
Product Hunt is the social news of tech products by influential people - dshanahan
http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/04/product-hunt-is-the-social-news-site-of-tech-products-read-by-influential-people/
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incision
_> 'You can call it the Reddit of tech products, the Hacker News of product
launches, but none of these descriptions really capture what Product Hunt
is.'_

Neither does this article, or the linked site, for me at least - the article
uses the word product _41 times_ , but I'm still not sure what is meant by
'product'.

Honest question, is there some particular criteria for being a 'product' or is
it just the hot catch-all lingo for app / site / tool / service?

Perhaps the incredible similarities between many of those 'products' is adding
to my confusion - I thought I was seeing some sort of design competition /
template collection for a while.

~~~
rrhoover
Great questions, incision! Product is somewhat vague. On Product Hunt you'll
find a variety of "products" from mobile apps, to websites, to chrome
extensions, to electronics. The loose definition is intentional so that
there's a variety and serendipity.

Since the community is largely startup folks (founders, investors, marketers,
designers, engineers, etc.), you see a mix of products that generally appeal
to that audience.

~~~
mbesto
Ryan. Love the site!

Curious (potentially obvious) question - is PH itself actually a startup? Or
is it a side project that could turn into a startup type of thing? Do you plan
to monetize (outside of the email sponsorships that I think you do already)?

~~~
arfliw
There is an HN style job board. Not sure if they're charging to be on it
(yet).

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staunch
I just wish we got a damn "Show HN" link in the navbar here. That's all that
we need. And have needed for 5+ years when the site got too big.

~~~
mayank
Agreed -- it would fit in right next to "Ask" and probably be able to use the
same code paths.

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rrhoover
I love that Romain referenced PG's Do Things That Don't Scale essay. That's
exactly how Product Hunt has grown. Tons of emailing, tweeting, etc. and when
it comes to building a community, being personable is the best way to build a
healthy culture, imho.

~~~
brianmwang
Spot on. Reaching out to your earliest users directly - and not via a canned
email - is really effective for building trust and loyalty in a community.
Communities are often a reflection of the founder him/herself and this sort of
grassroots outreach goes a long way toward attracting others.

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arek2
>Product Hunt is a daily leaderboard of the best new products

Compare that with a more lasting ranking of the best old and proven products:
[http://5000best.com/tools](http://5000best.com/tools)

~~~
bx_
I laugh when I read that quote because really it's a daily leaderboard of
products that just launched. There's no way for the to say what's best when
everything's only 5 days old.

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cyphunk
product hunt is clique. submission is limited to owners and owners friends.

~~~
rrhoover
It's true many of my startup friends are on Product Hunt. I trust that they
will add useful contributions to the site because I know them. But the
majority of the people (95%+) aren't my "friends" per se. The community has
grown largely by referrals of existing community members and founders who's
products have been submitted at some point.

I recognize the frustration some people have in not being able to contribute
but the product as it's designed right now, will not scale if it's completely
open to the public. We're implementing some changes in the coming weeks to
prepare for this.

Again, I don't want anyone to feel "excluded" and are making a concerted
effort to grow the community carefully. In the meantime, please add your name
here and we'll send you a note once it's opened up: [http://bit.ly/ph-
contributor](http://bit.ly/ph-contributor) :)

~~~
avalaunch
I also find Product Hunt to be alienating and therefor a bad overall
experience. I understand wanting to limit who can post new submissions at
first, to avoid too many self promotional posts, but I don't understand the
rationale behind preventing users from commenting. It's especially perplexing
because the quality of comments on Product Hunt is pretty low right now so I'm
not sure what you're even protecting. There are a lot of comments that don't
add any value to the conversation, that say little more than "Thanks" and
"Great job!", and hardly ever any substance filled replies. If you're worried
about spam, I would think putting new commenters into a moderation queue until
they've proved themselves to be worthy contributors would be an easy enough
solution.

I love Show HN posts so I should be one of your biggest fans. I want to be. I
love reading about new products and I love discussing them. But every time I
visit your site I feel like I'm treated like a second class user. I wonder how
many others feel the same.

EDIT: I do think Product Hunt will be a successful venture for you. It's a
decent idea but more importantly you're hustling hard to build a community,
which is no easy task. Most developers tend to put in a lot of hours building
something scalable but are too far outside their comfort zone when it comes
time to find and engage with users. That's something you're excelling at and I
think it's the reason Product Hunt will ultimately succeed. I just think
you're making a mistake with some of your earliest adopters. You should be
treating us as if we're special, because we are. Instead you're asking us to
be a part of your community but barring our ability to communicate.

~~~
rrhoover
"But every time I visit your site I feel like I'm treated like a second class
user."

This is certainly not my intention. You make fantastic points, avalaunch.
We're in the middle of adding threaded comments, upvoting, and other changes
to the product pages so that more people can interact. Right now it gets a bit
difficult to follow a conversation when there are 20+ comments. Once this is
ready, along with a few other things, we'll open comments to more people and
maybe everyone.

It's always easier to expand outward but you can't take away functionality or
features from people. Slow and steady.

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DanBC
Is it just for products that people have created, or do people suggest
products they have found or are aware of hut not involved in?

EG: a friend of mine created MicroMuff, a windmuff for DSLRs. I have no
connection with that, apart from knowing him. Is that a product welcome on
product hunt?

I do like the idea of product hunt and I look forward to reading it.

Do they have an "AskProductHunt" feature? I'm looking for "contextual mapping
of large organisations" \- the user enters a bunch of stuff about an
organisation and then other people can interrogate it to generate diagrams of
the organisation. This would prevent similar information being used many times
to create similar but slightly different charts. (If it helps: imagine an NHS
health trust. There are exec and non-exec directors and then managers under
them and under those people; and a bunch of different services; and a bunch of
different staff; and a bunch of different patients. So a chart could be
"management structure", or it could be "you are here, and in future we'd like
you to progress to there but if things get worse you'll move to there" etc.)

Micromuff: [http://www.micromuff.com/](http://www.micromuff.com/)

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jason_shah
Not only is Product Hunt important because of the visibility it provides to
new products (and entrepreneurs), but also because it's arguably the most
dense collection of high quality discussions about product development
decisions. Notably, Ryan and his team have managed to accomplish this without
being unnecessarily exclusive.

This is tremendously valuable for the technology community.

~~~
rrhoover
I appreciate that, Jason. I hope Product Hunt can help both large VC-backed
startups and some kid that built a cool product, get the attention they
deserve. It's early but we're seeing examples of this already. It's exciting.

~~~
_pius
_I hope Product Hunt can help both large VC-backed startups and some kid that
built a cool product, get the attention they deserve._

There's a huge opportunity for you to do that, but only if you open up
participation. Because submissions and comments are limited to a few users,
the kid with a cool product will only get eyes on it if she gets the right
person's attention, which defeats the purpose.

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cmadan
I look forward to the 'Top Hunts of the Day' email in my mailbox every
morning. Its probably the only newsletter subscription that sends a daily
email that I haven't unsubscribed from.

Looking forward to the direction of Product Hunt now that Ryan Hoover is
working full time on it.

~~~
rrhoover
Thanks, cmadan! Lots of work to do but I have some good people helping. More
on that later!

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shawnreilly
Very Cool! Let me know if you'd like any help with Design. I can think of a
few things that might help (both in terms of mobile/tablet UI and
responsiveness). Not sure if you're looking for recommendations, but I'd add
Sharing links/buttons for more Platforms than just Twitter (this is in the
comments panel). Sharing to Twitter seems to be the only growth mechanic
related element on the Site. Adding more links will make it easier for people
to share their favorite products on more platforms, which will put you in
front of more people. This will drive more traffic (and engagement) back to
your Site.

------
tgoldberg
Huge fan of Product Hunt. Show HN is great, but PH just makes it too easy to
quickly discover, comment on, and share new products. Not to mention, the
community there seems more "real" thanks to names/profile pics.

~~~
gk1
> and share new products.

Can you explain this? I've looked at the site a long time ago and again today,
and I still don't see any way to sign up (for an account, not the newsletter)
or suggest products.

~~~
rrhoover
Hi, gk1! I realize it's not very clear right now (sorry about that). Currently
a small number of people have access to post and comment to:

(1) control the quality of submissions (if everyone had access it would be all
self-promotion and

(2) reduce the number of products posted (with its current design, the feed
wouldn't scale if 100+ products were submitted each day)

Please add your name here if you're interested and we'll drop you a note once
it's opened up further: [http://bit.ly/ph-contributor](http://bit.ly/ph-
contributor)

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instakill
I dig visiting PH every couple of days but it would be nice to get
comment/submission access. Or some kind of notice about what to do to join the
commenters' club.

~~~
rrhoover
Glad to hear, instakill :)

We're in the process of making changes to the product to scale the community
and will be opening it up slowing afterward. Please add your name here if
you'd like to be notified: [http://bit.ly/ph-contributor](http://bit.ly/ph-
contributor)

~~~
instakill
Done.

------
jaequery
Are you allowed to re-submit your project multiple times on PH? Or is it just
a one time thing? I'd love to submit again after adding cool new features to
my projects.

------
Dramatize
What I would love on Product Hunt is a separate listing for beta products;
either to try out and give feedback, or to find beta testers for my own
products.

~~~
rrhoover
Good feedback! I was just chatting with a founder earlier today about this
topic.

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pshin45
Hi Ryan, I remember seeing somewhere that you had recently applied to YC with
Product Hunt.

It seems like you guys did not make it this time, which is unfortunate and
surprising given PH's great traction and the impressive community you've
built.

If that's the case, I was wondering if you had gotten any feedback on why PH
wasn't accepted. Would love to hear your thoughts!

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breakingcustom
Great site! I've been a regular for a while now.

Ryan- I'd be curious to know what the click through rate on the 'Show More
Products' link at the end of each day is?

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giarc
I like the layout of the site. I like that clicking links opens up a new tab.
I like that comments don't pull you away from the main page. Seems quite well
thought out.

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prawn
A link to the site for anyone who just wants to check it out directly:

[http://www.producthunt.com/](http://www.producthunt.com/)

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harryzhang
Ryan - good chatting yesterday. Please give me a way to hunt out product
leaders by date, ie. X product was #1 on 1/13, Y product was #1 on 2/14, etc
:-)

HZ

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colbyh
Ryan hustles hard and people way smarter than I love PH - great signals all
around. Can't wait for stickers.

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zefi
Congrats on the coverage Ryan, I'm extremely excited to see this grow.

~~~
rrhoover
Thanks, zefi :)

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J-H
I saw this on Dribbble a little while ago. Sleek site and great idea!

