Ask HN: Does a Product Hunt launch still matter when upvotes can be bought? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Does a Product Hunt launch still matter when upvotes can be bought?

6 pointsnkko5 comments

We launched our open-source dev environment manager Daytona on Product Hunt today. While our upvote numbers and ranking (currently lingering around #3-#4) have remained steady, we've noticed some bizarre activity from other products.

Using the hunted.space dashboard, we can see upvote counts and rankings fluctuating for certain products in a way that doesn't seem organic. It looks like Product Hunt may be cracking down on vote manipulation tactics and correcting inflated numbers. This is obvious from the dips in the upvote graph.

This makes us wonder if the Pay-to-Play tactics of buying upvote services and inflating rankings was getting out of hand on Product Hunt.

Have others in the HN community noticed this as well? Product Hunt seems to be actively identifying and correcting products that use shady methods to game their system. But maybe not hard enough?

It's great to see Product Hunt taking measures to preserve authenticity. However, is PH now considered passe?

Hey! Daytona looks cool.

The last few PH launches I've run, I've also noticed issues with manipulated traffic to drive upvotes. Even if you're not buying fake traffic to boost to #1, it's likely you're activating a network of friends, family, or fans to get upvotes.

The result of this is that I mostly think of PH as a popularity contest for teams of people—and not necessarily a ranking system for new products. I don't imagine that many people receive the PH newsletter email, genuinely assess which ones are the coolest, and give an upvote to something they're checking out for the first time. It's mostly friends upvoting friends.

However! PH can be useful for getting feedback through comments. And the longtail benefits of having a listing on there are great for discoverability and traffic over time.

I don't think PH is totally passe, but I try to be realistic about what it means as part of a launch campaign, and I don't think it's worth stressing to hard to "win" the day. That little badge to slap on your website isn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things.

Hey Melanie, thanks! After working on this project behind closed doors and, now going public, we've become hooked on the positive feedback.

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts and experiences with Product Hunt launches. You make some good arguments there, and I haven't thought of it that way. But long-term visibility could be a win for sure.

Focusing on building a great product, gathering meaningful feedback, and leveraging multiple channels for promotion and growth is key.

First off, cool product. I've been seeing you guys all over Twitter recently. (Which also begs the question... did you put $ into creator marketing?)

I'd say PH launch is just what it's always been. One part of your overall launch strategy, and should be used as such. It's still a great tool to use, and even if it gets flooded with bots, it will continue to be. The only ones who notice the bots are the launchers, not really the users. Or at least, not to the same degree.

Ah, I see. That clarifies things. Until today, I was a user. But this change in roles brought a perspective change.

Honestly, we are lucky to have one of the founders bring his huge network of contacts from all over the world, as he has organized large events in this space and was a CDXO for a worldwide company.

I'd agree now that we are launching we notice, before - not so much

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