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Ask HN: How to tell the world about your project?

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Re: Ask HN: How to tell the world about your project?

#21

Post by taubek »

bsnnkv wrote: post #12

For projects that you will ultimately be charging money for, from my own experience, comments on HN in which you describe how you use your project generate a lot more interest than submissions of your project or articles about your project. This next one might not stand the test of time given that Mastodon is still finding its place in the social media landscape, but right now, Mastodon is a great place to share and…

For me Mastodont is unknow territories :) I must say that I'm having a hard time of grasping the concepts behind it. How to find which server should I join?

Re: Ask HN: How to tell the world about your project?

#22

Post by bsnnkv »

taubek wrote: post #21
bsnnkv wrote: post #12

For projects that you will ultimately be charging money for, from my own experience, comments on HN in which you describe how you use your project generate a lot more interest than submissions of your project or articles about your project. This next one might not stand the test of time given that Mastodon is still finding its place in the social media landscape, but right now, Mastodon is a great place to share and…

For me Mastodont is unknow territories :) I must say that I'm having a hard time of grasping the concepts behind it. How to find which server should I join?

If you're someone who frequents places like HN, I'd suggest https://hachyderm.io - very well run and has a lot of like-minded people with tech expertise and interests.

Re: Ask HN: How to tell the world about your project?

#24

Post by chrisallenlane »

taubek wrote: post #7
onion2k wrote: post #4

Build a network. Contribute to things. Cultivate friendships. Help people. Do that for a few years and then people might listen to your ideas.

I've been contributing to various open source projects for years. Because I believe in them. I'm just one of the contributors, so I don't even know how to approach someone with "Hey, can you help me with...". I guess that I need to go out and hang out more. Thanks :)

I'm the author/maintainer of an open-source project that receives a relatively large number of pull-requests.

FWIW, if you're contributing to a sufficiently large project, it's entirely possible that the maintainers don't even read your name or look at your avatar when they review your PRs. (Unless, of course, you're _heavily_ involved in the project.)

I personally seldom do. There simply isn't enough time to "get to know" contributors. PRs are business and transactional, and nothing else. Building FOSS is a team effort, but it's not a "social" activity. You can't "hang out" on Github.

(I don't say this to be disparaging or discouraging, of course!)

IMO, if you want to engage professionally with others in a more personal way, ~~Twitter~~ Mastodon, Twitch, and other similar platforms are the way to go.

When I'm reviewing your PR, I only care about the diff. When I'm talking to you on Mastodon/Twitch/HN/etc, I care about your thoughts and opinions. It's just a different, less task-focused way to interact with someone.

I wish you the best with your project!

Re: Ask HN: How to tell the world about your project?

#28

Post by 020921 »

255kb wrote: post #5

From my own experience with building Mockoon: I submitted the project on various places: HN, Reddit, Product Hunt, and lots of directories like Beta Page. HN was the best, by far. Lots of interesting feedback. Reddit was okay, but you need to post at the right time of the day, and present your project so it doesn't look like an ad (like "I created X using Y framework, feedback welcomed"). Still it helped, but it real…

Hi, just wanted to let you know we are using this at work. Our flow is:

1) Create OpenApi Spec.

2) Build it out in Mockoon.

3) Share Mockoon endpoint (hosted on aws app runner in a container).

4) Iterate on feedback.

5) Build real thing.

Thanks a lot!

Re: Ask HN: How to tell the world about your project?

#29

Post by quickthrower2 »

andrewmcwatters wrote: post #14

Engineers are totally afraid of marketing. They think it's slimy and gross. But if you want people to use your product, you need to tell people about it. All modern social networking and aggregator marketing that isn't ad-slot purchased, astroturfing, or some variation can be summed up as: When your project is relevant to discussion, share it. For example, I publish a niche product. The largest pure Lua game engine o…

Good answer. Surprised your bio is not filled out.

Re: Ask HN: How to tell the world about your project?

#30

Post by 255kb »

020921 wrote: post #28
255kb wrote: post #5

From my own experience with building Mockoon: I submitted the project on various places: HN, Reddit, Product Hunt, and lots of directories like Beta Page. HN was the best, by far. Lots of interesting feedback. Reddit was okay, but you need to post at the right time of the day, and present your project so it doesn't look like an ad (like "I created X using Y framework, feedback welcomed"). Still it helped, but it real…

Hi, just wanted to let you know we are using this at work. Our flow is: 1) Create OpenApi Spec. 2) Build it out in Mockoon. 3) Share Mockoon endpoint (hosted on aws app runner in a container). 4) Iterate on feedback. 5) Build real thing. Thanks a lot!

You're welcome :) Always happy to learn about the positive impact of what I built.

If you have any specific feedback or facing an issue, do not hesitate to join our Discord or GitHub Discussions. I will be glad to help!

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