[DoreenMichele]

I didn't "hear" it as suggesting it was a disparagement of the product, more like a "LOL, sure, that's so easy!" sarcasm. "You, too, can do this -- if you are a former astronaut and billionaire. No big!"

A lot of advice that "You can easily do it yourself" presumes a fairly high level of skill and knowledgeable in sometimes multiple domains. That presumption isn't crazy talk for the HN audience. Plenty of people will have the requisite background knowledge to jump on a comment suggesting a DIY alternative.

But that in no way means there isn't a market for the product. Plenty of people may need or want X and not have the capacity to do it themselves, even with some instruction.

[saghm]

I don't see anything in the comment claiming that it's "easy" to do yourself, just "possible". I don't think they'd bother saying "Happy to answer any questions" if they thought that it was trivial to do without help.

[1123581321]

I don’t read any of that sarcasm in the comment. And it’s perfectly fine to link a couple Github libraries in a forum full of programmers.

Further down someone has linked a couple other alternatives that are as easy to use as Stein, using a similarly neutral tone.