- I do ignore his posts. In almost three years of HN, this is the second time that I've tried to make my point, and it was not out of nowhere.
- Argumentum ad populum.
- As for the content: I think that a website for the discussion of ideas is where amichail will thrive. If he moves his usual posts to the new website I would have absolutely nothing to say about it. I'd probably participate, precisely because I know that is the website's purpose.
- I'd be (even) less vocal about his posts if he showed he is working on his ideas. If you read what I wrote carefully, you'll see that my criticism is not for the ideas, but rather the fact that he throws millions of them without any follow-up work. Whoever dreamed up the hula-hoop built the damn thing, he/she did not make it big by sending mail to people with "Why don't we make a object that is simple, cheap and fun? That would certainly be a successful toy."
Let me give you one simple example of why I think this kind of contribution is useful, maybe even very useful.
I've seen in practice several times that people that shoot off their wild-ass ideas for literally years on end suddenly hit one right out of the ballbpark. Having ideas is like having to paint, or blog or anything other that is creative that is a drive outside of yourself. You literally can't control it.
And if in all those ideas there is ONE golden one and it is recognized as such amichail will be the one to reap the benefits from that.
HN is a great place to get criticism for your 'stupid' ideas, and it isn't always the smart ideas that end up making you money.
If I look at my own history it is the stupid ideas that made be lots of $ and the intricate and lots of work stuff is what gave me great intellectual satisfaction but ended up losing literally buckets of money.
Give the guy a break, there is room enough for everyone here.
One of the reasons these 'niche' HNs seem to fail is simply because of the lack of volume and requiring the potential audience to monitor yet another website.
If amichail were to take his 'idea fountain' elsewhere I for one would miss him, and I would consider it a loss to all of us.
A couple of years ago I guy I knew was bugging everybody about his idea for 'foldable storage boxes'. He eventually made a cardboard model, and couldn't stop talking about it. The follow-up was dreadful, it never went anywhere. Fast forward 10 years, he's back at it, only now he's gotten this idea that maybe he can make them larger, so that trucks that drive south with flowers can use these boxes on the way there, and fold them up on the way back so they can carry payload both ways, instead of driving back with empty flower racks. Oh, and of course everybody was telling him he's nuts.
Same basic idea, took well upwards of 10 years for the coin to drop. I would not be surprised at all if amichail is like that guy. He takes a shower, comes back out and can literally fill 10 pages of his 'notebook' with ideas.
99% of them are crap, and everybody keeps telling him.
I wished I had his banking problems though...
Inspiration can come from the most unexpected sources and we have the vote button in order to express what we think is good stuff and what isn't.
As of this writing amichail has 5x the karma that you have, and you are both members of the sites for roughly equal duration. I think I'll let that speak for itself.
As for the quality of amichails content, it would not be the first time that a 'wrong' idea with a bit of tweaking made someone a fortune.
@amichail, please keep them coming, worst case you will make us laugh, best case you will make us proud by scoring one day with one of your 'odd' ideas.
I'm sure whoever dreamed up the hula hoop must have been ridiculed, but I am fairly sure he/she laughed last.