Earlier quoted context omitted.
Was Product Hunt ever taken seriously by anyone? Since day1 it was an obvious target for influence hacking
In some domains a big Product Hunt launch was a serious achievement. VCs would look at it, journalists would take notice, and you’d get a little burst of signups from a user base known to have a lot of influencers. Everyone knew it was gamed a little, but there was some organic traffic. Then it steadily got worse and worse until the front page was just random products that nobody actually used.
I am mainly a code monkey but I have done enough to know that Product Hunt is not a marketing plan and was never a marketing plan unless your product is something that will get you a #1 day on Product Hunt.