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Comment by dang | Hacker News Reader

That does seem dodgy, so we took the 15k/month bit out of the title. I guess we'll leave "AI-powered" so as not to leave it completely naked. Or should it just say "Logo Creator"?

I noticed that https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=indiehackers.com constantly uses this trick of revenue numbers in titles. That's annoying clickbait in an HN context, but on the other hand, we need more good stories about startups, entrepreneurs, and projects, and dodgy stories are the price one pays for good ones. So I think the answer here is continued community vigilance.

Usually we'd see a point like this before 11 hours had gone by, but clearly not always, so everybody: if you notice something misleading on HN, especially if it doesn't get fixed right away, please alert us at hn@ycombinator.com. We can't read all the comments but we do read and reply to emails.

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This was my fault. I tell companies not to submit for an interview unless they're at least a few months old, otherwise they won't have much to say. Because of that + Dawson's reported $15k/mo figure + the fact that Logojoy's story is inherently interesting, I blindly assumed the business was started earlier in the year than it was.

Go figure that the interview in which this happens is also the one that gets to the top of HN for the longest time. In the future, I'll do more to verify the launch dates so I don't end up with another interview where the average revenue is such an extrapolation.

As for including revenue numbers in titles, I agree it is a bit clickbaity (or at least very enticing). But at the same time the entire point of these interviews is transparency, and highlighting the revenue numbers adds crucial context. I'm happy not to include revenue numbers in titles, though, if HNers or mods don't want to see those.

Given HN is a huge source of traffic for you, if it were me, I'd do a blog post today on it, post it to HN and try to get feedback on the topic.

For example, I really like how Inc 500 applications are structured and verified [1], but others just like hearing the startup stories.

By posting a single blog post and liSting it HN, feel like the feedback would provide a better source for understanding the issue.

Really do enjoy Indie Hackers, thank you!

[1] http://www.inc.com/inc5000apply/faqs.html

I can't speak for the mods, but I for one am in favour of highlighting the revenue numbers, provided they're accurate.

And on a meta-point, I appreciate the effort, honesty and transparency you put into IndieHackers, it's a great resource for me.

It's little more complex than just "highlighting the numbers"; in my opinion, there really needs to be a definition of what is being counted and how that's universal within Indie Hackers presentation of startups.

For example, three identical startups using different accounting methods (cash vs accrual), time periods, etc. would have at face value potential vastly different numbers, though the reality is they are identical in every way.

Since the users who commented feel that the revenue numbers are a good thing as long as they're not misleading, we can bend the rules to allow them.

When it is true, I believe the $X/month title is useful. It gives an Idea of the order of magnitude and some insight on what is achievable

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