Valid question, Austen! Kevin Hale and I shared our thoughts on this in this Gigaom article: http://gigaom.com/2014/07/17/as-product-hunt-joins-y-combinator-ha

Valid question, Austen! Kevin Hale and I shared our thoughts on this in this Gigaom article: http://gigaom.com/2014/07/17/as-product-hunt-joins-y-combinator-hacker-news-starts-to-look-more-like-product-hunt http://gigaom.com/2014/07/17/as-product-hunt-joins-y-combina... I won't say PH is better than Show HN. It's just different. HN has a very engineering-focused culture and you see that in the conversation and products surfaced. Furthermore, you see fewer big startup product launches on Show HN and more side projects. On PH you get a combination of both but often we have well-known founders from prominent startups jump into the conversation. Again, this isn't necessarily better -- it's a different type of content and experience. Personally, I like to see a variety of submission from VC-backed startups to weekend hacks.