Stay classy, Internet

Yesterday, 6-year-old Foursquare launched their new app for the Apple Watch. In the discussion, Dennis Crowley shared some of the backstory of Foursquare, going back to 2009. Overall, the conversation was respectful, with exception to one comment:

“Awesome. Another place to not use 4sq”

Darshan pointed this out to me:

Ugh. I cringed, and shared my thoughts:

Ultimately, I want Product Hunt to be a place of empathy, respect, and honesty.

Launch day is incredibly exciting and stressful. Makers spend countless hours turning their idea into a product. Regardless of how much market validation and confidence one might have, sharing your “baby” with the world is a very vulnerable position. And this makes negative, disrespectful comments even more distressing.

Instead, we need more empathetic comments like this:

Thoughtful ideas like this:

And constructive feedback like this:

So please, stay classy, Internet. ☺

‍