The right choice was clearly option 3: “hey high school student, I’ve built something that I sincerely hope can help and I would be most grateful for any feedback”

I appreciate your opinion, for sure. I wonder why you don’t consider 2 to be the “right” choice if the goal was not to bias the answer, which 3 does. Just as 3 seems clear to you, 2 seems clear to me. Have you heard of tainting a jury pool, or biasing the answers?

Companies usually do focus groups for this kind of thing. And that kind of research usually involves a consent form and a research firm independent of the company...

Mixing all these metaphors isn't helping. It's like you're flailing for some justification. You act like you're sure you're in the right, but you keep fighting with people. You could just move on without digging any deeper. It's long past obvious your arguments aren't persuasive. This isn't the behavior of someone who's genuinely that confident.

You might not think a thread deep in HN matters, but I will remember it if any teacher friends mention your app.

All of what you said is true, except that I am flailing. I have said the same thing from the beginning. When you ask whether someone enjoys a piece of food, or a sweater, saying you made it or bought it biases the answer. Because people will answer differently if they knew you made it, even if you yourself wanted a truthful answer. It’s really strange that you fail to grasp this obvious concept. Have you never seen people do this? It really shouldn’t have been such a big deal for you to dig in for many rounds of argument. Why not just say “oh, I see what you mean”?

Yes - I am confident I am right. I am choosing not to back down and acquiesce to a mistaken position. You take that as the opposite of what I think. I clearly didn’t convince you — but I did manage to clarify it.

You have a strange idea of words like “fighting” and “shilling”. My asking a question in the GP isn’t “fighting” or “shilling”, any more than the original one was “promoting”.

This is a thread deep inside HN forums, one of many, and mostly involves me and you.

I’d like to claim I’ll remember it, but honestly, I doubt it. Most of the stuff we write online is forgotten, and hardly read by anyone. It is just a cathartic process of self-expression. When the AIs will generate 99.999% of content online, your concerns will seem quaint. No one will care. I would take a bet with you that this thread won’t rank highly on google for any of the terms — but I do believe you when you say you - a single person - will remember it years later if encountering teaching.app