What were these kids thinking, starting some ambitious software project from scratch without much of a clue how to do it? This is unheard of on the internet!
My point is that their problem is other peoples' expectations. Their ambition set the bar before they'd written a single line of code. Had they been more humble and waited to ask for a handout afte they had released what they have now I don't think there would be half as many articles hitting HN about how crappy their software is.
I think that they released something is great. I would never put some one down for having ambitions and aspirations to follow them. I would simply advise that they keep those ambitions to themselves and let their actions speak for them.
I think the "ambitions" you're ascribing to them are based on your own interpretation of events. They sought a little seed money (what was it? $4k?) to try to do something pretty cool. They happened to do it at just the right time and rode a wave of publicity and enthusiasm. Now people like you are saying, well they should have planned it better. Well, they should have released a more mature project before begging for handouts. Well, they should have let security experts do it.
They didn't plan this. But they're giving it a shot.
