

Ask HN: Is Hacker News no longer a great place to “Show HN”? - hoodoof

Used to be that HN felt like a great place to show what you&#x27;d done with a &quot;Show HN&quot; post.<p>A while back they changed it, moving &quot;Show HN&quot; posts to https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;show and moving new &quot;Show HN&quot; posts two steps away so you have to go to https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;show then to https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;shownew if you want to see them.<p>Your post has to go through some sort of judgment even to get to https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;show, let alone onto the front page.<p>This is entirely subjective but it just feels like the whole &quot;Show HN&quot; thing has sort of lost its magic.<p>Maybe entrepreneurs and developers have moved their &quot;show and tell&quot; to ProductHunt and Reddit.
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gus_massa
I think it's the other way around. The "Show HN" are treated as the usual
post, they appear in the \newest page and with enough votes they appear in the
front page. They are not hidden.

The \show and \shownew pages are only there to promote the "Show HN" post, so
if one of them don't get enough votes to reach the front page and falls from
the \newest pages it's easier to find it.

If I have to complain, I think that previously the "Show HN" was like a secret
code, and only the true user used it. Now there are a lot of false "Show HN"
posts that don't follow the guidelines and hide the true "Show HN" posts.

~~~
notyourwork
> If I have to complain, I think that previously the "Show HN" was like a
> secret code, and only the true user used it. Now there are a lot of false
> "Show HN" posts that don't follow the guidelines and hide the true "Show HN"
> posts.

As a lurker, this is what I have noticed. I have become less and less
interested in anything of this sort.

~~~
dang
We've noticed it too, and I'm not sure what to do about it. We take "Show HN"
out of the titles when we see posts using it inappropriately (like for email
signups or blog posts). But there are too many submissions for us to
scrutinize them all.

Any suggestions?

~~~
bramgg
> Any suggestions?

Paste this into the console on
[https://news.ycombinator.com/submit](https://news.ycombinator.com/submit) and
try submitting a Show HN. Some code is odd in order to make it browser-
pasteable. Obviously rules can be changed to what you think are most
important.

    
    
      var title=document.querySelector('[name="title"]'),submit=document.querySelector('[type="submit"]'),alreadyShow=!1;window.accept=function(){var e=document.querySelectorAll(".show-rule:checked").length;3!==e?(submit.disabled=!0,submit.style.opacity=.5):(submit.disabled=!1,submit.style.opacity=1)},title.addEventListener("input",function(e){if("show hn"!==e.target.value.substr(0,7).toLowerCase()){submit.disabled=!1,alreadyShow=!1;var t=document.querySelector(".show-guidelines");return void(t&&t.parentNode.removeChild(t))}if(!alreadyShow){alreadyShow=!0;var o=document.createElement("div");o.className="show-guidelines",o.style.height="80px",o.innerHTML=' <div style="position: absolute; margin: 15px 28px;"> Please ensure your post follows the <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html">Show HN Guidelines</a>. In short:<br> <input class="show-rule" type="checkbox" onclick="window.accept()"> I made this new thing.<br> <input class="show-rule" type="checkbox" onclick="window.accept()"> People can play with it.<br> <input class="show-rule" type="checkbox" onclick="window.accept()"> I\'m happy to receive feedback. </div> ';var i=document.querySelector("form tbody tr:nth-of-type(7)");i.parentNode.insertBefore(o,i),accept()}},!1);

~~~
bramgg
Slight revision, forgot to reset the submit button's opacity after canceling
the Show HN prefix:

    
    
      var title=document.querySelector('[name="title"]'),submit=document.querySelector('[type="submit"]'),alreadyShow=!1;window.accept=function(){var e=document.querySelectorAll(".show-rule:checked").length;3!==e?(submit.disabled=!0,submit.style.opacity=.5):(submit.disabled=!1,submit.style.opacity=1)},title.addEventListener("input",function(e){if("show hn"!==e.target.value.substr(0,7).toLowerCase()){submit.disabled=!1,submit.style.opacity=1,alreadyShow=!1;var t=document.querySelector(".show-guidelines");return void(t&&t.parentNode.removeChild(t))}if(!alreadyShow){alreadyShow=!0;var o=document.createElement("div");o.className="show-guidelines",o.style.height="80px",o.innerHTML=' <div style="position: absolute; margin: 15px 28px;"> Please ensure your post follows the <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html">Show HN Guidelines</a>. In short:<br> <input class="show-rule" type="checkbox" onclick="window.accept()"> I made this new thing.<br> <input class="show-rule" type="checkbox" onclick="window.accept()"> People can play with it.<br> <input class="show-rule" type="checkbox" onclick="window.accept()"> I\'m happy to receive feedback. </div> ';var i=document.querySelector("form tbody tr:nth-of-type(7)");i.parentNode.insertBefore(o,i),accept()}},!1);

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kohanz
I semi-recently posted a Show HN that attracted very little attention,
received no upvotes or comments, and yet I don't think the system is broken.

The volume of Show HN's is just so high now, thus "standing out" is more
difficult. The shownew page has tons of projects and one in every handful
receives interest. It seems to be that the audience is there, but they have
naturally become more selective.

Of course there remains a huge timing and luck element. Are the people in your
demographic browsing shownew at the time you post? Are they even on HN? These
things are out of your control.

~~~
brandonlipman
Have you found that there is a specific time/day that is better than others?
Have you found that products that have a specific landing page for HackerNews
people they convert better?

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dang
Nothing changed about how Show HNs are ranked on the main page. All we did was
add two new pages so if you want to you can see more of them.

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panorama
I've definitely noticed a dropoff in my interest in Show HN. I used to look
forward to seeing Show HNs on the front page, and even posted one that was
moderately successful, but now it seems like very few posts ever make it.

Meanwhile, going to Show HN directly feels very cumbersome to me. I can't
explain it, maybe due to all the techy nomenclature mashed into one page, it's
just very off-putting.

On the other hand, Ask HN has been my favorite source of HN content lately by
far.

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rhythmvs
𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐰 some comments, 𝐇𝐍.

