Hacker News comment threads are notorious for this. A number of times I have been the brutally honest one when I shouldn't have to be. People are very unwilling to criticize the development efforts of others. That's OK to an extent, but it's frustratingly unhelpful when you are trying to solicit genuine feedback on something you plan to devote your life (or part of your life) to.
Sometimes the worst people to get feedback from on an app is other developers. They focus on the wrong things and overlook important stuff. They provide a type of useful feedback, but their suggestions and your instinct can easily run contrary to what a user expects and needs.
That was my experience as well at first, but then I realized that there is a certain pattern to the way americans communicate, and it goes something like this:
- First state the positive aspects that you like, or show appreciation for the effort - even though those things have already been said by other people in the thread.
- Then count what you find negative but don't use words such as "sucks" and "not good" etc.. but use words such as "could be better" and "can be iterated on" or "needs improvement".
- Then end the post by encouragement.
This technique has also helped me IRL as I started working with other americans in a startup in the bay area.
It takes some practice, imo, but it makes for some better communication with americans.
Sometimes the worst people to get feedback from on an app is other developers. They focus on the wrong things and overlook important stuff. They provide a type of useful feedback, but their suggestions and your instinct can easily run contrary to what a user expects and needs.