Hunting the Hunters – Tips for Releasing on Product Hunt(merchbar.com) |
Hunting the Hunters – Tips for Releasing on Product Hunt(merchbar.com) |
In fairness, the OP did not explicitly ask for upvotes on Twitter, just provided a link to his Product Hunt submission. ( https://twitter.com/aten/status/511904562857254914 ) The difference is that doing that on Reddit or Hacker News will get your post killed and you potentially shadowbanned. And justifiably so, since putting an emphasis on social media popularity in determining ranking takes away from the quality of the submission.
If you don't believe that upvote begging is a problem on Product Hunt, just look at Twitter. ( https://twitter.com/search?q=product%20hunt%20upvote&src=typ... ) Note how most of those have Favorites and Replies from Ryan Hoover himself or another employee.
I doubt this policy will be reversed since it's the reason PH became so popular, but this is the primary reason I'll never take Product Hunt seriously.
Is there a warning on submission that says something like "Please don't ask your friends to upvote your submissions. If you do, your submission may be penalized. The best products stand on their own merits."? If that's the case, then why do you Favorite Tweets from companies begging for upvotes instead of warning them that their behavior is unacceptable?
I personally have received spam asking for Product Hunt upvotes ( http://i.imgur.com/B5hLdYG.png ), and you of all people should be interested in not supporting that.
https://twitter.com/search?q=product%20hunt%20upvote&src=typ...
Also, as I mentioned in this thread a minute ago, I favorite people talking about Product Hunt (and often reply, too) to let them know I'm listening. I don't mean this as a sign of endorsement when people explicitly ask for upvotes, although I understand how this could be interpreted that way.
Ultimately, our goal is to empower the community to surface what they want to see and also encourage thoughtful discussion. Sharing ones post and soliciting conversation is important for the latter, and we're making improvements to our recommendation/invite system so that more people can join the discussion.
