algolia.com&#x2F;?q=fastify
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PaulHoule
My take.

Believe it or not, I don't think the landing page for fastify makes a
compelling value proposition. You would think that "fast" sells, and it
appeals to me, but when I have test marketed "fast" I've found people don't
respond the same way I do.

At the bottom of the page I see a whole bunch of logos and names that look
like the logos and names of trendy modern companies except I don't recognize
the names. It just doesn't connect to me.

There are so many web servers and frameworks out there that it's not easy to
stand out, particularly in the Javascript world. As excited as people are
about Node, and as much as using the same language on the front end and the
back end is a "holy grail", most of the people I know who write front ends
based on React and that kinda technology still use Java, Scala, Python, Ruby
or something else on the back end.

Other than that, HN is not really a pure "technical" forum. I think it
uniquely covers people who are interested in both technology and business so
if want to get people's attention you have to show people something they
haven't seen before and that they recognize they haven't seen before.

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probably_wrong
I don't think anyone can give a proper answer other than a shrug and/or a
"dunno".

Off the top of my head: It could be popular with a crowd that doesn't visit
HN. It could have fake GitHub stars. It could be a project with very bad PR.
It could be the type of small project that Just Works, and therefore people
don't feel a need to talk about it (see: the Mate Desktop Environment).

Answering for me, in case it helps: I never heard of it, I don't program in
Node.js, and I already have a web framework of choice. Of these three, I
believe the third to be the most likely answer for your question.

