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Comment by gooseus | Hacker News Reader

Some feedback; your article on angular is awful.

It's got some good information on some pieces of angular that more people should have a better understanding of, yes. However, trying to absorb that information through the shouting and sensational ranting is almost impossible.

This same article could have been written by a level-headed coder who understands the complexity of making a widely distributed browser frameworks and it would have been called "5 Angular Idiosyncrasies" or "Tricky Angular Patterns".

But no, sensationalism sells and loud, strident claims win the day. Why have humility and get less clicks when you can write a scathing takedown using strawman arguments and style yourself the next Crockford?

Your points are entirely valid criticisms, but your language and attitude make you sound like a blowhard trying to prove something or a shill promoting a competing framework with negative press.

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FWIW, my tone in that article is exactly the tone I would have if you got me started on this in a real life conversation. If I sound like a blowhard, at least I'm an authentic blowhard, it's not some act I put on for the clicks.

The tone comes from being legitimately angry at these flaws in Angular, but also from having to discover them myself, instead of reading about them on someone else's blog. The various JavaScript frameworks affect hundreds of thousands of developers every day, and choosing the wrong one can cost companies a lot of money. I really think that as a profession we'd make progress faster if more people wrote angry blog posts about things that are bad.

Your article is solid and I am grateful that you wrote it.

And I understand your tone completely.

When a framework is oversold in a major way those who try to use it on real life projects get very frustrated.

I appreciate a human, conversational approach to technical information and applaud you for your blog's tone. If you were writing for a professional news site it might be inappropriate but as a post on your own blog, you're entitled to whatever writing style you want.

Then lets be sure not to have any real-life conversations, though I do appreciate you being authentic about it.

I agree 100% with the idea that it's better when people know about potential pitfalls before making big decisions and I hate how much marketing is involved in promoting frameworks. Read any of my comments on a Meteor post and you'll see similar anger and points to those you made about Angular.

However, anger is over-rated as a communication tool and is automatically limiting your receptive audience. I use is without thinking and shoot myself in the foot all the time, like in my comments about Meteor. But comments are comments and easy to publish without re-reading to consider how the intended recipient will take your words.

Not so with blog posts, when considering your audience you should consider whether people who are turned off by blowhard advice are going to respond how you want. Or do you only care about reaching those people who like to be yelled at, or are already angry with you (and thus a part of a choir you are preaching to)?

I see there are others willing to express appreciation for your tone, I will not. The question is, because I don't agree with your tone, am I the one who misses out on what you (and other blowhards) have to say, or are you the one who misses out on the positive responses of everyone who feels the same as me?

Also, consider how much of what you opine on regarding patterns and standards or whatever isn't naively influencing those new coders you're trying to save with your bluster. Here is a relevant article from the homepage today, does it resonate at all?

http://jamisondance.com/03-29-2015/cynicism-and-experience/

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