Ask HN: Are waitlist launches a no go on Hacker News? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Are waitlist launches a no go on Hacker News?

35 pointspenaazv46 comments

Pretty new around here. Is launching a waitlist for an upcoming product a good idea? If yes, how much context-sharing is too much or too little?

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Dang, HN’s moderator, have written about this before. Here is a recent example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35178503

Generally speaking, a waitlist isn’t interesting and doesn’t add value because users can’t try the product. It might be valuable to the creator but it can wait to be announced on HN when the product is ready.

As some others have suggested, you could write a detailed blog post about the values and share other details to see if that is valuable to the community and perhaps offer an opt in on your blog instead.

Good luck!

Sounds pretty fair. Thanks a bunch! :)

Forget about HN for a moment and ask yourself who benefits from a waitlist announcement vs waiting to announce your launch until the product actually exists. The only party who benefits from a waitlist is the owner of the list. That's great for that person, but spam contact harvesting pollution for everyone else, which is ultimately destructive to the community. "Great for me but destructive pollution for the community" defines an antisocial act. Is selfish community harm something that you want people to associate with your brand?

This is not entirely true. What about services that actively want to add people, but just need time to scale up their resources? Then they can add users as they have the capacity to. I signed up on Beeper's waitlist a few months ago and just got access last week. I am extremely happy with their service and believe it was well worth the wait. There was no spam and destruction, only a short wait and then I got access. Can you see how it is potentially beneficial to do this rather than hope you get the exact amount of users you can handle at any moment in time?

That's not what this thread is about; the OP explicitly said "for an upcoming product".

As I see it, it depends on the default. If you are already actively taking on users but are throttling the sign-ups due to unexpectedly high demand, that's much more legitimate than just getting people's emails into a list, knowing it will be months before you're able to sign them up.

I understand the scenario you're describing but I don't think it's the only one.some services need resources to scale. It can be a mutually beneficial feedback loop for customers to express interest, and producers to validate fit and understand the magnitude of their market.

The big bang go-live approach you describe isn't always the best for either side.

Waitlists are mutually beneficial. Users actively sign up to receive updates because they are interested in the product and want to be notified about it's progress and launch. If you see it as "spam", then don't add your email to the list.

A great way of notifying people about a launch is to announce it when you launch. Harvesting emails without a product doesn't help you notify people any better than announcing the actual thing when it's actually available to actually use. The reach is identical.

In addition to the other link posted, see also this for Show HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html

Waitlists are a no-go for 'Show HN' launches

HN likes things that are interesting and generally prefers more details rather than less. You could write a blog post about a really interesting aspect of your product, or of building your product, and share that, or you could share a usable demo of your product.

A signup form at in the blog is a good idea, but HN readers tend to be quick to call out being sold to, so you have to deliver on the content.

Was previously thinking of adding it as a secondary CTA but looks like it isn't such a good idea after all.

The thing about more details is super helpful! Thanks a bunch :)

It's not Product Hunt, so please don't post "lead gen" stuff here. If you have a blog post on a related topic that mentions your product, I think that is usually OK, as it's not link spamming.

She's asking a question if waitlists are a good launch strategy.

This may not be Product Hunt but it is Hacker News, a forum ran by Y Combinator, which is a startup incubator.

I think its perfectly fine to ask questions about startups here without having to warn people about "lead gen".

Hey thanks, appreciate your input. (I'm a girl btw)

Oops sorry!

But this clearly wasn't a question about the efficacy of waitlists in general. It was specifically asking about posting waitlists to HN (in the title).

The blog post route seems fair enough. Thank you so much!

What counts is the content of your submission. It needs to be interesting in itself. That is, whatever the opposite of a teaser is.

Fair enough. Thanks a bunch!

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Thanks!

I imagine you'll have a LOT of trouble getting people to vote for them.

But no problem getting flagged immediately.

Gotcha, fair enough and pretty on point!

Noted. Thank you!

“Waitlist launches” aren’t launches, they’re marketing tricks.

Your mileage might vary, though in my experience HN folks aren’t too fond of scams.

The intent was to gauge potential interest among users but yes, I get where you're coming from. It's likely to be seen more as a pull strategy instead.

Thanks for your input!

The sleazy language also. Marketing ... aka I like manipulating people and calling it nice words! Get a real job.

Community policy aside.

Does your question mean that you're worried about people will take your idea and build the product themself?

In most cases, that will not be the case. One can't just simply take an idea, rush to build it and release it overnight and be a competitor with you. Building a product is much harder than that. And even if you get a competitor, it's a good way to validate your idea.

Um, not really. It was more about wanting to know if this is something that can be considered, or it doesn't interest people at all.

Might as well straight up do a product launch on ShowHN if it's not cool to choose this approach.

Appreciate your input though. :)

It’s not OK now but it used to be OK.

Ten years ago I put up up posting that was just a page asking people for “I’m interested” emails.

176 points, 198 comments.

We got about 15,000 registrations I think.

Comments did not whip us for such a post. One included “you have my respect from the bottom of my heart.”

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6062876

There has to be some value added to the visitors. If a part of the product is avaialbe to explore while a premium version is waitlisted, I think that's cool.

Fair enough. Thanks!

Put the link in your about at least. Some of us do like seeing what is launching soon.

Refreshing to hear someone asking for permission rather than forgiveness

Made me smile, and remember Mike Ross from Suits :)

The most successful product lunches on HN are the ones where people can try it out immediately, no paywall, no registration, just straight in and have a go.

Waitlists, or "pre announcements" very very rarely get voted into the front page.

This turns out to be (almost) a collective response. Thank you, Sam!

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