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Product Hunt is dead

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Re: Product Hunt is dead

#91

Post by turnsout »

aranw wrote: post #89
siva7 wrote: post #37

Let me communicate this clearly for the subtype of HN users who are engaged in some startup thing: You won't find actual users for your product on Product Hunt because neither normal people nor most nerds browse product discovery sites. VC's don't care either (except for self-promotion).

This gave me one of those surreal "huh" moments I've had in awhile. I've seen loads of apps boasting about being "#1 on Product Hunt" or whatever and I just realised that I've never actually gone to Product Hunt looking for a product to use. Does make you wonder who Product Hunts audience really is and who is doing all the upvoting?

The audience is almost literally no one, the people doing the upvoting are doing it for subhuman wages in developing countries, and the only scrap of value created is a "#1 on Product Hunt" badge that doesn't even impress developers anymore, let alone your users.

I launched on PH last year and came to the same conclusion as the author of the post. The platform is dead, and deserves to stay dead.

Re: Product Hunt is dead

#92

Post by epolanski »

wiradikusuma wrote: post #63

Launching is hard. I put my own side project on HN https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45345623 a few days ago and it got exactly zero traction. At first it stung, but then I checked https://news.ycombinator.com/shownew and realized: someone launches something literally every few minutes. The odds are just stacked. Whether it's Product Hunt, HN, or even LinkedIn (I actually saw better response there lol), it feels l…

Wow I didn't expect show new to have such high numbers.

But what are you gonna do? Some very impactful projects and startups opened posts here and got 0 traction.

Re: Product Hunt is dead

#93

Post by fbxio »

This confirms what I believed for years. PH suffers from a fundamentally flawed incentive system that, by game theory, inevitably triggers a race to the bottom, forcing participants to cheat. Because if some cheat and you don’t, then you don’t rank. Cheating became a must.

The mechanism in which founders were indirectly forced by the platform’s reward system to spam and beg their networks for votes was surely great for PH’s traction, but the collapse was inevitable as it didn’t drive lasting value for platform participants.

The core idea that the products that rank high are those worth your attention only works if votes aren’t biased or manipulated.

So any alternative would need to get the incentive systems right so that actions are aligned with genuine discovery and long-term value creation, not short-term vote gaming.

Re: Product Hunt is dead

#94

Post by fbxio »

ahmedfromtunis wrote: post #75
cjs_ac wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I have a problem and want to buy a solution to that problem, I'll use a search engine to find what solutions are available. I won't check a list of new solutions to problems on a daily basis in the hope that one day a solution to my problem will be on there. Product Hunt is the tech founder equivalent of refreshing your social media profile, watching the like count increase on your latest selfie.

I used to enjoy browsing PH and learn about all the cool projects people were building. And there were actually very good ideas -- at least in the early days of the community. I even used to play a game that I've called PH-roulette: I'd open the top 10 or so products in separate tabs without reading their taglines. I then try to guess what they do based on the copy of landing page. On most days, only one or 2 product…

Would love to read more about your insights. Maybe not here bc OT

Re: Product Hunt is dead

#95

Post by supjeff »

The author assumes that he's talking to legitimate vote-riggers, and not just people who will screenshot successful posts, say it was their doing, pocket his money and block him.

Re: Product Hunt is dead

#96

Post by supjeff »

rchaud wrote: post #34

I associate ProductHunt with lots of rocket emojis and artificial-seeming comments congratulating the company on launching. There is usually zero discussion of the product itself, so the whole thing came off as a way to advertise for free. Dead Internet Theory in action.

I don't know if it's fair to call this a dead-internet thing. Most comments on social media are nothing or misdirection. You might say "well that's easy if you're paying for fake activity from bots" but I've seen plenty of real people have transactional, nothing-exchanges in real life. I mean, the internet isn't the only place where people are fake/lazy.

Re: Product Hunt is dead

#97

Post by m3kw9 »

I’ve never used product hunt because most produce seem to be sht or some sort of promotion or a mix. The best way to find a product was to actually googling and then have Reddit or some forums surfacing it.

Re: Product Hunt is dead

#98

Post by mhashemi »

supjeff wrote: post #95

The author assumes that he's talking to legitimate vote-riggers, and not just people who will screenshot successful posts, say it was their doing, pocket his money and block him.

supjeff, the author has screenshots of linkedin convos transacting with other businesses. there are also actual users on the product hunt site. the grift is real, and not just on LinkedIn.

Re: Product Hunt is dead

#99

Post by mercurialsolo »

Product Hunt died a few years back. Can't say it was good when it lasted.

I also wonder whether software products can be discovered through a launch any longer. Just too much noise and high throughput at which they are being released - once u get past the page all products look like they were baked by clones or a completely divergent one that needs investment.

The launch model is broken.

Re: Product Hunt is dead

#100

Post by burnto »

siva7 wrote: post #37

Let me communicate this clearly for the subtype of HN users who are engaged in some startup thing: You won't find actual users for your product on Product Hunt because neither normal people nor most nerds browse product discovery sites. VC's don't care either (except for self-promotion).

It is the product launch channel of a bygone era.

Seems like these days people try to announce products in communities that might use them.

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