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Show HN is just another marketing tool and quite a few people treat it as such. I upvote Show HN posts that are good, upvoting them all because they're "putting

Show HN is just another marketing tool and quite a few people treat it as such. I upvote Show HN posts that are good, upvoting them all because they're "putting themselves out there" is silly; it assumes HN is a very small community of people only here for personal improvement.

envex 14y ago
I agree with you. "someone took a risk and put themselves out there for judgement" People don't build things to never see the light of day. People build things that they hope other people will use. Bringing it to HN is basically a huge show and tell/brag fest. Show HN: I used (x language) to build this in (random time)
- TeMPOraL 14y ago
  Sometimes it's exactly what is needed to push a personal project to completion. For example, I had my own "Show HN" time for nyan-mode for Emacs [1], and while I was thinking about playing around with Elisp anyway, I don't think I would have motivation to finish it, if it was not for the thought that I can do a "Show HN" with it. I don't want to say that this was HN-targeted. It's more that when you know there is an audience that could a) appreciate, b) comment and c) actually use what you are building, it gives a lot more of a drive to actually finish the project. [1] - http://nyan-mode.buildsomethingamazing.com/ http://nyan-mode.buildsomethingamazing.com/
dbingham 14y ago
I disagree. Show HN would be just another marketing tool if you were looking for people to use your app. But usually when you do a Show HN you're looking for feedback and criticism. You're bringing it before it's really ready for wide release, or when you feel it could use improvement. Or just want someone to puncture your bubble of love for your creation and let you know how everyone else feels about it. HN is a community of people who build things. When you bring something you've built to them, you're looking for their opinions on it. Not just advertising to them. Edit, as an example here's my own Show HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4053786 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4053786 I'm not looking for people to use it. How many HNers are really my target market? Very few. I'm looking for opinions on the design, the feature set I've chosen, my implementation of them and advice on how I could build its community. I suspect it's already been flagged by someone, since I can't seem to comment on it though. :/
- citricsquid 14y ago
  That's a nice view but it's the wrong one. Applications and websites gain users and popularity through sharing, whether that's individuals on Twitter and Facebook or on blogs. HN is a community of technology minded people, it's not a community of creators. There are a lot of creators here but they are not the majority. Make a project -> launch it on hn with a Show HN (a free way to get traffic, as this post has proven) -> if the app/website is good people from HN will share it and it'll make it to blogs. "Show HN" is absolutely an easy way to launch a product, HN has millions of users, this isn't a quaint little community any more. Yes "Show HN" should be about sharing creations and getting feedback and it does provide that, but it also provides a great launch. I'm not ashamed to admit that my personal launch plan for any "cool" website/app I launched is a "Show HN".
- te_platt 14y ago
  I think you are both right as long as it is a matter of "usually" instead of "always". I am very loose about upvoting a show me post. Still, sometimes the poster should have gone through a round of showing friends and doing improvements before bringing it here. In other words "show me" posts are easy for me to upvote, regular stories need to be really good.

envex 14y ago

I agree with you. "someone took a risk and put themselves out there for judgement" People don't build things to never see the light of day. People build things that they hope other people will use. Bringing it to HN is basically a huge show and tell/brag fest. Show HN: I used (x language) to build this in (random time)

TeMPOraL 14y ago
Sometimes it's exactly what is needed to push a personal project to completion. For example, I had my own "Show HN" time for nyan-mode for Emacs [1], and while I was thinking about playing around with Elisp anyway, I don't think I would have motivation to finish it, if it was not for the thought that I can do a "Show HN" with it. I don't want to say that this was HN-targeted. It's more that when you know there is an audience that could a) appreciate, b) comment and c) actually use what you are building, it gives a lot more of a drive to actually finish the project. [1] - http://nyan-mode.buildsomethingamazing.com/ http://nyan-mode.buildsomethingamazing.com/

dbingham 14y ago

I disagree. Show HN would be just another marketing tool if you were looking for people to use your app. But usually when you do a Show HN you're looking for feedback and criticism. You're bringing it before it's really ready for wide release, or when you feel it could use improvement. Or just want someone to puncture your bubble of love for your creation and let you know how everyone else feels about it. HN is a community of people who build things. When you bring something you've built to them, you're looking for their opinions on it. Not just advertising to them. Edit, as an example here's my own Show HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4053786 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4053786 I'm not looking for people to use it. How many HNers are really my target market? Very few. I'm looking for opinions on the design, the feature set I've chosen, my implementation of them and advice on how I could build its community. I suspect it's already been flagged by someone, since I can't seem to comment on it though. :/

citricsquid 14y ago
That's a nice view but it's the wrong one. Applications and websites gain users and popularity through sharing, whether that's individuals on Twitter and Facebook or on blogs. HN is a community of technology minded people, it's not a community of creators. There are a lot of creators here but they are not the majority. Make a project -> launch it on hn with a Show HN (a free way to get traffic, as this post has proven) -> if the app/website is good people from HN will share it and it'll make it to blogs. "Show HN" is absolutely an easy way to launch a product, HN has millions of users, this isn't a quaint little community any more. Yes "Show HN" should be about sharing creations and getting feedback and it does provide that, but it also provides a great launch. I'm not ashamed to admit that my personal launch plan for any "cool" website/app I launched is a "Show HN".
te_platt 14y ago
I think you are both right as long as it is a matter of "usually" instead of "always". I am very loose about upvoting a show me post. Still, sometimes the poster should have gone through a round of showing friends and doing improvements before bringing it here. In other words "show me" posts are easy for me to upvote, regular stories need to be really good.