[acdha]

> HN is famously dismissive of new ideas that go on to become billion dollar companies or products (the iPod and dropbox for two easy examples).

That's a pretty misleading conclusion to draw: for example, here's the whole Dropbox thread:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863

One guy says “you can already build such a system yourself” but that point was immediately contested on quite accurate grounds. Someone else had the correct take (“This is genius. It's is problem everyone is having, and everyone knew it”) and the rest of the thread is similar – lots of use of terms like “great”, various technical questions, comments on how to improve their presentation, etc.

Re: the iPod, are you sure you're not confusing HN with Slashdot.org? The iPod launched 6 years before HN.