"Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something."

"Don't be snarky."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

I'm unsnarkly saying this work is completely useless for me.

Should all feedback be in the form of "that's so awesome!"?

Being unable to absorb negative feedback seems detrimental to a product development effort...

Of course, but the site guidelines are clear about how to do so:

"Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

It's also worth checking out the Show HN guidelines:

Be respectful. Anyone sharing work is making a contribution, however modest.

Ask questions out of curiosity. Don't cross-examine.

Instead of "you're doing it wrong", suggest alternatives. When someone is learning, help them learn more.

When something isn't good, you needn't pretend that it is, but don't be gratuitously negative.

https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html

The current post wasn't a Show HN, of course. But the same spirit applies.

Anytime I get in a discussion and sufficient number of people disagree, my comments are flagged despite obeying site guidelines. What should I do about this?

Me neither.

But I have 10-15 ESP32's just waiting for a useful project. Does HN have better suggestions?

desk rover - https://www.huyvector.org/diy-cute-desk-robot-mo-chan

a kid-pleaser at the very least

Build a synthesizer

+1. if you have a couple of potentiometers and a breadboard lying around, a granular synth would be a fun exercise.

Why do you have so many? eWaste..

I need 1, but they come in packs of 10.

No, no, but we insist!