[gregparadee]

Some of the comments in this thread are the exact opposite thing I would expect from this community and it is shameful. It's unfortunate that the top comment is one of these which could steer some people away from reading further.

As many others in this thread have pointed out, Cerebro is a pretty cool app that borrows from some core OS functionality and improves on it. Is its design 100% perfect? Maybe not. However, instead of commenting the application isn't exactly the way YOU would have done it and complaining try offering some constructive criticism.

If the app is memory hogging, not following best coding practices, or you have a cool idea of how something could be done instead share that feedback and offer better ways to do things. Not only does this benefit the developers working on this app but it helps others who may be working on becoming better developers themselves.

I myself am a naive developer. However I enjoy developing in my free time to keep myself thinking and I enjoy learning new things. I frequently visit this community to see what others are working on and looking at all the cool applications that people develop is a great way to pass time. If I had worked on something really hard, posted it, and then received some of these comments I would be extremely discouraged.

That said, if a Cerebro developer is reading, this looks like a really cool improvement on Spotlight (I use OSX). Keep up the good work and don't let the negative comments in here discourage you or your team!

[afpx]

I truly wish that most communities of practice were more like what you describe. But, it's also naive to expect that experts won't criticize, sometimes even harshly.

For instance, I am currently learning data science from the ground up (i.e. reading the fundamental mathematical literature) and doing it outside of a university program. It is disheartening to post a question, to say Cross Validated, and have a few critical commenters almost laugh the motivation out of me. So, I can emphasize.

However, on the other hand, as a software practitioner, I am often on the other side of the fence. In this field in particular it seems like there are often amateurs who decide to jump in with an arrogant disrespect for the existing community knowledge and practices. I think it's because software is very cool now (like statistics, etc.). And, in software it's easy to find some code and libraries and 'wire them together' in crude ways.

Note, I am not implying that this is the case here! I haven't even looked at the software nor read most of the comments. But, since I often see this happening, I know that such comments are expected. I'm only commenting on your perspective.

I am not against autodidacts. In fact, I am one myself. And, I encourage it. But, all autodidacts should expect and embrace criticism from the community. It sucks to take it, because often commenters are often overly harsh and blunt. But, in defense of them, every community will be like this, to some degree. And, it's expected. Many of these practitioners have spent their life doing it, and they have some right to be critical, don't they?

[Mithaldu]

> If the app is memory hogging, not following best coding practices, or you have a cool idea of how something could be done instead share that feedback and offer better ways to do things.

In spirit i agree with you.

In practice the problem here is, to use a really crude analogy:

The Cerebro developers rented an empty mall for super cheap, then opened a single restaurant in it. Some people won't mind driving all the way there and walking through the entire thing to get to the restaurant, other people will.

The advice then in that situation is to one of these:

1. Demolish the parts of the mall that aren't used, piece by piece, while trying to not knock over the restaurant situated on the third floor, so other people can build their houses on the now free space, closer to the restaurant.

2. Abandon it and build a new restaurant in the middle of the city.

Everyone recognizes that both of these are very expensive solutions and unlikely to ever be implemented, so you end up with two kind of people.

1. Those who shrug and walk away saying nothing.

2. Those who go, with various amounts of emphasis: "Aw, i wish you hadn't done that."

There is no happy middle ground possible here, sadly.

[exadeci]

While it's cool if the dev does it as a side project I think that the main reason people are negative is because it doesn't bring anything new as many similar tools exist: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13737052

And the only difference it has is being much heavier because it's electron.

[mememachine]

I actually find comments like yours far more obnoxious than level-headed criticism. This communities purpose is not to be a marketing team for whoever wants to post here. Criticism is much more edifying than blind support.

[wmccullough]

The problem I see in this community is that much of the time, many aren't providing criticism. If it were only criticism, I'd even agree. The truth is that the so called "criticism" is really armchair quarterbacking most of the time.

[nurettin]

I wish you and some other Hn'ers would stop hating on armchairs.