They Say There Are No Soft Launches

So I have a new project where I am trying to do some local advocacy for some lightweight cycling infrastructure. I wrote a bit about that on Eclogiselle today.

I wasn't sure what to call the piece. I work alone and don't have anyone to bounce ideas off or edit my work.

My initial working title was "Don't Be Anti Car. Be Pro Something Else." I felt that had problems and before publishing it I changed it to "The Hot New Thing" and then submitted it to Hacker News.

That title did not play well on HN and I ultimately decided it was even worse than my initial title. So before I lost my edit button, I changed it back to the original working title about which I had some misgivings. I did not change the URL and you can still see the title "The Hot New Thing" in the URL.

Weirdly, 4.5 hours later it got traction and popped up on the front page. This is pretty unusual stuff and I infer the new title was helpful somehow.

But then many of the comments are basically big negative reactions to the title rather than discussion of the bike rack project. So the title was somewhat successful in terms of getting people to look but it kind of derailed the discussion.

They say there are no soft launches. This baby has apparently just been spanked and hopefully now has a healthy lungful of air.

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