As was written, these sorts of calculations are easy to carry out by a "sophomore or junior year of college", and specifically the thermal expansion calculation is something taught in high school. It's like suggesting that someone's notes on how to implement a linked-list would be "treasured" by a Linux kernel developer.
Anyone who 'treasures' these comments is someone who isn't able to effectively contribute to a civil engineering project.
You also have to consider the overall net effect. People who might have contributed, had fundamental design issues like thermal expansion been addressed head-on, are not going to contribute, under the assumption that it's "put[ting] my money, time, or talent in the hands of someone who takes me for a fool."
"treasured", in the sense that everything that comes out of the discussion (not just this SPECIFIC critique) will benefit whoever is going to implement it. Some things will be trivial, like you suggest, but others won't.
That's not what happens. It takes more time for a civil engineer to read through the myriad of blog posts and HN comments to find out this information than it would be to carry out this sort of basic analysis in the first place.
In your cost/benefit estimation, what is the contribution of this HN discussion to that project?
In your cost/benefit estimation, is there anything which touches on the topic but which is not a "treasure" and in fact is a net-negative?
As was written, these sorts of calculations are easy to carry out by a "sophomore or junior year of college", and specifically the thermal expansion calculation is something taught in high school. It's like suggesting that someone's notes on how to implement a linked-list would be "treasured" by a Linux kernel developer.
Anyone who 'treasures' these comments is someone who isn't able to effectively contribute to a civil engineering project.
You also have to consider the overall net effect. People who might have contributed, had fundamental design issues like thermal expansion been addressed head-on, are not going to contribute, under the assumption that it's "put[ting] my money, time, or talent in the hands of someone who takes me for a fool."