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Thanks for sharing why you hate HN.

Is it unfortunate that you hate HN? I guess that is a question left to the reader.

What's clear from your comment is you needed to vent. (And you need HN as a way to cope with your commute/job.)

Maybe that's why there is so much harsh criticism on HN. Maybe people are venting. Maybe it has little to do with the technical and commercial merits of any given idea (e.g. a "launch") and more to do with what's going on with the commenter. Maybe they are in a stressful job, or their home life is stressful. And they need to vent.

Now, as for constructive criticism, it's a fair point. To be "constructive", all criticism cannot be solely positive nor negative.

In FDA law, there is a concept called "fair balance". In lay terms, a drug manufacturer has to disclose the bad with good. So, e.g., a TV advertisement will include little innocuous messages about side effects, and that slip of paper with all the tiny print inserted into the packaging will tell you about some very negative and scary things, if you read it. The negatives may not be front and center, but they are there. You, the marketer can say good things, but you have to say some bad things too. Fair balance.

Why not make a rule for HN: If you want to level a harsh criticism, you have to balance it with some praise.

This is a form of transparency. The reader sees both the positive and the negative. They can then choose for themselves what to focus on.

"I like 11kclub for reason A. But I dislike it for reason B."

Fair balance.




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