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Product Hunt is dead

sedimental.org

111–119 of 119 posts

Re: Product Hunt is dead

#111
Not only Product Hunt, the entire Web 2.0 has passed away, having near completely lost any sincere commitment to service and quality in favor of quick return on investment.

The idea is still valid though - user generated content which evaluates and provides feedback to other users and producers through which quality floats to the top. The "only" piece missing is how to protect against various vested interests that pull in other directions ...

Re: Product Hunt is dead

#112

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…

I’ve found HN traffic to be the “worst” of any traffic. Zero engagement. Much better to spend some time doing SEO and getting a dozen search traffic than a “thousand” hit from HN. I wish I was exaggerating.

Re: Product Hunt is dead

#113

So, basically Product Hunt has become a paid ads platform - only that you wouldn't pay Product Hunt but external service providers. I wonder why PH doesn't take the money directly and switch the business model to some kind of advertising auction. Might be more fair and transparent.

Indeed

Re: Product Hunt is dead

#114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Product Hunt turned into a meta-game long ago. Getting attention on Product Hunt is more about collecting a metric for your Product Manager resume these days. There is an anti-pattern in Product Management where some PMs want to build the product launch around making a big splash on Product Hunt. Anyone who knows the drill won’t allow this and will instead do what’s best for finding customers, but I’ve seen some naiv…

what is the play those PMs go for, and how does one recognize it?

It's an accomplishment for their resume. Something to use to get the next job that advances their career.

You know how we joke about RDD - Resume Driven Development for developers who push projects that will look good on their resume even if it doesn't benefit the company? Playing games like this is the equivalent for product managers

Re: Product Hunt is dead

#115

How long until products are dead? If AI can build UI on the fly, encode my desires, and launch infra to serve them, won’t I soon be able to cut out the middleman? The reign of product management is coming to a close and I can’t wait. I want to be in control again.

If that's the future you're waiting for, you'll be waiting for a while. Better to get back in control now ;)

Re: Product Hunt is dead

#116
post #6

Has Product Hunt ever been anything other than grift?

I never understood the appeal in the first place.

In theory it’s a place for you to do a quick check of “is this a good idea or thing to work on”. In practice it’s a bunch of serial founders upvoting each others ideas.

Re: Product Hunt is dead

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what is the play those PMs go for, and how does one recognize it?

It's an accomplishment for their resume. Something to use to get the next job that advances their career. You know how we joke about RDD - Resume Driven Development for developers who push projects that will look good on their resume even if it doesn't benefit the company? Playing games like this is the equivalent for product managers

Yes, I get that this is the objective. I'm asking what the play is, i.e. what they do to get to that objective. What are the actions they take, and how does one recognize them?

Re: Product Hunt is dead

#118
I've "discovered" Product Hunt today, from this article, and my first impression is that it is the hub of a subculture of useless dotcoms launching useless pseudoproducts.

There might be something good, or at least profitable, in the middle of this slop of misplaced effort, but upvotes and recency are not useful metrics for someone hunting for a product.

Re: Product Hunt is dead

#119
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.

If you want to see purified, epiphany-grade Dead Internet, I recommend the "games" category.
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