Yes, in the beginning pretty much everybody hated it and thought the project was nuts. I got pretty much no positive feedback but lots of negative. I was like "But it's learning! It's learning!" :) Strangely, that convinced almost nobody, even among my friends.

Now that many millions of people have used it, I get a lot of great, often enthusiastic feedback on how Gnod makes the best recommendations.

That teached me that you can't convince people with just an idea. For most people, you have to deliver something which is already useful to them.