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blog: add "Why I'm Not Posting This on Reddit" post

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Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Jason Staack
2026-03-19 17:35:44 -05:00
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<p class="blog-subtitle">Updates, insights, and the occasional rant about MikroTik fleet management.</p>
<ul class="blog-list">
<li>
<a href="not-posting-on-reddit.html">
<div class="blog-list-date">March 19, 2026</div>
<div class="blog-list-title">Why I'm Not Posting This on Reddit</div>
<div class="blog-list-excerpt">I built something and I'm not posting it on Reddit, Hacker News, or anywhere that runs on upvotes. Here's why building in public on forums is a trap.</div>
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="free-tier-cap.html">
<div class="blog-list-date">March 19, 2026</div>

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<article class="blog-post">
<a href="index.html" class="back-link">&larr; Back to Blog</a>
<div class="blog-post-meta">March 19, 2026</div>
<h1>Why I'm Not Posting This on Reddit</h1>
<p>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.</p>
<p>That's not an accident. That's the plan.</p>
<h2>I've Been Online Long Enough to Know Better</h2>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Before feeds. Before algorithms. Before everything became a performance.</p>
<p>Back then, if you found something cool, it was because you were <em>looking for it</em>. Not because it was shoved in front of you between ads and arguments.</p>
<p>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:</p>
<div class="video-embed" id="video-embed" role="button" tabindex="0" aria-label="Play MC Frontalot — Internet Sucks on YouTube">
<div class="video-placeholder">
<div class="play-btn">
<svg viewBox="0 0 24 24"><polygon points="5,3 19,12 5,21"/></svg>
</div>
<span>MC Frontalot &mdash; Internet Sucks</span>
<span class="video-title">Click to play (opens YouTube)</span>
</div>
</div>
<h2>Forums Optimize for the Wrong Things</h2>
<p>Modern forums reward speed over thought, opinions over experience, and confidence over correctness.</p>
<p>You don't get real developer feedback. You get:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>&ldquo;this already exists&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;why didn't you use X&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;I wouldn't do it that way&rdquo;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
<h2>Building in Public Is a Trap</h2>
<p>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.</p>
<p>You add features to defend decisions. You over-explain simple choices. You drift toward whatever gets approval instead of whatever solves the problem.</p>
<p>That's how good software turns into bloated software. I'm not doing that.</p>
<h2>I Want Signal, Not Reactions</h2>
<p>The only feedback worth anything comes from people who actually use the thing, run into real problems, and come back after it matters.</p>
<p>That feedback looks like:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>&ldquo;this broke under load&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;this workflow doesn't make sense after a week&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;this saved me time&rdquo;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That's signal. Everything else is commentary from the stands.</p>
<h2>Distribution Isn't the Problem</h2>
<p>There's this pressure in software development to &ldquo;launch&rdquo; everywhere immediately. Like if you don't hit Reddit or Hacker News in the first week, the project is dead.</p>
<p>That's not how any of this works.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h2>This Is Intentional</h2>
<p>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 &mdash; and it's not the kind that makes software better.</p>
<p>If you found this without a Reddit thread pointing you here, that's the point.</p>
<div class="blog-cta">
<p>If you're using it, or thinking about using it &mdash; tell me what actually happens.</p>
<p>That's the only signal I care about.</p>
</div>
<div class="blog-footer">
<p>Read more: <a href="why-this-exists.html">Why This Exists</a> &middot; <a href="what-you-can-do-today.html">What You Can Do With It Today</a> &middot; <a href="free-tier-cap.html">Free Is Now Capped at 250 Devices</a></p>
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