Why I'm Not Posting This on Reddit
+ +I built something. And I'm not going to post it on Reddit, Hacker News, or anywhere else that runs on upvotes and drive-by opinions.
+ +That's not an accident. That's the plan.
+ +I've Been Online Long Enough to Know Better
+ +I've been on the internet since the BBS days. Dialup. Bulletin boards. Forums where you had to earn a reputation before anyone cared what you thought.
+ +Before feeds. Before algorithms. Before everything became a performance.
+ +Back then, if you found something cool, it was because you were looking for it. Not because it was shoved in front of you between ads and arguments.
+ +Somewhere along the way, the internet stopped being a place to build things and became a place to react to them. MC Frontalot said it better than I can:
+ + + +Forums Optimize for the Wrong Things
+ +Modern forums reward speed over thought, opinions over experience, and confidence over correctness.
+ +You don't get real developer feedback. You get:
+ +++ +“this already exists”
+“why didn't you use X”
+“I wouldn't do it that way”
+
From people who haven't run it, haven't deployed it, and never will. That's not feedback. That's noise with a score next to it.
+ +Building in Public Is a Trap
+ +If you start building in public on those platforms, something shifts. You stop building the thing you set out to build and start building something that survives comment sections.
+ +You add features to defend decisions. You over-explain simple choices. You drift toward whatever gets approval instead of whatever solves the problem.
+ +That's how good software turns into bloated software. I'm not doing that.
+ +I Want Signal, Not Reactions
+ +The only feedback worth anything comes from people who actually use the thing, run into real problems, and come back after it matters.
+ +That feedback looks like:
+ +++ +“this broke under load”
+“this workflow doesn't make sense after a week”
+“this saved me time”
+
That's signal. Everything else is commentary from the stands.
+ +Distribution Isn't the Problem
+ +There's this pressure in software development to “launch” everywhere immediately. Like if you don't hit Reddit or Hacker News in the first week, the project is dead.
+ +That's not how any of this works.
+ +Good software doesn't fail because it missed a forum post. It fails because it tries to be everything to everyone. I'd rather have five real users than five thousand people who scrolled past it.
+ +This Is Intentional
+ +I'm not avoiding forums because I'm afraid of criticism. I'm avoiding them because I know exactly what kind of feedback they produce — and it's not the kind that makes software better.
+ +If you found this without a Reddit thread pointing you here, that's the point.
+ +If you're using it, or thinking about using it — tell me what actually happens.
+ +That's the only signal I care about.
+