Ask HN: why are my 'show HN' posts ignored every single time?

The HN audience values hack values[0]. Often things are done for the sake of novelty. Show HNs that reach the front page often demonstrate hack values or novelty or utility to the audience. You know, the "it's cool!" or "that's a great hack" feeling when you see it.

I've actually seen your app (and your submissions). It feels a bit run-of the mill. It's honestly just...is. There is no further narrative (well, you did mention that you had no decent option so you built your own). There is no further elaboration of the hacker spirit that many on HN seem to cherish.

Hack values can be signaled in the title of your submission. Your titles seem a bit weak, tbh. I can't tell what clever hacks were made (with the one exception where you said you didn't have better options)

If you don't want to signal hack values, signal utility to the HN audience, and people will respond. Of course the proportion of HN audience that uses WP8 as a platform is probably very small. Out of that small group, the utility brought about by your Show HN is not necessarily shared by everyone. It's probably shared by only a tiny proportion of that small group. Combined with the European time zone that you're in, your chances of reaching the front page is quite small

just my 2cents

Footnotes:

[0] Ouch. My head hurts parsing that sentence

Thanks for your feedback!

I'd simplify it further. HN likes things that are new, interesting and novel. Not even necessarily things that encompass "hack values".

You could submit a Show post that has an excellent idea that would make you rich, but it would get ignored and passed over if it were a B2B app written in Java for a niche market.

This may be a case where a good story told in your blog would create more interest. What was done to achieve success is more interesting than status as the number one paid business app for Windows Phone among all companies with their headquarters east of the Mississippi River and a founder whose first name contains two or more vowels...so to.speak.

Entertain us.

HN has a bias towards what's currently in. Windows 8 is not really cool to the startup crowd, so it gets ignored. I saw the app and it looks nice. So, good job! If you want to get HNs attention, you must use node.js with Mongo and write blog post full with buzzwords. Then title it something like: "Show HN: Google Analtics app in Node.js/MongoDB"

Or Show HN: Google Analytics app in pure CSS ;)

I agree. I saw the original Show HN, checked out the app in the store and thought it looked great. But at the end of the day, it's a Windows 8 app. I don't even know anybody who has Windows 8.

Yeah. It's like trying to sell venison at a vegan retreat

I think you don't even need to go that far: Hacker News users don't tend to use Windows 8, so they can't very well try out a Windows 8 app. (Obviously some do, but my impression is that this is one of the few places where Windows use is solidly in the minority.)

I mean, take any successful product X and go "Hey everyone check this thing out", and they'll go "meh, yeah, it looks good at it's job". I always look to HN for some really new use of tech, or the rough product of someones hack-weekend. If you talk about something cool your product does in an interesting way you might have better luck, or perhaps tell your story.

Well..the same thing happened to my app one time. It only got like 4 up votes or something but somehow a TechCrunch writer saw it and decided to write a post about it.

Anecdote: I tried to submit my side project multiple times, it never got a single upvote.

Then, a day after I gave up, someone else submitted it and it made it to the frontpage: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6622285

After that, I came to the conclusion that HN's ranking system was highly sub-optimal (given that you can get wildly divergent behavior for the same content).

Don't take it personally. Besides, the hacker news crowd probably isn't the target audience for your product. So it's all about feeding your ego anyway. Keep building and improving your product, and pitch it to the right community: ala Inbound.org, Moz, SEO forums, etc.

Well you made it to the top of "Ask" this time. Congrats. ;)

Looks nice and clean. Good luck!

A lot of show HN's seem to slide quickly without getting the critical momentum to draw more attention. Have you checked out how to time yours optimally in order to have a better shot? (~9AM on weekdays from what I remember)

There is no "why," it's just the way it is.

Worst. Answer. Ever.

Don't worry, mine are too ;)