Comment by jsneedles | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jsneedles | Hacker News Reader

Hi All, I'm new here and I'm familiar with PH. I'll come right out and say it - I'm a big fan. I think people are looking for a point-by-point response to the earlier piece... and that's unrealistic. If you look at the message being sent here, it's valid and honest. Some thing are addressed directly "your vote counts the same as mine" dispels the direct link myth. The change in % of "insider" posts making it to the homepage has substantially decreased meaning you don't NEED to be or know one of these people to make it.

I've been on both sides - I've coordinated a launch with the help of PH & I've launched my own things at my own times. I've had great success and some flops doing both. There are pros & cons. But again... the frequency of this is certainly decreasing.

It's not that you need an insider, but if you really want to have a "launch" they help... If you want to share something cool you made, and think it's good, and garner some useful feedback... Post away!

While we're on the subject of disclosing conflicts of interest, you should note that "big fan" is a bit of an understatement when every other tweet you make is about Product Hunt: https://twitter.com/jsneedles

Are you suggesting that he has something to gain financially by tweeting about PH a lot? This comment makes no sense to me.

I know Jeff and can confirm that he was a huge fan of Ryan and Product Hunt before ever meeting him. Jeff is the epitome of a super fan. He networked hard and moved to a new city (SF) to make the connections he has and to get his job at Meerkat, as well.

He also doesn't angel invest, so he doesn't have anything to gain by posting the products he posts or tweets.

Here's the other thing, there are a ton of other people around the world just like him. They're a big part of the reason why PH has been successful and has struck a cord with product fans and makers all over.

There's a large difference between "big fan" as he said and "super fan."

I could have also pointed out a) he contributed to the source Medium article and b) he had openly criticized OpenHunt in the PH thread for "it's not Product Hunt."

The point is that super fans are good for Product Hunt, but not good for people trying to get into the ecosystem based on merit instead of pandering to a brand.

Insiders are still favored for no other reason than their relationship to the founder:

>>> "Unless you’re one of the early members of the community (those that helped get Product Hunt off the ground and continue to be instrumental in curating great products), all posts submitted to Tech first start in Upcoming. "

Eliminating that loophole completely would help in restoring faith.

I disagree. The homepage has to start somewhere... and the small # of "insiders" who post great content everyday have that reputation built up to elevate posts. I'm sure if an "insider" posted some bad products that weren't a great fit for the community... they'd be treated like everyone else. I've seen it happen.

> ... and the small # of "insiders" who post great content everyday have that reputation built up to elevate posts.

This is circular logic. How did the insiders get the great content to post? By excluding other viable content posted by others.

Some work super hard to cultivate sources because they like to be known as great hunters. Some are contacted by companies/startups and offered to try things early... Some post for their friends. They're not excluding anybody. They're surfacing things that for the most part, have been proven to be liked by the community.

Why won't people get PH is firstly about curation? This is the point of Ryan in this article, and nobody seems to get it.

PH is not made so you can promote your startup, it's made so that product loving people discover new cool stuff every day. Ensuring the quality level is what PH team is after, way more than ensuring that "meritocracy is respected", or whatever hate in disguise HN is fantasizing about these days.

To achieve this goal, Ryan took what we all know as the usual discovery channel - tech press - and opened it to a lot of people he gathered. They now try to find ways to scale this up, while keeping up with the high quality they expect from a curation process. Basically PH is a "opened press blog", not a "closed whatever you wish would help your startup".

Edit: read Ryan's article again at this light and tell me he is not addressing this misunderstanding.

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