
Ask HN: Is it okay to post on Show HN multiple times? - Akcium
If yes, then how often?
======
gus_massa
For an official opinion of the mods, write to hn@ycombinator.com

The rules in the faq [1]are very fuzzy on purpose, so I will just share my
interpretation/opinion:

I think up to three reposts are fine, but I usually don't complain until the
5th or 10th repost. One per week is fine, I think the upper limit of
tolerability is one per day.

Don't repost if the previous post got traction, If I have to pull a number out
of thin air, something between 20 and 50 upvotes/comments/upvotes+comments

Your previous two post got a minimal traction but not too much. I think it's
fine to repost it, but I'd expect even less traction. Try to use a more dry
title, like " _Show HN: Pingr – Uptime monitor_ " or " _Show HN: Pingr – Know
when your site is down before your customers do_ " or something like that. The
name in the title is not mandatory, but I like it. Perhaps add a comment with
more details and a personal history.

Sometimes it is easier to get traction here writing about an interesting
problem you solved while making the site, for example how do you detect that
it's a problem in the site and not a problem in your site, how difficult is to
coordinate the distributed network of monitors, problems with spam or dos with
the free trial If you meet an old friend and have to tell a funny/weird
technical anecdote about your project, what would you tell?

Some feedback: The lifetime subscription is too long.

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html)

~~~
Akcium
Well, I'm just curious why then it got hidden in Show HN section, since I
definitely didn't try to spam with many posts. I waited for a week on purpose.

So is it okay if I post tomorrow for example? I'm just new to HN.

By the way I even tried to make a welcome comment, but I think that I'd need
to get into technical details more.

Thought probably I'd make a separate article for this, not in show HN section.

Regarding "Show HN: Pingr – Know when your site is down before your customers
do" \- I asked a lot of people and they told me that it's way too promotional
for HN :)

Anyway thank you for your answer!

~~~
gus_massa
> _why then it got hidden in Show HN section_

The ShowHN section has an order similar to the front page, so you need some
upvotes to get there. Perhaps the mods do some manual deduplication, I never
read that, but it may be part of the tricks that are the secret sauce.

> _I even tried to make a welcome comment, but I think that I 'd need to get
> into technical details more._

Expect to see technical questions. It is not obligatory to answer all of them,
but it is nice to answer if they don't reveal your secret sauce. It is
important that you interact in the comments, specially in the ShowHN post.

> _Thought probably I 'd make a separate article for this, not in show HN
> section._

Technical articles are always welcome. It's tricky to get them technical
enough but not too technical. A few nice graph are generally helpful.

> _Regarding "Show HN: Pingr – Know when your site is down before your
> customers do" \- I asked a lot of people and they told me that it's way too
> promotional for HN :)_

I think it is fine, but each one has his/her own opinion here. Someone will
complain and ask to change " _before_ " to " _as soon as_ " and another user
will ask to change it to " _just after_ " :) But it is better that the title
explains what the project does instead of how you did it.

~~~
Akcium
Thank you again. Will try a bit later :) Maybe I'll make two posts, one just a
general post about how I did it, another one is Show HN.

It's interesting that everyone was telling me it's better to expose personal
experience ("Show HN: I build something because something..") instead of what
the project actually does ("Show HN: Uptime monitoring").

Anyway thank you for your kind response! :)

~~~
gus_massa
Take a look at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/show](https://news.ycombinator.com/show) and try
to follow the style of the titles.

Did you ask a bunch of regular users of HN of people that don't use HN? Each
site has it's own personality and it's very difficult to understand the
details from outside.

------
PaulHoule
I think if something is worth showing to people it is worth sharing it without
'Show HN'.

I think 'Show HN' is signalling to people that you don't think anyone would be
interested in the content. It is like apologizing.

Make content people are interested in.

~~~
privong
> I think 'Show HN' is signalling to people that you don't think anyone would
> be interested in the content. It is like apologizing. Make content people
> are interested in.

Show HN isn't for content links. From the "Show HN Guidelines":

> Show HN is for something you've made that other people can play with. HN
> users can try it out, give you feedback, and ask questions in the thread.

> Off topic: blog posts, sign-up pages, newsletters, lists, and other reading
> material. Those can't be tried out, so can't be Show HNs. Make a regular
> submission instead.

~~~
PaulHoule
I would go further and say I wish I could help the poster get some "tough
love" about the problems ahead.

An interest in venues like "Show HN" is a sign of marketing theatre as opposed
to doing the hard work of marketing. If you contact real customers and make
sales that is success. Getting the high score on Product Hunt is O.K., it's
like being on the "Shark Tank" TV show. But it is the high-value customer you
need to have a business.

If I was in the poster's shoes I would expect to take at least 3 to 10
specific actions a day in order to get my product in the face of someone who
might be interested.

(e.g. that could be writing a blog post about the product, the problem it
solves, and the surrounding environment. It could be calling a phone number
you saw on a web page by a person who is complaining about the problem, set up
a search engine ad, put up letter-size posters around a college campus or
other hotspot, ...)

That's my basis of how I react to the post, just in that situation my head
would be so full of how to talk to customers that I would have no time to get
hung up on a lackluster response from 'Show HN'.

------
rolph
generally multiple postings that occupy the entire page or diminish the
presence of other postings is spam-like.

your show HN posts should be different in subject matter and should not be
consecutive or sequential, or otherwise shove other postings off the page

