Show HN: Switch from Medium to your own blog - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/mathieudutour/medium-to-own-blog <comment><USER2> I don't have a blog (medium or anything) so unfortunately I don't have a use for this, but I LOVED the gif. It wasn't an attempt to show "how easy it is to do with one command" but rather a real flow of how it all goes, I appreciate it, well done!

<comment><USER3> The one of many problems with gifs is that you can't pause or rewind them.

<comment><USER4> That problem could easily be solved by browsers though? Treat an animated gif like an mp4

<comment><USER5> Or just skip the GIF and create an MP4 file? No need to try and shoehorn GIF into what MP4 can do perfectly well.

<comment><USER6> Yes... except that you can't embed a video in github README

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I honestly don't get posts like these. IMHO the main selling point of Medium is not that you can easily set up a blog, there's plenty of platforms that let you do that easily, or great tools like OP's for setting up your own. The point is that there is already a large audience you can reach with your posts, and Medium actively works to distribute your posts to people who would be interested in them.

The equivalent here would be a "switch from YouTube to your own video hosting site in a few minutes." I mean sure, you could, and it probably wouldn't be that hard, but that's not the point.

<comment><USER8> I often feel like the tech industry has a huge blind spot around "not doing things that make people hate you", and that conversations around tech tend not to factor "hate" (or 'resentment' if you prefer) into making things appealing.

For example I mostly hate Facebook for the choices they have made for years, and if I was ever going to stop hating them it would be after many years of sacrificial demonstration that they have a new philosophy in mind. Not unlike what it would take for a scumbag person to reverse my opinion of them -- candor and sacrifice, rather than nice words and promises.

It is not entirely impossible to stop being hated. Microsoft is occasionally managing it with VSCode and TypeScript, although I'd say I still 98% hate them; they have a lot to make up for, and Windows is still miserable garbage.

It is easy to become hated. Google is pulling it off remarkably. Making money is often easier if you do things people hate, although it's a short-term view -- it definitely increases short-term profitability and guarantees that in 20 years everyone will hate you and avoid you. But it's definitely economically rational for the company's employees, with their 2-10 year tenures and the metrics they have to hit.

Medium started as a breath of fresh air, and has become hated by being annoying. The point of switching from Medium is to screw over Medium, benefits be damned. If you're not factoring resentment into your utility calculation, of course this action won't make sense.

<comment><USER9> If you had framed this as being about personal ethics and morals, it would have been much easier to agree with. Maybe even admirable. Describing it as some kind of irrational hate just sounds silly.

<comment><USER8> Then you and I work differently, and I will stand by my claim that if you/OP don't factor in 'irrational' hate, you won't understand people's behavior.

Anyway, the underlying principle is one of morals and ethics, in a sense. The sensations of hate, resentment, or disgust are the outward manifestation of a calculation to determine who to trust. Naturally, someone who repeatedly screws you for personal gain should not be trusted. The result is the feeling of hating them.

But it is not only about raw 'utility'. Someone who does annoying things (Medium), or demonstrating tremendous hubris or arrogance, or just does things that are or should be inappropriate, gets resented also. If you send me lots of unsolicited emails, I can find a way to explain why I hate you in terms of a utility calculation ("you are taking up space in my attention that I don't want to give you"), but that's just hand-waving -- I just hate you (to some mild degree) and I'm working backwards from that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Honest question. Do people still read blog posts these days? I feel like twitter has made me so lazy that I can hardly consume any long content. I hardly even read the articles posted in HN but do go through the comments since they are easily digestible. Is it just me?

<comment><USER11> I do from time to time. Depends on the authors ability to make it clear in the first paragraphs that the post is worth reading.

In case you're worried about having lost the ability to read longer texts: Find one of those book that you can't put down. A physical book, away from the screens. I used to read a lot as a kid, then stopped. I'm glad I picked it up again. But do start with something easy to read.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I recently switched my blog from Medium to custom blog, reason being among other things (such as Policies) it felt slow to load on Medium.

I had a custom domain in Medium before the feature was shutdown for others, so after I manually copied the posts, I used the same URL slug as in the original Medium posts and deleted the medium posts. The SEO didn't get affected, same posts which had most visitors in medium have same number of visitors at my own host.

Perhaps this was the reason Medium removed the support for custom domains, those who didn't have it cannot move the posts to new domain and expect same SEO results.

</comment><comment><USER13> Great gif. This should be how everyone does readmes.

<comment><USER14> I've tried doing this screen-capture-to-gif thing before but it was always frustrating. I'd love to hear about the workflow to make a gif like this.

<comment><AUTHOR> I've used the default MacOS screen recording (cmd + shift + 5) and then edited/speed up some parts with iMovie.

Then I transform the video into a gif using [https://github.com/mathieudutour/dotfiles/blob/master/bin/mo...](https://github.com/mathieudutour/dotfiles/blob/master/bin/mov- to-gif)

Hope that helps!

<comment><USER15> I used to do the same, but I've had MacOS's default software crash with long- ish (about an hour) content. I switch to Open Broadcaster Software[1] after that; free and open source, and very well made. The learning curve isn't that steep, either, if you're just doing regular screen/audio capture.

[1]

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Why? Sadly, there's not much motivation described in the README. You state "Let's move your Medium content to your very own website" and then you push it to Github and Netlify, which are yet another silos. Good work with the export, but migrating the content to the next vendor lock-in should be optional. Not to forget that these platforms also collect data about your visitors.

<comment><USER17> How does Github "collect data about your visitors"? The repository is cloned, built and served by Netlify's server. And since I doubt Netlify is injecting any js into my site, I also question the extent to which they can track users.

<comment><USER18> Netlify is serving the content, so at the very least, they (and/or the CDN they store the files on) will have a server-side access log of every visitor. Maybe that's not "tracking" per-se, but, if enough sites are hosted on Netlify, they could correlate the visits.

As far as I know, Netlify doesn't make this data available to users hosting sites on the platform.

My own (perhaps paranoid) theory as to why Netlify is able to provide so much for free is that they're selling the access log data, but I haven't seen any proof of that either, so who knows.

Another theory is that storing all those access logs would be huge and maybe they just store nothing...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Honestly I really appreciate tools like this exist but I'll probably keep using Medium out of laziness. I don't want to have to worry about maintaining my own blog and I'm cheap so I don't really want to pay for hosted Ghost/Wordpress since I'm not trying to make money off of my infrequent dumb blog posts. The cheapest Ghost plan is $29/mo :(

<comment><USER20> One of the benefits of static sites like those: They don't need continuous maintenance like e.g. WP would.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> So I have been putting together a way for people to more easily make their own blogging platform. It would kind of mimic a social media platform, but since everything is committed to a repository using the JAMstack it could easily be converted to a full website or in your case you could simply delete the repository or any number of your posts because they are just files in your repository. Any feedback would be wonderful. [https://your- media.netlify.com/post/make-your-own-media/](https://your- media.netlify.com/post/make-your-own-media/) Everything is owned by the end user. This is only providing a recipe for people to use. I will also mention that [https://www.stackbit.com/](https://www.stackbit.com/) is doing basically the same thing but more from a "Make life easier for Website designers" perspective.

</comment><comment><USER22> ..well at the very least it is a form of backup/archiving no?

</comment><comment><USER23> Aaah this reminds me of noob me who thought I could just build a blogging platform of my own. Here are some non-trivial features that Medium provides to writers which we just don't notice. 1- Distribution channel No one is gonna remember the name/url of your blog, Medium allows discovery. 1- Autosave draft Unless you plan to write your post in one go, in one sitting with an extremely reliable internet connection, you are gonna need this. 3- Social plugin integration- Sure start writing oAuth integrations for each of the hundreds of social plugins out there. .....

<comment><USER24> > 1- Distribution channel

Write searchable posts on topics people actually search for. Post it on Reddit, HN, etc. Those are specifically for distribution.

> 2- Autosave draft

Write it offline, copy paste it for online. Btw WordPress has had this for 10(?) years or something similar.

> 3- Social plugin integration

There are existing solutions for this, see IFTTT, Zapier, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Related, I wrote a Python library[1] that takes MD/HTML/TXT as input and gives you estimated read time for that content. That combined with Flask and you've got a great blog with read time calculated going forward, while exporting from Medium looks to only preserve read time for past posts not future ones.

1\. [https://github.com/alanhamlett/readtime](https://github.com/alanhamlett/readtime)

</comment><comment><USER26> What happens with all the comments? Are they migrated as well? It should at least be mentioned somewhere. Obviously, it is harder to set up dynamic content (like comments) for static sites. I've blogged about many solutions to this problem [1].

[1] [https://darekkay.com/blog/static-site- comments/](https://darekkay.com/blog/static-site-comments/)

</comment><comment><USER27> The fact that the first thing you see here is a CLI video already puts off most of the people who write in Medium and could hypothetically consider moving away.

Since I got downvotes, let me clarify. People who use the terminal can probably handle an eventual migration without much hassle but it'd be good to consider non-technical people for future releases. Otherwise it's a fine tool.

</comment><comment><USER28> I have my own blog but also use Medium, I like what they do and wish they could be better at making money

</comment><comment><USER29> Would be also great to see the experience of writing and publishing new posts and/or updating published posts. Otherwise, kudos for doing this. The GIF is amazing!

</comment><comment><USER30> Well done. Would love to see a similar process that works for a Medium Publication (which has multiple authors, etc.).

<comment><AUTHOR> Interesting, do you know if it's possible to export the content of a Medium publication?

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> This is fantastic!! I'm going to give it a try before long--thanks for making it! Also love the gif.

</comment><comment><USER32> FWIW, the formatting of the example blog referenced in the README looks stunningly terrible on mobile.

<comment><USER33> There's one issue with the formatting of the tags? Cool your jets.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Smart, catching on the "hate Medium & I'm leaving it" trend

</comment><comment><USER35> this is awesome. I ended up paying like $99 USD just to have a custom domain pointed to it.

When I asked if I could switch the domain they said "that will be another $99 USD please"

...I don't even know why I am writing on medium

</comment><comment><USER36> To people wondering why you would want to move to a standalone solution while Medium provides you with distribution and community - it does not (anymore). Well, not to the extent that justifies ceding the control over the representation of your content.

Take a look at this experience [https://www.freecodecamp.org/forum/t/we-just- moved-off-of-me...](https://www.freecodecamp.org/forum/t/we-just-moved-off-of- medium-and-onto-freecodecamp-news-heres-how-you-can-use-it/279929)

Tl;dr: Medium's practice of paywalling articles and preferential treatment of those articles over public ones kills the reach of your content. Also, they lock you in by removing the feature of attaching your own domain name. Also, their weird upvote mechanism. Also, the dysfunctional comment system. I can go on and on.

</comment><comment><USER37> Is there anything similar for swotching from Wordpress.com?

</comment><comment><USER38> I hope that everyone uses this. If I was Netlify, I'd pay Mathieu to develop this further (e.g. web UI for people not handy with CLI). What broke Medium for me was their paywall, paid subscriptions, and all that crap. Suddenly, instead of Medium facilitating an author's work reaching readers, it became an impediment in its way.

<comment><USER39> The CLI version is pretty cool, if you'd like a more point-and-click experience try: [https://www.stackbit.com/medium/](https://www.stackbit.com/medium/) (Disclaimer: we created this a few weeks ago)

It uses the same Medium export process and lets you pick what Site Generator to use (e.g. Gatsby, Hugo, Jekyll) and more importantly it lets you pick between a variety of CMS like Contentful, NetlifyCMS, Forestry and DatoCMS.

Oh there are also several Blogging themes to pick with and your new imported blog can be up and running in 1-2 minutes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> The cycle of these SV companies is interesting. They start off with a bang and become "darlings" in the initial stages, then they reach mass-market appeal, attempt to monetize (some of them do so in the most unethical ways) and start to become loathed by the very people who touted them in the beginning.

Let's compile a list:

\- Facebook

\- Twitter

\- LinkedIn

\- Quora

\- Medium

(You can add to it to see how far we go)

<comment><USER41> Does anyone really loathe LinkedIn? My inbox always has some spam, but it's by far the best way to get a quick summary of most peoples professional experience.

<comment><USER42> It took numerous attempts over several years for me to fully close my account and stop receiving their spam emails. During that time I certainly loathed them, and now, I rarely think about them at all. Occasionally I'll click a link to someone's LinkedIn profile if they have it set as their website on Twitter or something. I'll see the ludicrous login-wall, chuckle to myself, and close the tab.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> Pardon the interruption! Before you read this thread please close another popup, don't forget to clap!</comment>


Grid UI for iOS (GitHub link) - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/betzerra/MosaicUI A "simple-to-use" UI component for iOS that displays photos from different sizes in a grid layout. <comment><USER2> very nice, thanks!</comment>


F.D.A. Plans to Seek a Ban on Menthol Cigarettes - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/09/health/fda-menthol-cigarettes-ban.html <comment><USER3> For those of us without a NYT account, one part I found interesting from the WSJ report on the topic was their carefulness regarding pulling the trigger prematurely. While the FDA is trying to decrease the attractiveness of menthol, they're strategically playing a sympathetic long term game with smokers.

As they and everyone knows, quiting smoking is a difficult task and suddenly prohibiting many peoples go-to fix would be cruel and possibly cause more harm than good.

>FDA officials—who want to curb use among youth while still encouraging adult cigarette smokers to switch to less harmful products like e-cigarettes—decided not to restrict sales of mint and menthol e-cigarettes because they didn't want to create a situation in which cigarettes were more attractive to smokers who prefer menthol, senior agency officials said. [1]

[1]: [https://www.wsj.com/articles/fda-to-propose-ban-of- menthol-c...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/fda-to-propose-ban-of-menthol- cigarettes-1541795941)

<comment><USER4> Nothing strategic there. It would be bizarre and unprecedented to ban _any_ e-cigarette flavour. There are thousands, and there's nothing special about menthol.

<comment><USER5> Nothing unprecedented about it. Most traditional cigarette flavors _are_ banned, since 2009.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is scarily prohibitionist. This is not a health-related choice, only an enjoyment preference one. Whether you find the war on smoking justified or not, outright banning of flavored tobacco this way has parallels in other illegalization approaches. And when you grow your own tobacco and flavor it? Criminal.

On a general note, I find it upsetting how many people cheer these things on due to misplaced righteousness. You can disagree with smoking and even recognize its societal harms that affect you without supporting making it illegal. If only the human lifecycle were twice as long, we'd have many remembering political victories built on prohibition platforms followed by state after state banning breweries on the way to the 18th amendment.

<comment><USER7> It's absolutely health-related. Menthol is a mild anaesthetic (remember menthol sports cream?) and permits the inexperienced smoker to inhale fully. Same with the eugenol in kretek cigarettes.

<comment><USER8> Same with sugar in alcoholic beverages. Or salt on red meat.

<comment><USER9> You jest, but here in the UK, where menthols were banned several years ago, we tax sugar in beverages ([https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-43659124](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-43659124)), and food producers are under pressure to cut salt and sugar from their products ([https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/salt-reduction- ta...](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/salt-reduction-targets- for-2017)).

I understand the rationale behind this prohibitionist, paternalistic approach (maintain a healthy work/consumption force, reduce burden on socialised healthcare, improve GDP), but the additional cost to the economy is already built in to these goods - smoke tax (it's not just tobacco, it's anything you could burn and inhale) in the uk more than covers the cost of smoking related illness.

<comment><USER10> The sugar tax has already resulted in many different beverage companies to reduce the amount of sugar in their drinks in the UK. Personally I think stopping government corn subsidies (that are used to make a dirt cheap sugar substitute in the form of high fructose corn syrup) would be a much better way of doing it, but obesity is such a severe issue that we need to do something about it.

<comment><USER4> It's actually really annoying. I hardly ever drink sugary drinks, but sometimes on a long drive I'd get one specifically for the sugar content (sans caffeine and taurine). Now diet versions of everything seem to be default.

<comment><USER11> Also, whilst I understand many/most people can't taste the difference, the swap to using sweeteners has had the same level of disgust to my taste as stirring in a teaspoon of salt into almost every soft drink.

<comment><USER12> I'd actually prefer salt in my soft drink, making it a little isotonic!

I literally only have Coca-Cola for an occasional treat these days - <USER2> Beloved Irn-Bru, 7up & San Pellegrino have all been adulterated with awful- tasting artificial sweeteners and are simply unenjoyable for me now.

It's a weird future I find myself in, where I will never drink any of these things again, punished because of some third party entity's paternalism where other third parties are concerned (I'm not personally fat nor enjoy a diet that would ever make me so).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> As a 20 year smoker who's only been free for about 5 years, ban all of forms of nicotine for sale. For about a week or 2 people will freak out and try to find ways around it and then everyone will realize that it's not that hard. The reason smokers perpetually have problems quitting is other smokers are constantly around and it's ultra available. Sure, there's a few out there who will protest and scream about their right to kill themselves, but we don't need to allow companies to profit from selling addictive poison that has ZERO up side. At least alcohol is fun (for most people) to use. Cigarettes taste like trash, you have to force yourself to get addicted to them, they smell, and they kill. The only reason we won't outright ban them has nothing to do with liberty or freedoms, it's purely because the industry is incredibly profitable, and that's how our laws actually get made.

<comment><USER14> > from selling addictive poison that has ZERO up side.

I can't remember where, but I saw a study that showed banning cigarettes would only make healthcare costs go up as people would me living much longer lives....

<comment><USER15> And? So what? Are we out of bricks to build hospitals with?

More non-dead people also means more workers, more taxes revenue, more consumption, more growth.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I understand that menthol cigarettes are more attractive because they make smoking more pleasant. I also understand they can be more dangerous, because part of being more pleasant is inhaling being more comfortable[0], so one might take bigger drags and/or hold them longer.

As someone trying to quit (menthols particularly), I can see this move helping some (and I also see it incredibly frustrating for anyone not looking to quit, though they should be!). Part of my difficulty in quitting is how widely available smokes are - in my day to day life, they're only ever 5 minutes away, and that ease of access is a huge barrier in staying smoke-free. I've tried the non-menthols in my brand and I can't stand them. Banning menthols solves the availability problem (for me), and while I disagree with it ideologically, it's hard to argue with it practicality.

[0] [https://tonic.vice.com/en_us/article/8xdx7k/are-menthol- ciga...](https://tonic.vice.com/en_us/article/8xdx7k/are-menthol-cigarettes- worse)

<comment><USER17> Which is more practical? Tackling your lack of self discipline and perhaps growing as a person, or appealing for the government to punish the sellers of the product you enjoy?

<comment><USER18> What kind of cost does society bear because of smoking?

Since we share finite resources like insurance pools and the medical system, there's a case for society to restrict the actions of others.

<comment><USER19> By and large, smokers die faster than non smokers, and at an earlier age. This saves costs in health care, pension funds, and social security.

There is a lot of downside to smoking, but the shared burden is not it.

<comment><USER20> Smokers take more sick leave and they live for a long time with disability before they die.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> When they come for my flavored pipe tobacco I am going to be so upset.

At the rate things are going, it's only a matter of time.

No good do-gooders on a rampage to take away everything enjoyable in life.

</comment><comment><USER22> Good.

Oh, sorry; I'm just a doctor. Maybe I should stay in my lane?

<comment><USER23> Unusually salty for you! :)

<comment><USER22> So many of my patients were harmed by smoking that I guess this one feels personal!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Maybe let this decision fall to the states. I also don't like that Marijuana is banned at the federal level.

</comment><comment><USER25> Given the free choice, some people will drink, eat, smoke and otherwise drug themselves into oblivion. We can't solve this issue by simply banning the problematic substances, prohibition and other bans have shown this.

Consumption taxes are also implemented in many countries, but these have issues as well. Namely in regards to lobbying and how the taxes are chosen, and how they disproportionately affect low-income segments.

Personally I am torn on this subject. I highly appreciate the public smoking ban that has been implemented in restaurants, bars and other public venues, as well as on public transit and related facilities. I do respect smoking as a personal choice, just as I expect teetotalers to respect that I enjoy the consumption of alcohol, or vegetarians/vegans to respect that I enjoy consuming foods with meat in them. All of these have proven generally negative health effects, but I choose to partake in some of them, as an informed choice.

I also recognize that all of these activities have some negative effect on the world and society, in one way or another, yet it would be counterproductive to ban them outright.

What I don't like about smoking in particular is the stench and effects of passive smoking, and especially not being able to escape it. At least the public smoking ban did alleviate this, which certainly can be spun as a net societal gain.

</comment><comment><USER26> Banned in Germany already. A former German chancellor has a solution for you:

[https://www.thefix.com/content/former-german-chancellor- hoar...](https://www.thefix.com/content/former-german-chancellor-hoards- menthol-cigarettes91894?amp)

<comment> black-tea It's banned in the EU, not just Germany. In fact, I'm surprised Germany doesn't have an exemption like it does with many other EU smoking laws. Germany is way behind with smoking. Smoking is cool in Germany. Smoking bars exist. Cigarette vending machines exist on every street corner in many parts of the country (and yes I mean every corner, meaning in suburbs, not just in town centres).

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Planet Money did an episode (#842) where one item was on flavoured tobacco products. A particular law targeting tobacco products _expressly exempts_ menthol cigarettes. The episode pointed out that this was a result of intense industry lobbying, who were facing competition from non-US producers, mostly supplying products flavoured with all kinds of other things.

And yes, menthol == mint.

</comment><comment><USER28> Get em hooked then when they become dependent you take it away.

It's interesting they chose flavored cigarettes and not flavored alcohol. The attack specifically on menthol is meant to target the major users of the product. Its not about the kids. And its not about righting some wrong by cigarettes advertisers. This is meant to target the people who use the product.

<comment><USER29> I tend to agree. This strikes me as incredibly and clearly racist as well. They openly acknowledge which community this will target. It's astounding that a white senator (and mostly white FDA I would assume) imposing his/their will on a group of people primarily of color is perfectly acceptable to people.

<comment><USER30> Yeah I didn't see anything in the article talking about how menthol is any more dangerous than regular smokes - are they?

<comment><USER31> [https://tonic.vice.com/en_us/article/8xdx7k/are-menthol- ciga...](https://tonic.vice.com/en_us/article/8xdx7k/are-menthol-cigarettes- worse)

They are just as bad as regular cigarettes, possibly worse, and yet people perceive them as less bad, causing overconsumption.

<comment><USER32> I don't see any evidence that people perceive them to be less bad. That article fakes a reference to that claim but it goes to a link that is irrelevant to the claim.

I have known many menthol smokers and have spent most of my life around smokers. I have literally never once heard the opinion menthol was somehow safer. In fact, I have often heard the opposite; with claims that the menthols have "fiber glass" in them.

<comment><USER31> [https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/20/Suppl_2/ii20](https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/20/Suppl_2/ii20)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> > The products, which include such flavors as chicken-and-waffles and mango, > would be mainly relegated to sales online, at sites where the agency hopes > to impose strict age verification to ensure that minors could not buy them.

"Strict age verification with online sales". I would very much like to see how this is supposed to work.

<comment><USER34> In Canada, that means signature (and ID if you appear under 30) on delivery. So far in the US, it's meant photo ID verification on placing an order if an algorithm decides your CC isn't doing what it would normally do.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> I think they just make it illegal to sell any tobacco.* The black market would not be an issue because smokers can get the same drug from e-cigarettes, which are almost certainly much safer.

*Possession would still be legal, because punishing people for using drugs is dumb.

<comment><USER36> i wouldn't be too sure; the people who support this measure seem to overlap with the people who also want to ban flavored ejuices.

in my view, this is an inevitable consequence of the shift towards socialized medicine. when every human body is a financial liability for the government, you can expect it to get a lot more interested in how you treat your body. good alignment of incentives for public health, but terrible for individual liberty.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> All hail the nanny-state.

</comment><comment><USER30> No paywall:

[https://outline.com/Ka6xJx](https://outline.com/Ka6xJx)

</comment><comment><USER38> Reasoning backwards, if menthol cigarettes were illegal, would anyone support making them legal? I'm libertarian-ish esp with respect to drugs but I think this makes sense. At some point this harm reduction strategies will go too far but it hasn't reached that point for me yet.

<comment><USER36> people don't tend to think harm reduction strategies have gone too far until the government starts targeting _their_ vices.

i don't smoke anymore, but it still makes me very uncomfortable to see the government take another step forward in regulating how people treat their own bodies. the government rarely takes a step back.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> Menthol cigarettes are also favored overwhelmingly by African Americans...as pointed out in the SF debate on menthol cigarettes, this is another bit of astounding racism masquerading as benevolence</comment>


Bad sleep 'dramatically' alters body - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21572686 <comment><USER2> Here's a little PSA:

If you have:

* High blood pressure

* Depressive or angry episodes

* Wake up tired no matter how long you've slept

* Loud snoring

Take a sleep study. You may have obstructive sleep apnea.

I got it badly enough that sleeping for 14-15 hours daily did nothing for me. I didn't realise it at the time but I was on track to die, tired, at about 50.

Today I sleep with a little CPAP machine that keeps my throat open by pumping air into my mouth. It's changed my life enormously.

<comment><USER3> All extremely good advice, but the whole process of getting a CPAP machine drives me bonkers (at least in the US).

A CPAP machine is a couple hundred dollars [1] (certainly less than a thousand) and everyone I've ever spoken to about one has either instantly, the first night of using one had a tremendous dramatic improvement in their sleep or it was sort of 'meh'.

Given the costs and extremely minor risks (we're talking about a small fan that blows air into your mouth) you would think the diagnostic process would be to just give you a CPAP machine and see if it helped.

However you HAVE to go through a sleep study to get one, and you have to get a prescription to even buy one online. All of which means thousands and thousands of dollars of extra health care expense with very little to show for it.

1 - [http://www.cpap.com/customize.php?PNum=2507&PAID=0](http://www.cpap.com/customize.php?PNum=2507&PAID=0)

<comment><USER4> Agree with most everything, but when I bought a CPAP machine many years ago, I don't recall needing a prescription (I could be forgetting). I was deemed "borderline" by my sleep study, so my insurance wouldn't pay for it. I went ahead and bought a portable one online for a couple hundred, and it worked like a charm. Funny thing is the place I bought it from sent me the "nurse's manual" with instructions on setting pressure and "under no circumstances let the patient see this manual" :) I've since lost some weight and had septoplasty (to treat chronic sinus infections) and don't need it, so I donated it to my brother-in-law. If your doctor won't prescribe it, you might need to find a new one. Sleep really is one of those three pillars of health.

<comment><USER2> I managed to luck out in finding the "full" manual for my device through some googling. Basically you hold down some unrelated buttons and voila, you can adjust pressure yourself. As I've lost weight I've periodically lowered it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> One thing is for sure: Reading stuff like that won't help me sleep any better.

I have no problems falling asleep, but I keep waking up after five and a half hours. For periods, I can easily go back to sleep, but when I worry about waking up, I often can not got back to sleep.

I've just started reading "The Happiness Trap"[1]. It's about accepting the ups and downs of life as normal, but at the same time it tells how to handle negative thoughts and feelings better (without getting rid of them). A former Buddhist monk recommended it to me, and my girlfriend (who is a psychologist) also liked it. The title kinda sucks though. Let's see if it helps.

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/The-Happiness-Trap-Struggling- Living/d...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Happiness-Trap-Struggling- Living/dp/1590305841/)

<comment><USER6> I recently read a news article that said making roughly in the middle of a night's sleep is natural and you should just expect to doze off again rather than worry about it occurring.

<comment><USER5> Yes, I am aware of it. It's called segmented sleep[1]. Some think it is natural, but not everybody agrees[2].

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segmented_sleep>

[2] <http://www.supermemo.com/articles/sleep.htm#Myths_and_facts>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Has anyone noticed how people who do not sleep a lot "look old" - I mean with wrinkles, spots, etc.

Look at investment bankers - their chronological age does not seem to match their physical appearance.

This article gives a potential explanation - bad sleep changes protein expression, but I'm curious about the visible outcomes.

Hopefully there are many sleep deprived founders, and well rested lifestyle entrepreneurs (sorry for the cliché!) reading this thread.

Do people tell you you look younger/older than what you are? And how old are you??

<comment><USER8> Good point. They always say that about Presidents, they age like 20 years in 8 years.

<comment><USER9> Obama 2004 (43 yo): [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/9...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/9657962/Barack- Obamas-life-and-career-in-50-pictures.html?image=8)

Obama 2011 (50 yo): [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/9...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/9657962/Barack- Obamas-life-and-career-in-50-pictures.html?image=47)

Not much hair color left..

<comment><USER10> Well that is a time where a lot of people lose their hair color.

<comment><USER11> People lose their hair color due (primarily) to a lack of catalase, which normally removes hydrogen peroxide. It is now thought that much of this work is done during sleep. So, assuming this theory is true, a lack of sleep (an effect every president has mentioned) does cause people to go gray.

<comment><USER12> That makes sense. Several of my friends in college developed grey patches in their hair that went away shortly after graduation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> In the past few weeks I've been shitty to my girlfriend a few times after a night of bad sleep (interrupted sleep and more dreaming than normally).

I figured out that I sleep a lot better - especially when sharing a bed with her - when I omit drinking alcohol, even small amounts.

So maybe that's worth a try for people suffering from light sleep.

<comment><USER14> I've found this to be true. I also find I sleep more soundly and feel much better in the morning if I drink a big glass of water before bed too sort of "tank up"; otherwise I end up waking several times throughout the night. Oh, also the amount of light in a room is huge for me, which I didn't realize until I moved and had thick curtains installed.

<comment><USER15> Or vice versa. I sleep a lot better when I time things such that I sleep with an empty bladder.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I had a period in my life when I was going sleep in the morning and waking up at 3PM, sometimes sleeping for more than 12 hours. It wasn't devastating so much to my physical health as to my mental health. Sleeping too long is as bad as sleeping too short, not to mention going sleep in the morning for several days in a row. Sleeping properly really is essential for good physical and mental health, don't sacrifice it just to 'do more'.

</comment><comment><USER17> I used to sleep from 9:30 PM to 7:30 AM when I was in High School and I never had to study a single bit. I just remembered what I was taught in class without any trouble and aced most of my classes.

When I reached college, I got a late night job and started to sleep from 4 to 6 hours a day for about 2 years. My grades dropped badly; I couldn't remember what I was hearing in classes, I wasn't able to stay focus for as long and I ended up failing classes on my last semester.

It's probably the things that I fear the most from the lack of sleep, not being able to use my brain efficiently when I'm awake.

I remember reading about the fact that the first few hours of sleep are mostly there to physically rebuild the body, while the last hours of sleep are helping mostly with the memory. I don't have sources and considering the current article, I doubt it's as definite as what I read a while ago but might be interesting to read about more extensively.

</comment><comment><USER18> Worth reading: <http://www.supermemo.com/articles/sleep.htm>

</comment><comment><USER19> WHat stood out to me from the article -

"The findings also tie into research attempting to do away with sleep, such as by finding a drug that could eliminate the effects of sleep deprivation."

Every now and then I get upset with myself for sleeping too much, not utilizing all my time after work to work on side projects and learning new skills. I wish I could stay up till late AND wake up early or be able to do away with sleep altogether (and the need to eat)! How I wish I could do away with sleep!!

Recently after a few days of skimping on sleep, I had a few days where I let myself sleep enough and noticed how much more alert I felt during the day, I had forgotten that feeling! For now I have accepted that I need to make time for sleep. Side projects, new skills will just have to be done at a consistent even if a slow rate.

[EDIT: fixed typos]

</comment><comment><USER20> Just what I wanted to read after pulling two all nighters. So how do periods of no sleep followed by equal periods of very long sleep affect the body? And to what extent, if at all, are these changes reversible?

</comment><comment><USER21> I was diagnosed with OSA, and chose to use a newish alternative to surgery or CPAP, the provent strip <http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/07/14/sleep-apnea- fix/> I keep ripping it off in my sleep and can't tell if it's working. Ultimately, they said I would get used to it. You need a prescription and after getting used to it, you have to go in for a follow up sleep study so they can see if it actually works for you.

</comment><comment><USER22> While I don't doubt the findings and won't argue the results, a group of 26 people is hardly a study. Give us the results of 260 or 2600 people, from different backgrounds.

</comment><comment><USER23> This might explain why new parents look 5 years older after 1 year of having their first child (in my admittedly anecdotal sample, including myself)

<comment><USER24> As a single guy, I didn't realize how much sleep a parent loses until staying with my cousin and her newborns. It's like being a soldier constantly living on the front line.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Suggestions of things that works for me.

Custom made ear plugs AND ear lube when you insert them. Custom ear plugs are under $100 can be made by any audiologist or ENT. Much better sound reduction than the ones that you buy that are throwaway. The ear lube by the way creates an additional sound barrier and adds to comfort as well.

Good "bucky" brand eyshades. White noise (a fan) going.

</comment><comment><USER26> For those who've tried cpap machines and struggled with the masks, try the so- called "nasal pillows". They are a lot easier to get a good, consistent seal; are much smaller and so don't trigger that "omfg their's an alien on my face" freak out in the middle of the night; and they allow for more variety of sleeping positions.

</comment><comment><USER27> Wow, all the years I didn't sleep like a rockstar. Used to be able to stay up 2, maybe 3 days without an ounce of caffeine and maybe a quick 15 minute nap here or there.

Looking back, how much of that time I really needed to spend awake, I don't know. You get more effective with age.

</comment><comment><USER28> So how much sleep SHOULD I be getting then? I assume it's based on a few things (age, weight, etc).

<comment><USER29> Well your genes are different to mine so it comes down to your body type.

Personally I'll go to bed at 1AM and naturally wake up at around 7:30AM. I usually fall asleep quite quickly and don't usually get woken up by any noise.

For you this might be a nightmare.

I know people that try and get into bed for 10:30PM. I tried that once. I was awake at 4:30AM. I basically need 6 hours sleep. More just doesn't work for me.

The problem is more that people with sleep issues don't ever feel like they have got a proper nights sleep. It can affect them deeply. You need to get to the root cause of the issue.

As an aside I went through most of my early life with sleep apnia caused by large tonsils. Luckily on a skiing holiday with some friends, we hit it off with a bunch of nurses, who heard very vocally from my friends about the nightmare that was sleeping in the same room as me and the choking noises I would make. 5 weeks later I had my tonsils removed as they were huge. It was life changing. I'd spent most of my early 20s half asleep.

<comment><USER30> You tried that once... but changing your sleep schedule is not something that happens literally overnight.

For awhile I was going to bed at 10:30pm and waking at 4:30-5am. It took several weeks before I could train my body to sleep until 6-6:30am. As a result I feel more alert in the evenings.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> A lot of people have mentioned sleep studies here - any idea on the process to obtain one in the US? Do I need to go to my general physician or can I call up a sleep study center?

</comment><comment><USER32> I've been stressing out a lot about Uni recently, maybe getting a few hours sleep a night (last night I got an hour). Never have I felt worse in my life.

<comment><USER33> If there's no other way to reduce your workload, get a certificate of illness from a doctor and delay some of the work or examinations or whatever is stressing you out. Don't ruin your health. If exam preparation causes you so much stress that you can't sleep or focus anymore, please see a doctor, there's a good chance the doctor can help you with coping with the stress.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> I wonder if the opposite is true as well, where good/proper sleep dramatically alters one's body.

<comment><USER35> No clue, but dramatically altering my body has equalled sleeping better, fwiw.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> Did humans evolve to sleep more than 6 hours at a time?

<comment><USER37> Considering that a lot of people do sleep more than 6 hours at a time... yes

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> are the changes reversable?</comment>


Suggestion: use Facebook auth for government transactions - <AUTHOR>

Capgemini (large dutch IT consultant) suggests using facebook as primary authentication for online transaction between citizens and the government<p>(translated) news message:<p>http://nl.babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-home&trurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwebwereld.nl%2Fnieuws%2F110366&lp=nl_en&btnTrUrl=Vertalen <comment><USER2> This ain't no Daily WTF. This is an Epic Annual WTF!</comment>


Best Answer to "Sell Me This Pen" I Have Ever Seen (2017) - <AUTHOR> https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/best-answer-sell-me-pen-i-have-ever-seen-girish-amanapu/ <comment><USER2> This long manipulative answer just reminds me why I hate salesmen.

All I need to know is whether a product is either cheaper or better in some way. And I need to know it quickly because I've got a lot of stuff to do at work.

<comment><USER3> It's definitely a white collar answer. Try to sell someone a hammer this way and I imagine you'll be laughed out of the workshop.

<comment><USER4> Which is why you wouldn't sell a hammer this way.

Instead, you'd listen to what they have to say about the hammers they do use. Maybe they don't like the grip, or the balance, or maybe it's too heavy or light for the job. Maybe they don't like the claw digging into them from their tool belt while they crawl around tight spaces. Maybe the quality is crap. Maybe it's damaging the thing they're working on.

The point is, you find out what they need, you make it, and then you sell it by using their own language to explain your product and how they'll benefit from it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think the stereotype of salespeople being manipulative is unfortunate because sales actually serves an important function of delivering information about the product to the customer. Researching that info on your own is time consuming and the salesperson should be familiar with the product and its competitors. Unfortunately many unscrupulous salespeople use their position to lie and try to close a sale which leads to a less effective marketplace for everyone.

<comment><USER6> I'm not sure why every time there is mention of salespeople being good, there also has to be a caveat at the end about the tactics bad salespeople use.

For example, I wouldn't say, "Engineers serve a very important function in our society, designing and building the things we need. Unfortunately there are many unscrupulous or lazy engineers who have built bridges that collapse or unsecure code that fails which leads to litigation, high insurance premiums, and costly preventative measures which are bad for everyone."

There's shitty people in every job. Get over it.

<comment><USER7> Because engineers have little incentive to lie, while salespeople have a very strong incentive to do so, maybe?

<comment><USER6> >Because engineers have little incentive to lie,

Really? They have just as much incentive. Tight deadlines, bonuses, promotions, etc. You've never see an engineer push through questionable code to make a deadline or launch a product so they can get that promotion?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> T3OU-736 The half-post long huff and puff pump up of the importance and the context for the content which followed was... really distracting. Almost to the point of diluting the message, which was quite valid.

<comment><USER8> I was half expecting "... and then they all clapped" at the end. The whole self-aggrandizing thing belongs in /r/thathappened

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I was thinking just now about some sentences I would use if I was selling pens on a corner for making the rent and cigarettes money: If I saw a young couple coming to take a quick look of curiosity, I would ask to one: Did she/he ever wrote on your arm that he/she loves you? _ If I saw an old lady taking a quick look, I would say, in a humorous joking way: Those are lucky pens to write the lottery black rectangles, you may spend a dime on the pen and get a million in return, if you dont get the million, you get a cheap but good pen to write lottery tickets for a good time. I should think of more sentences someday, it is a fun exercise.

</comment><comment><USER10> Typical salesperson, he lies in his presentation. Says he just sold some to Elon Musk and this is his last one available. Do you want your salesperson misleading?

</comment><comment><USER11> The article reminded me that the first time I heard of that was when I saw the movie "The wolf of wall Street".

[https://youtu.be/90Xx7PAiqY8](https://youtu.be/90Xx7PAiqY8)

</comment><comment><USER12> "Just this week I shipped ten new boxes of these pens to Elon Musk's office..."

Unless this was somehow literally true, the use of a lie to name-drop would have me interrupt the salesperson right there and tell him to leave.

</comment><comment><USER9> Too long a speech, not really a daily life situation. Try for free for a whole week is hard to refuse, want to try this box of colorpens free for a week? Well , Yes.

</comment><comment><USER13> Published in 2017.</comment>


Sharing economy: the dark side of working for strangers - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/aug/23/sexual-harassment-sharing-economy-uber-doordash-airbnb-twitter <comment><USER2> I found it's quite telling that I only started getting women drivers with Uber or Lyft when I'd been a user for a while. Presumably women drivers are trying to avoid the inevitable creepy customers.</comment>


Using Wii, he conducts a digital orchestra - <AUTHOR> http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2009/05/16/using_his_wits_and_wii_he_conducts_an_orchestra/?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed6 <comment><USER2> I recently saw a Notwist show where Martin Gretschmann was using 2 Wiimotes as instruments. He had them connected to what was apparently a custom-built touchscreen PC with custom software (which he used as a virtual keyboard, among dozens of other things).

Here's a video (found on youtube): <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcEA7HouZDg></comment>


Ask YC: Dealing with post startup depression - <AUTHOR> Hi, I recently shut down my first startup ever. I am having a really tough time getting over it and starting all over again. A feeling of extreme weakness and failure has  taken all over me , clouding my judgement. Any tips on getting back to normalcy would be highly appreciated. <comment><USER2> In all seriousness, take a break. It doesn't have to be for a long time, just enough to refresh your mental outlook. Travel a bit, even just to visit a friend in a fun city or somewhere to enjoy the outdoors. Get away from your computer. Be patient. Allow yourself to be human.

<comment><USER3> If you're the sort that gets into backpacking, that's what I always tend to use as a mental reset. It's a mix of getting to be challenged by a new set of problems and putting yourself in a social situation where you can reinvent yourself. Leave the laptop at home. :-)

I ran into Adam last year in a $3-a-night hostel in Egypt. He's got some decent tips for nerds wanting to get out for a bit:

<http://geekeasy.com/travel/articles.html>

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Don't run away! I am in your shoes right now. Yes, I had to shut down too. But, it has been the greatest growth I have ever made. Why? because you have to " 'real'ize" that no matter where you go or who you talk to, the depression is in yourself, not out there. If I were you, I'd focus on what to do right now with your feelings, not the next big thing quite yet. You have to live with what depression means to find normalcy, otherwise it will be a background process throughout whatever you may do, thereby hurting you more.

I'd like you to ask yourself one question, what is your definition of success? Remember, if you had a blast doing what you did, then there is no point in regret. Hey, if you had a miserable time doing whatever it is you did, it's great now that you are out of it.

Bottom line: learn to live with yourself, everything else will fall in place.

<comment><USER5> _because you have to realize that no matter where you go or who you talk to, the depression is in yourself, not out there. If I were you, I'd focus on what to do right now with your feelings, not the next big thing quite yet._

Very well said.

This is worth reading: <http://shadow.wordpress.com/2006/06/28/297/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> the best scorers in basketball have whats called shooters amnesia. They don't think about the shot they just missed. It isnt part of their reality. Focus on the next thing. don't tie your self esteem to your last shot

<comment><USER7> <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVXiG6oy5eo>

"I have missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot... and missed. And I have failed over and over and over again in my life."

In my experience, the best athletes have a spooky accurate memory of failure... post-game. They figure out what went wrong, every time it went wrong, even if the overall result was success. So it is not amnesia, it is just a failure to influence their present action.

<comment><USER8> _So it is not amnesia, it is just a failure to influence their present action._

This reminds me of my college friend who spent much of his spare time climbing the outsides of campus buildings, smokestacks, _et al._.

Then one day he claimed to be afraid of heights, which made me laugh. "How can you be afraid of heights when you're constantly taking risks at high altitude?", I asked. His response was something like: "Oh, I'm afraid. But I can ignore that and keep going."

<comment><USER9> Didn't you consider his behaviour a bit peculiar?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Congrats--you got one under your belt. Take a break. Then analyze it, learn from it, and iterate. Figure out why it failed, and avoid that trap the next time. Deliberate Practice makes perfect:

[http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/...](http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/10/30/8391794/index.htm)

<comment><USER11> It took me years of brooding in a corporate job to get over my first failed startup. But people aren't kidding when they say it's valuable experience; I've seen enough entrepreneurs who didn't fail soon enough or often enough. Their first big idea happened to stay alive long enough that they lost the fear and thought they were going to go all the way; they weren't sufficiently paranoid and able to think in contingencies. Then, failure came when they already had plenty of people depending on them; they became bitter and never recovered their spirit.

Guy Kawasaki gives experience in startup failure +3 points on his venture capital aptitude test: <http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/11/the_venture_cap.html>

But the economy being what it is, don't wait too long if you want a decent choice of corporate jobs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Exercise. Seriously. Endorphines are really good for putting life in perspective.

<comment><USER13> You said it. Weight training is especially good for this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Stop thinking that any single project will bring you success. Your goal should be to go through this process as many times as is necessary, from beginning to end.

Even if your first project is a smashing success, the chances are high that you will want to go through the process of starting something new again (and with this process comes the possibility of risking failure -- don't forget this!). There should be no difference with the outcome with any project.

Embrace your failures as they will teach you better and more thoroughly than anybody on a message board!

</comment><comment><USER15> This is an evolved response, made for the paleolithic era. Your brain thinks your tribe was just conquered by the neighboring tribe, and that your women and livestock have been taken. Evolution thinks you're lucky to be alive, and the best way to preserve that is to lay low for a while and be submissive as possible. The mechanism by which is does this is by temporarily cutting your testoterone level. Your T is low, so you feel low and hopeless and the world seems a bit grey.

That was the smart move 50,000 years ago. Not now. You need to do things that bring the testosteroone back: hard exercise, especially weightlifting. Try to arrange for plenty of small, guaranteed wins in anything you're good at: video games, basketball, trivial pursuit, whatever. Get lots of sunlight! That's an easy one that boosts testosterone. There are probably other things that boost T. Google.

Bravo for asking this question. Great job in doing a startup in the first place. Consider this a hearty slap on the back.

</comment><comment><USER16> Get some exercise and take care of yourself (probably in ways you neglected while doing the startup). When you can internalize the fact that failure is not a bad thing (as long as you learn from it), it will become easier to deal with.

Finally, be proud of the fact that you ventured out and took some risks. Life isn't meant to be spent hiding from potential failures.

</comment><comment><USER17> depends on what you consider "normalcy".

i'd consider trying to get a corporate job. being bossed around, having structure and timelines, and not innovating much will fill your brain with ideas and have you itching for a startup in no time.

edited to add: i'd also consider trying to find a job in another field if you have the skill set or the means to potentially take a lower-paying job. taking a break from the tech sector could definitely re-energize you.

</comment><comment><USER18> Even though it didnt make me rich, I consider my first startup to be successful because I took it from idea to revenue.

</comment><comment><USER19> There is a hellacious amount of luck in startups. The best startup guys generally admit that it was luck/market that was responsible for a huge part of their success. Tremendous brains and a ton of effort is a big part of it, too.

The founder of Del.icio.us was at a YC dinner last night and talked about all of the miserable failures he had before Del.icio.us. Ev Williams had Pyra Labs' product before Blogger and Odeo before Twitter.

Failure abounds. Drink it in, learn from it and dive into your next one.

Or, if it makes you miserable, get a real job and some fun hobbies-- no shame in that!

</comment><comment><USER20> I failed at two startups before my current one, which is close to launch. After each failure I took a break, feeling weak and like failure just like you are. But time heals all wounds. Before too much time had passed (a couple years) the excitement (and finances) had returned, and I jumped back in the game. I feel much, much stronger for the experience of those 2 failed startups. I don't regret them one bit. Sooner or later you'll probably feel grateful and happy for the experience you had, failure or no. Why not start now?

<comment><USER21> >> (and finances)

I've always wondered -- how does one recover from the financial setback of the initial failure? In good times, this may be easier if one either has savings or can quickly find a job to fall back on. But in times where jobs may be more scarce, how does one get through this?

Also, do the subsequent funding rounds get easier or harder? Do subsequent startup funds lean more towards VC or angel sources, assuming that one cannot save as much for the next rounds for a self-bootstrap?

I completely understand that the emotional roller-coaster must be difficult to overcome after the first setback, with a similar toll for a spouse/partner and family. How do people also overcome the financial setbacks?

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I've been there. Just remember that the best indicator of future success in business is having tried before--even if you failed. In the valley, it's a truism that VCs don't mind seeing a couple of failed companies in your past, as long as it's clear that you learned something from them. There's even some evidence that the same investors that gave you money last time (and you lost) are actually more likely to invest in your new company than someone they've just met who has no record of failure. Weird, huh? Failure is practically a virtue in high risk business like tech startups.

Take some time off, work on something else that's a little less stressful (I did part-time contract work for a couple of companies that I enjoyed working with--contract work pays well, and gives you lots of time off to relax), play some video games, talk to girls/boys, learn a new language or to play a musical instrument, read good books, enjoy time with your family/pets/friends.

In six months, or a year, you'll feel rested and ready to dig in again. It'll actually come sooner if you have an idea that you really love. That is what happened for me, though I had some downtime before finally giving up on my previous business where I'd stopped selling the products that I'd always sold and started slowly evolving the business into something else--but I was accepting no new clients, so the workload was quite low.

</comment><comment><USER23> Oh hell no! The last time I posted something inspirational here, somebody sent it to the Seattle Tech Startups mailing list, and in a couple hours it went from "inspirational Roosevelt quote" to "Teddy killed Indians" to "well Jefferson owned slaves" to "early philosophers were child molesters" to "why don't you go quote Hitler then" to "I'm glad my ancestors didn't kill any Indians" to "I looked up your family name on Wikipedia and your ancestors murdered Indians too".

</comment><comment><USER24> Sorry to hear that things didn't work out.

The thoughts from others on taking some time off, getting into a different head-space are very good. Getting some exercise, seeing some shows, travel, eating some decent food, all good ideas if you have the cash for them.

If I spend too many days in front of the computer, I start to go stir crazy. I've had to force myself to stop and pick up some genre fiction and history books that I used to enjoy reading recently.

</comment><comment><USER25> Think about it this way : You got about 10-20% of the total and about (70-80% of the grunt) work done for your next startup. :)

You have your servers, source code repository, development environment, bug/feature tracking stuff and all that ready. Heck, you might even have got the logging in, authentication, monitoring and all that done as well.

I would go so far as to say : Everyone should do a dummy startup just to get all the above straightened out. :)

</comment><comment><USER26> THE ROAD TO WISDOM? Well, it's plain and simple to express. Err and err and err again, but less and less and less. — Piet Hein.

If you look at anyone successful, the reason you know about them is rarely their first endeavor. Everyone can start and and shut down a start up, but people that continue that cycle are those that succeed.

</comment><comment><USER27> While it is hard to give a personalized advice on coping with a depression, you still can benefit from the failure. As others said - _learn from it_.

Specifically, if you are doing something that you have a little experience with (like, say, starting a business), it is generally a good idea NOT to assume it will work out. Better yet, treat as a wild card experiment with a great risk of failure. Approach it as something that you are trying out and using to learn what works and what does not. Very few people can succeed on unfamiliar grounds and it is almost always a matter of luck. Far more people succeed through trial and error. So learn from the mistakes and try again.

</comment><comment><USER28> Play. This may sound like completely ludicrous, but it is what helped me. I loved the startup I was with. Amazing people, neat technology and an overall spectacular environment. The only defect was that the customers weren't there. So I left and right afterwards, I felt horrible. Eventually, I found myself also in a cloudy dysfunctional haze. So I decided to 'play.' For me that meant going back to school to learn random things that interested me (from linguistics, to art, music, architecture, Greek mythology, puzzles, maps, ornithology, hang gliding, etc.). While things didn't get better right away, they did improve significantly over time.

Take heart; this too shall pass.

</comment><comment><USER29> Learn and grow from the experience. Having to close up shop is like breaking up with your girlfriend. Get over her, but also learn from the things you did wrong. Give it some time, take a sabbatical.

Don't go burying your head in a carton of Breyer's though.

</comment><comment><USER30> You failed. Own it. It happened. Who are you worried will find out? The people who love you already know who you are and they don't care; they still love you. The people who don't love you probably don't matter.

I agree about exercise and a change of pace in your lifestyle (backpacking, academia, even a day job). The important thing though is to realize this isn't even near the worst thing that could have happened. You can still try again. Only this time, you have more information and are better prepared to deal with adversity. This sort of thing is hard for everybody.

I look forward to reading your new startup beta announcement soon.

</comment><comment><USER31> I tend to recall Kipling's poem If, crucially:

"If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same;"

<http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_if.htm>

</comment><comment><USER32> Read about Hershey and Edison :)

Taking a break is a really good idea. Not a long one, but something that makes you clear your head, focus on your body and your health, and starting missing creating cool stuff. If your mind's constantly occupied with day-to-day concerns, you can be overwhelmed and it's hard to regain focus.

If you can afford it, change your scenery a bit and go hiking or get away to a beach for a week, 'til you get bored of it.

What is your goal in making a startup? If you can get a continual sense of reward from accomplishing these things, that'll keep you going :)

</comment><comment><USER33> Hey, just relax and take a break for a week. Visit your favorite vacation spot and meditate for an hour everyday! This will grant mental strength and will improve your concentration. Look for a place where you can go for a swim and enjoy good food. You need to sleep well and keep yourself physically active. Doing this, I am sure you'll return back to normalcy, and then you can analyze your failure with an open mind and a positive attitude.

</comment><comment><USER34> You are in mourning. Emotionally it is similar to experiencing a death or divorce. Give yourself a little time to mourn in whatever way is good for you: have a good cry, get really drunk, beat the shit out of a wall, whatever. Failure sucks, now get over it. Your company's failure was not your failure. Learn from it, you are not invincible, now move on.

To use the old cliche: what doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

</comment><comment><USER35> Take time to reflect, Figure out what gaps you need to fill and then launch another startup. Remember, you only have to get it right once!

</comment><comment><USER36> Take a break. Go for a jog. One technique which has worked form me is looking at a brand new problem and coding for it.

I would also recommend reading: * blog.pmarca.com * Founders At Work * Startup by Jerry Kaplan (old tome but a good read) * Bhagvad Gita, an ancient Hindu scripture which talks about work, victory, defeat (I can lend you a copy)

</comment><comment><USER37> Microsoft toiled away in obscureness for over half a decade before landing the IBM DOS deal. Having perspective and realistic goals is helpful, there are a lot of good books on this topic (Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure, Founders at Work).

What problem did you try to solve with your startup?

</comment><comment><USER38> Take a break.

Then, whenever you're ready, come back here and talk about it. That's what we're here for. Even though you're only 2 hours old here, you're already a veteran. Share your lessons with us and take what you need. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised how you'll feel then.

</comment><comment><USER39> Accept failure and work in small bits. Focus on a very small part of your life and make sure you excel at it: ribbon and cherry on top with a blue medal for tying your shoes. Take each day one step at a time. It's not easy but you don't have to swallow it all at once.

</comment><comment><USER40> I found this book to be a rich source on how to get value out of this kind of painful experience.

[http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Higher-Success-Vernon- Howard/d...](http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Higher-Success-Vernon- Howard/dp/0911203508)

</comment><comment><USER41> Allow yourself to be human and realise that everyone fails. Get back on the pony and accept it for what it was: A learning experience, as is everything in life.

</comment><comment><USER42> This might not help, but now that you've failed you can take comfort in the fact that most startups do fail.

</comment><comment><USER43> drink heavily for three weeks while watching lots of TV. At end of third week go to the gym, get on a treadmill and think about what your next business will be. Come up with idea, get off treadmill and run with it.

</comment><comment><USER44> It's not how you failed; it's how you get up. Keep pressing on

</comment><comment><USER45> any blog entries or anything describing what you did and what led to your shut down?

I hope to avoid learning this kind of thing the hard way...

</comment><comment><USER46> I have been there, and you will only get better from here on. Let go of the emotions. Put the thoughts on hold.

Stay away from your machine. Go somewhere for a couple of weeks. Exercise. Eat well. Sleep well. Drink a bit of wine even. Have sex. Be human.

No guilt.

No regrets.

You'll be fine.</comment>


Bring Back the Serifs: Restore the Old Google Font - <AUTHOR> http://bringbacktheserifs.xyz <comment><USER2> Is there any single person that is so upset over the change that they would install a browser extension to reverse it?

This is mad. It will grow on you, just give it some time.

</comment><comment><USER3> Yes. Let's bring back the serifs shall we?

[http://homepage1.nifty.com/nojiri/macosx/imagemacosx/macosx1...](http://homepage1.nifty.com/nojiri/macosx/imagemacosx/macosx101box09252001.jpg)

</comment><comment><USER4> Mmm, New Coke.</comment>


Ask HN: Job Board Frustrations for Developers - <AUTHOR> What are your biggest frustrations with using job boards and job aggregators both large (Monster, Indeed) and small (Unicorn Hunt, WeWorkRemotely)? What features would your dream job board include? <comment><USER2> I think my biggest issue is dealing with recruiters. 99% of jobs listed have a recruiter on the other end.

I generally make it a habit of only responding if I know it's directly with HR or someone working for the company.

</comment><comment><USER3> Spam.

New York State runs a job board which is filled with crap job entries. Sometimes the job is supposedly in Syracuse, NY but when you talk to the recruiter, the job is in Atlanta.

As a dev I'd rather get jobs in an RSS feed or API and view and filter them with my own system. In fact, for the last two job searches I did, I did just that.

<comment><AUTHOR> Roll-your-own filtering of RSS or API results is an interesting idea, Paul. Thanks for sharing.</comment></comment>


Show HN: GraphBox – Instant GraphQL APIs - <AUTHOR> https://graphbox.app/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi all,

I just launched my new side project, GraphBox

GraphBox allows you to provision a GraphQL API in a matter of moments for prototyping, testing and mocking purposes

I created this project as I've seen a number of similar apps that provide the same thing for REST APIs, but I haven't really seen anything for GraphQL, which has grown in popularity massively in recent times and I think there might be space in the market for something like this.

Thanks for looking,

Chris

<comment><USER2> Hi Chris, can you list some of the similar rest apis that you mention?</comment></comment>


Advanced Data Structures in Python - <AUTHOR> http://pypix.com/python/advanced-data-structures-python/

<comment><USER2> Discussed two days ago:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6929975](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6929975)

<comment><USER3> Not really. The HN title is the same, but the link points to a different article.</comment></comment>


Introduction to Type-Level Programming in Scala - <AUTHOR> http://rudairandamacha.blogspot.com/2012/02/type-level-programming.html

<comment><USER2> good video, but vimeo is utter crap.

Tiny video, neither signup nor HTML5 player work with the newest Chromium on Ubuntu ...

<comment><AUTHOR> If you'd like to download a higher quality version there's a link to the full video in MP4 (H.264, MP3 96kb/s) underneath the embedded vimeo player.</comment></comment>


Why did Japan surrender?  - <AUTHOR> http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2011/08/07/why_did_japan_surrender/

<comment><USER2> If true, it makes the fact of not one but two large cities vaporized and thousands of civilians including many, many children made to slowly die in agony from radiation poisoning even more vile of an act, no?

<comment><USER3> The only thing that might change the morality of the bombing is if Truman's objective was actually to intimidate the Soviets (as was suggested but never convincingly argued in the article) rather than end the war (as is commonly assumed). Simply changing the reason why Japan surrendered shouldn't much change the morality of Truman's decision, since you're holding fixed what Truman believed.

Analogously, most people think it's moral for a SWAT team to shoot and kill a hostage taker. The fact that the hostage taker was actually going to release the hostage anyway (unbeknownst to the SWAT team) if he wasn't shot doesn't really change the morality of the shooting.

But really, 99% of the morality is decided by whether you think strategic bombing can ever be acceptable (either because you are a pure consequentialist, or because you subscribe to the Doctrine of Double Effect and accept that the bomb's actual target was the industrial base of the Japanese cities rather than their citizens).

<http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/double-effect/>

<comment><USER2> Except one important fact - there was a large group of scientists who begged the US government to drop the bomb offshore Japan instead to demonstrate it's power. There's even a letter to prove this.

President decided to ignore that and drop it on civilians first anyway. It's just military bloodlust.

Remember half the US was practically foaming at the mouth to kill any Japanese at that point (we even had concentration camps for Japanese-Americans) so the mentality was there would be no repercussions, certainly no-one vocal enough to protest the morality.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> That was a very interesting read, thank you yarapavan.

(If anyone else gets hit with a registration page, the print article link will let you read the whole thing.)

<comment><USER5> Ah, cool to know. I used bugmenot.com, though ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Here's an interesting if only tangentially related bit of information. Every year on Hiroshima bombing anniversary Japanese activists (of some faction) hold a protest next to an embassy. This includes anger tantrums, shouting, throwing empty bottles into the wall and some such.

Here's the fun part. The embassy is Russian.

Apparently the logic behind their anger is that it was Soviet Union who caused the bombings by silently agreeing to it when they had a chance to stop them. Americans however did nothing wrong, they merely showed Japanese how caught up in the war they were and helped them to see the light. This is clearly not a widely shared opinion, but it just goes on to show how really contrived the subjective part of the issue is.

<comment><USER7> Actually, the demonstrations are usually held by right wing Japanese organizations on August 9th, the day of the bombing of Nagasaki.

This was also the day that the Soviet Union broke the neutrality pact with Imperialist Japan and invaded Manchuria and other parts of the Japanese Empire. The protests are usually against this invasion and consist of calls to get the Northern Territories of Japan returned.

Also, there are angry tantrums and shouting, but there are no throwing of empty bottles at the walls of the embassy because the riot police do quite an impressive job not letting any of the protestors through. It's a bit of a charade and an annoyance when you're trying to conduct business in the area, but the reality is different from the story you're sharing.

<comment><USER6> It _is_ a charade, and you are right about Nagasaki/Hiroshima mixup on my part. The bottle throwing I witnessed myself though it was in mid-80s, and it was a part of the same charade. Police let that happen, but things generally remained under control. People who worked in the embassy not long ago said the same show was still being put on, but finer details I don't know.

The Soviet Union inaction with the bombings angle -- this also comes from the embassy people and I have no reason not to believe them. Not that it means it was/is a central part of these protests.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Battles of Khalkhin Gol ( 1939 )

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Khalkhin_Gol#Afterma...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Khalkhin_Gol#Aftermath)

\---##---

" Historians rethink key Soviet role in Japan defeat (google.com) "

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1608923>

<http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=11402184>

 _The impact of the lightning Soviet advance comes through in the words of Japan's wartime prime minister, Kantaro Suzuki, urging his cabinet to surrender._

 _He is quoted in Hasegawa's book as saying, "If we miss (the chance) today, the Soviet Union will take not only Manchuria, Korea and Sakhalin, but also Hokkaido. We must end the war while we can deal with the United States."_

 _V-J Day, the day Japan ceased fighting, came on Aug. 15 (Aug. 14 in the U.S.), and Japan's formal surrender followed on Sept. 2._

 _Dominic Lieven, a professor of Russian government at the London School of Economics, said anti-Soviet sentiment in the West tended to minimize Soviet military achievements._

 _Also, "very few Anglo-Americans saw the Soviet offensive in the Far East with their own eyes, and Soviet archives were not open to Western historians subsequently," he said._

 _More surprising, even in Russia the campaign was largely ignored. Although the scale of the Soviet victory was unprecedented, 12,000 dead against Japan hardly compared with the life-and-death struggle against Nazi Germany, in which 27 million Soviets died._

 _"The importance of the operation was huge," said retired Gen. Makhmut Gareyev, president of the Russian Academy of Military Sciences, who took part in the 1945 campaign. "By entering the war with militarist Japan ... the Soviet Union precipitated the end of World War II."_ ''

</comment><comment><USER3> This is a plausible alternative theory, but it seems this is a case where the media gives too much attention to non-mainstream views in Academia. Is there any claim that the consensus among historians has shifted?

Also, I find it hard to believe that there aren't some personal accounts or primary sources that could more or less decide the issue.

<comment><USER9> I read the article wondering the same thing. It didn't spell out whether the historian had formed his opinions based on personal accounts and comments, or whether he accumulated evidence to support a theory.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Years ago, a cab driver in Japan told me that MacArthur was a hero to the Japanese because he saved them from Russia.

</comment><comment><USER11> _But Hasegawa and other historians have shown that Japan's leaders were in fact quite savvy, well aware of their difficult position, and holding out for strategic reasons. Their concern was not so much whether to end the conflict, but how to end it while holding onto territory, avoiding war crimes trials, and preserving the imperial system. The Japanese could still inflict heavy casualties on any invader, and they hoped to convince the Soviet Union, still neutral in the Asian theater, to mediate a settlement with the Americans. Stalin, they calculated, might negotiate more favorable terms in exchange for territory in Asia. It was a long shot, but it made strategic sense._

This piece sounds very plausible to me and helps make this new theory sound fairly solid as far as the ultimate conclusion that Russia's declaration of war was the final straw. The article really doesn't convince me that the nuclear bombs played no role. It indicates that after the first one was dropped, Japan sent a message to their ambassador in Moscow asking him to press for a reply from the Russians. The article says: _The bombing added a "sense of urgency," Hasegawa says, but the plan remained the same._ So there was concern, there was a reaction, but apparently not what we have been historically taught that the bombs simply caused the Japanese to cave in horror and surrender unconditionally. No, they opted to surrender to the US in preference to a Russian invasion as the lesser evil. It sounds like a savvy decision making process when faced with sucky options.

</comment><comment><USER12> Oh my...I had no idea! Fascinating...but yeah, you're right...it'll never catch on. Just cool to know something that only the relative minority of people will ever know...

</comment><comment><USER13> Two thoughts:

1) Why do we continue playing the blame game with something that happened 65 years ago? I for one, no matter how bad I feel about what happened then, am not going to apologize. Seeing as my _parents_ had not yet been born, I don't think I'm especially responsible, and I think it's pretty much the same across the board.

2) What is with this postulating about how "maybe nuclear weapons are not as good of a deterrent as we thought"!? They were certainly a good deterrent for... I don't know... the entire Cold War!? It doesn't really matter if they deliver the destruction we fear. As a deterrent, the only thing that matters is how much we fear them, which we obviously do! (Just look at the folks wringing their hands over Fukushima)

P.S. As I understand it, modern nuclear warheads make Little Boy and Fat Man look like toys. The US had a bomb of 25 megatons in 1961. Little Boy was 15 kilotons. May be wise to consider this when claiming nuclear weapons are no more consequential than some firebombing- leaving aside the part where one can be delivered from a submarine hundreds of miles away, and the other requires an entire squadron of bombers to do a flyover.

<comment><USER14> > As I understand it, modern nuclear warheads make Little Boy and Fat Man look > like toys.

They mostly look oversized: high-yield systems were all the rage when bomber was the only means of delivery (culminating with the Tsar Bomba test at 50MT), because it was expected most bombers would fail to deliver and the aim would likely be off, so each and every hit had to "count".

With the rise of ICBMs, yields went way down and systems deliver multiple warheads instead (per-head yield got down to 50~100kT e.g. W62, W76, W80) although it went up again following SALT and SORT agreements (which reduce the number of warheads the US and Russia "can" own, and thus makes it interesting to push yields back into higher range and use less warheads per missiles)

<comment><USER13> I didn't mean in terms of size, but destructive potential.

Do you not agree that a salvo of 100kT devices would make 1x 15kT look pretty tame?

<comment><USER14> > Do you not agree that a salvo of 100kT devices would make 1x 15kT look > pretty tame?

There are still 15kT warheads out there, and a 100kT device does not make a 15kT device "look like a toy".

So no.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> TL; DR; ?</comment>


Reviving the American Dream with 'Purple Policies' - <AUTHOR> http://greyenlightenment.com/reviving-the-american-dream-with-purple-policies/

<comment><USER2> I only read a few paragraphs... I doubt I need to read further. The writer, who obviously is rather self-assured that he sports an IQ higher than 95% of the rest of the population, is clearly falling short on a few vital aspects of the human condition. Redistributing wealth to those with high IQ's does not ensure ethical use of capital, and will only serve to widen the income gap. If severe enough this will eventually lead to the poor rising up against the "smart people". It doesn't take a high-IQ to kill.

The author also misses the fundamental point of a basic income, which is equal distribution. Providing income to one group over another based on means testing undermines the entire concept. And there is no need to do so. Smart people will use the money they receive wisely, which is great for the economy. Others will use is less wisely, but that is okay. As long the the Basic Income isn't artificially inflated that will have little negative effect on the economy. The point is to give all human beings a modicum of dignity to at least have the opportunity to conduct their lives in a productive manner. Starving and homeless people have little chance to make something of themselves regardless of their IQ's.

If we wish to ebb the world toward higher IQ's -- and I agree that is noble pursuit -- the best policy is to curb population growth via a policy of two children per parent, and provide special allowances to those who demonstrate exceptional talent. Many people will find that objectionable at first. But if considered carefully, it is the least offensive means of achieving this laudable goal.</comment>


Thank you, HN - <AUTHOR>

After almost 4 years of HN I've taken the leap into working on startup full time. Friday was the last day at the full time job and I just wanted to thank everyone here for making the community strong enough to motivate me to go out on my own. I don't recall how I ended up at HN but I do recall not being able to stop reading or participating. I've flown cross country to attend two startup schools (highly recommended) and left each one motivated to start something. I'm excited to take the next step and learn from the many mistakes I'll make. In return, I hope to document my steps (and missteps) of my entrepreneurial journey and hope that others will be able to learn from me the same way I learned from others.
And for all the new HNers out there, the community has definitely changed (you're no longer guaranteed to get on the homepage with every submission) but it's still a great place to be whether you're working on a startup or just waiting till the day you will be.
Thanks again! <comment><USER2> HN people are way too reasonable, supportive, and professional... It's a disgrace to the internet and I'm glad to be part of it.

Good luck, have fun.

<comment><AUTHOR> Some will argue that it used to be even more reasonable, supportive, and profesional. But as you said, compared to everywhere else it's still a treat.

Thanks for the wishes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Enough to motivate me to register an account after being one year reading.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's how it started for me. I lurked around for a bit but once I signed up, it started me on this path.

Good luck!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I was going to ask you to share your knowledge, but I saw that you already plan to document it in <http://startupmullings.com/>

Good luck with your endeavor.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yep! I plan on documenting my journey on there so definitely follow along and if you need anything you can also reach me via email - dangoldin gmail.

Thanks for the wishes!

<comment><USER5> awesome stuffs. take a lot of courage to move from a full time job to a startup. :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Once the bug strikes you can't avoid it. One way to view it is that it will actually much more valuable as an employee since you will develop skills much faster and it a much wider capacity.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Can you solve it? Are you smarter than an architect? - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jul/17/can-you-solve-it-are-you-smarter-than-an-architect <comment><USER2> I'm not sure architects are known for their smartness? Egotism, vanity, pretentiousness perhaps, but not smartness.</comment>


Ask HN: is http://www.fcc.gov/comments down for anyone else? - <AUTHOR>

So if I have this correctly, the FCC set up an app to get public comment on FCC related issues (most notably right now Net Neutrality) and the public comment period is something they're obligated to do under law, yet the system they've created does not work or fulfill its purpose:
http://www.fcc.gov/comments
Has this site just flat out not worked for anyone since the public comment period began May 15th?
Is this an issue of the site being overloaded at the moment?
Maybe it's some kind of ironic commentary on how user rights and free speech will suffer under the FCCs new proposed rules? <comment><USER2> Last I checked an FCC proceeding on Friday it worked. Not so much right now, though. I just get an error saying "Cannot open connection" after a long pause.

My suspicion is someone might be ddosing it out of outrage, but it could just as easily be their own problems. The commenting system did stop working once in February or so.

EDIT: Their main site seems to be up, so I assume it's not anything shady.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, I should have been more exact in my initial wording. This is the error I was receiving as well, though I check it now and instead am getting an error from my browser ("No Data Received") instead of getting the "Cannot open connection" error from the service.

I noticed on Techcrunch today there was a segment on John Oliver's Sunday night HBO show where he discusses Net Neutrality. I didn't watch the clip but maybe the outage is related to this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> > Has this site just flat out not worked for anyone since the public comment > period began May 15th?

The site is up and shows 45,647 comments on Proceeding 14-28 "Protecting and Promoting the Open Internet" in the period since comments opened on it (which is more than 30 times the activity of the next-heaviest over the past 30 days), so it clearly has worked for some people. I suspect any errors you are encountering (the only error I see is if you attempt to click through the link to the existing public comments) are because of an unanticipated activity level resulting from the fact that the comment link is being broadcast with many opinion articles/broadcasts on the issue accompanied by calls to flood the system.

</comment><comment><USER4> This is crazy, I can't believe this insanity. If not for John Oliver I wouldn't even know about net neutrality. Who thought this up anyway!!!

</comment><comment><USER5> I had to re-submit 4 times before it saved successfully.

Their EJB prints SQL back to you. Wonderful.

to retry: Hit back, confirm, submit again.

</comment><comment><USER6> is this the fcc? a lobbyist should not be able to influence regulations that are contrary to the public good. he should be excused due to conflict of interest. as a matter of fact, the whole motion should be excused!</comment>