I didn't put words in the OP's mouth, I used a direct quote, and I don't think I took it out of context.
> So, next time you write something, make sure you submit to Hacker News, even if you don't get upvotes, people will still read it.
"something" not "something worthwhile" or "something you care about". Is it a far stretch to think that OP is saying, "Who cares if no one actually affirms your work, at least you'll get pageviews?" And while that's probably a true statement, I think it's not overall a net positive for HN.
I'll give the benefit of the doubt to the OP that what he actually means is: "Even if you don't get any upvotes, your content will still get read, and at least a few people will benefit from it" But I can't, as you say, put words in the OP's mouth.
Yes, it is a stretch to assume the OP meant "Who cares if no one actually affirms your work, at least you'll get pageviews?"
His writing did not exclude that interpretation, but it didn't include it specifically either. We shouldn't be grabbing any possible interpretation from our own perspective and projecting it onto the OP.
Implicit in that "something" is at the very least "something you care about" because frankly, while the Internet is filled with a bunch of crap, usually the producers of said crap actually do care about it. It's hard to sit down and write 5 paragraphs about something you don't care about.
> So, next time you write something, make sure you submit to Hacker News, even if you don't get upvotes, people will still read it.
"something" not "something worthwhile" or "something you care about". Is it a far stretch to think that OP is saying, "Who cares if no one actually affirms your work, at least you'll get pageviews?" And while that's probably a true statement, I think it's not overall a net positive for HN.
I'll give the benefit of the doubt to the OP that what he actually means is: "Even if you don't get any upvotes, your content will still get read, and at least a few people will benefit from it" But I can't, as you say, put words in the OP's mouth.