For this project, I tried to manage my expectations, but anyway, I feel horrible. How do you balance the need to promote your project with the fear of being too self-promotional? Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated!
Don't take the feedback as personal or attacks, but as advice to make your "thing" better.
>I'm feeling overwhelmed by the thought of self-promotion
Just use a 'Show' tag, you'll be fine.
> I'm also constantly checking how many visitors I have or how many stars I've received.
Why? Spend your time working on the code, or "thing" related like docs and not worry about things you can't really control.
Good luck!