Earlier quoted context omitted.
We discourage people from explicitly asking others to upvote their product and you may notice often times product with a high upvote count are actually at the bottom of the page or removed entirely for trying to game the rankings. It's not perfect but we have systems in place to ensure the products featured toward the top, are what the community genuinely thinks is most interesting or useful.
How do you discourage people, exactly? (genuine question) Is there a warning on submission that says something like "Please don't ask your friends to upvote your submissions. If you do, your submission may be penalized. The best products stand on their own merits."? If that's the case, then why do you Favorite Tweets from companies begging for upvotes instead of warning them that their behavior is unacceptable? I per…
Also, as I mentioned in this thread a minute ago, I favorite people talking about Product Hunt (and often reply, too) to let them know I'm listening. I don't mean this as a sign of endorsement when people explicitly ask for upvotes, although I understand how this could be interpreted that way.
Ultimately, our goal is to empower the community to surface what they want to see and also encourage thoughtful discussion. Sharing ones post and soliciting conversation is important for the latter, and we're making improvements to our recommendation/invite system so that more people can join the discussion.