cc34877b76
Changed "analytics pixel to count page views" to "analytics to measure page views and engagement" across all 22 site pages to accurately describe the updated telemetry script. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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<div class="blog-post-meta">March 19, 2026</div>
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<h1>Why I'm Not Posting This on Reddit</h1>
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<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>
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<p>That's not an accident. That's the plan.</p>
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<h2>I've Been Online Long Enough to Know Better</h2>
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<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>
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<p>Before feeds. Before algorithms. Before everything became a performance.</p>
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<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>
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<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>
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<div class="video-embed" id="video-embed" role="button" tabindex="0" aria-label="Play MC Frontalot — Internet Sucks on YouTube">
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<svg viewBox="0 0 24 24"><polygon points="5,3 19,12 5,21"/></svg>
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<span>MC Frontalot — Internet Sucks</span>
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<span class="video-title">Click to play (opens YouTube)</span>
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</div>
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</div>
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<h2>Forums Optimize for the Wrong Things</h2>
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<p>Modern forums reward speed over thought, opinions over experience, and confidence over correctness.</p>
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<p>You don't get real developer feedback. You get:</p>
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<blockquote>
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<p>“this already exists”</p>
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<p>“why didn't you use X”</p>
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<p>“I wouldn't do it that way”</p>
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</blockquote>
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<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>
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<h2>Building in Public Is a Trap</h2>
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<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>
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<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>
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<p>That's how good software turns into bloated software. I'm not doing that.</p>
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<h2>I Want Signal, Not Reactions</h2>
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<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>
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<p>That feedback looks like:</p>
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<blockquote>
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<p>“this broke under load”</p>
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<p>“this workflow doesn't make sense after a week”</p>
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<p>“this saved me time”</p>
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</blockquote>
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<p>That's signal. Everything else is commentary from the stands.</p>
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<h2>Distribution Isn't the Problem</h2>
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<p>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.</p>
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<p>That's not how any of this works.</p>
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<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>
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<h2>This Is Intentional</h2>
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<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 — and it's not the kind that makes software better.</p>
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<p>If you found this without a Reddit thread pointing you here, that's the point.</p>
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<div class="blog-cta">
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<p>If you're using it, or thinking about using it — tell me what actually happens.</p>
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<p>That's the only signal I care about.</p>
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</div>
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<div class="blog-footer">
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<p>Read more: <a href="why-this-exists.html">Why This Exists</a> · <a href="what-you-can-do-today.html">What You Can Do With It Today</a> · <a href="free-tier-cap.html">Free Is Now Capped at 250 Devices</a></p>
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embed.addEventListener('keydown', function(e) {
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if (e.key === 'Enter' || e.key === ' ') { e.preventDefault(); loadVideo(); }
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});
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|
}
|
|
</script>
|
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</body>
|
|
</html>
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