Ask HN: Fastify has 13k stars on GitHub, but no traction in HN. Why?

3 pointsfuzzymind6y ago2 comments

Fastify [1] has been submitted to HN for several times [2], but it has never gotten more than 3 upvotes. However, it is hugely popular in GitHub. Can anyone explain this? I have no clue. Thank you!

[1]: https://github.com/fastify/fastify

[2]: https://hn.algolia.com/?q=fastify

2 comments

2 comments · 2 top-level

PaulHoule6y ago

My take.

Believe it or not, I don't think the landing page for fastify makes a compelling value proposition. You would think that "fast" sells, and it appeals to me, but when I have test marketed "fast" I've found people don't respond the same way I do.

At the bottom of the page I see a whole bunch of logos and names that look like the logos and names of trendy modern companies except I don't recognize the names. It just doesn't connect to me.

There are so many web servers and frameworks out there that it's not easy to stand out, particularly in the Javascript world. As excited as people are about Node, and as much as using the same language on the front end and the back end is a "holy grail", most of the people I know who write front ends based on React and that kinda technology still use Java, Scala, Python, Ruby or something else on the back end.

Other than that, HN is not really a pure "technical" forum. I think it uniquely covers people who are interested in both technology and business so if want to get people's attention you have to show people something they haven't seen before and that they recognize they haven't seen before.

probably_wrong6y ago

I don't think anyone can give a proper answer other than a shrug and/or a "dunno".

Off the top of my head: It could be popular with a crowd that doesn't visit HN. It could have fake GitHub stars. It could be a project with very bad PR. It could be the type of small project that Just Works, and therefore people don't feel a need to talk about it (see: the Mate Desktop Environment).

Answering for me, in case it helps: I never heard of it, I don't program in Node.js, and I already have a web framework of choice. Of these three, I believe the third to be the most likely answer for your question.