Here are a few citations for what I'm talking about[1][2]. My objection is not that some people try to game the system, but that the system was secretly rigged

Here are a few citations for what I'm talking about[1][2]. My objection is not that some people try to game the system, but that the system was secretly rigged from the start. There is a group of curators -- VCs, startup advisers, journalists, important founders and the like -- who get to jump the queue and post directly onto the top of the front page of ProductHunt. The majority of front-page posts came from these curators, and the "upcoming" section is nothing more than a pool from which they can hand-pick submissions. It's a bit like Slashdot pretending to be Hacker News. According to [1], many founders have taken on "advisers" with curator privileges, giving them a little bit of equity in return for the publicity. Hacker News is nothing like that. Although your social group can help you promote things here, there's no startup adviser that I can give 0.5% ownership to in return for bypassing the voting queue. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10739875 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10739875 [2] https://www.recode.net/2015/6/18/11563670/product-hunt-the-startup-kingmaker-faces-charges-of-elitism https://www.recode.net/2015/6/18/11563670/product-hunt-the-s...