Hacker News Reader

Comment by mikkupikku | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if other cult brands attract the same kind of personalities, or if Apple has somehow done something special to encourage it. When a Harley Davidson owner says he has a problem with his bike, do Harley zealots jump out of the woodwork to attack the dissenter and defend the brand from which they derive their personality?

View on HN

“ When a Harley Davidson owner says he has a problem with his bike, do Harley zealots jump out of the woodwork to attack the dissenter and defend the brand from which they derive their personality?”

I’m no Harley owner but you and I both know the answer to that.

Honestly I'm not sure. Motorcycle interest might select against relevant personality traits/disorders. Maybe they bond over commiseration over Harley's decline (a narrative I've heard of)

Fanatical supporters of brands with a high defect rate are a thing. Norton motorcycles. A broad range of English cars. Amiga computers.

This shows up in a lot of other areas, like small game companies that have a devoted following. It can get pretty nasty because these types of people are able to be condescending just short of ToS, while baiting other people into crossing the line. A common thread is weak moderation or biased moderation.

As a developer, it's easy to be blind to this because they're on "your side", but it's bad for the health of your support forums.

Given that it appears in Windows, I presume if there was a Harley Davidson support forum, there'd be fanatics defending them there.

(They do defend them IRL, it's "commonly known" that HDs have issues that the install base "overlooks".)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com