I intentionally removed word count from featureless because I noticed it changed how I wrote - I d optimise for numbers instead of ideas.

For you, does word count feel motivating, neutral, or stressful?

I m genuinely curious how different writers experience it.

I spend most of my time on these two things:
1) observing products on the main page and upvoting/commenting on them

2) talking with people within comments under my forums

The second one is the one where I notice some things that I lack and see possible improvements, namely:

If you're like me, sometimes you forget a new person's name almost as soon as they tell you. Not because you don't care, but because it seems like there's just something tricky about getting your brain to hold on to new names. Does anybody else have trouble with names?
What mental tricks or other tools do you use to help? In what situations do you most frequently find yourself needing to learn new names?

Whenever I browse product launches, I somehow subconsciously judge not only the product itself and its quality, but also the quality that is reflected in the effort the makers put into preparing it.

It may sound insignificant, but in my case, these things also make a significant difference:

• Icon GIF at the launch it enlivens the overall impression and is dynamic

• Quality graphics and video

• First, a properly filled-out comment

• Photos in the makers' profiles (it's less trustworthy for me when there's only the letter "J" or something similar)

• Whether any of my contacts or acquaintances on the platform reacted to the launch

There are plenty of tools that seem useful on paper, yet something makes us close the tab instantly.

Sometimes it s pricing, sometimes messaging, sometimes the onboarding feels unclear.

Often it s a gut feeling that s hard to explain.

Hi everyone,

I've been a lurker here for a while, but I'm finally taking the plunge and launching my first solo project this Sunday (Jan 11).

It s a simple private movie and series logger. I built it because I got tired of the ads on IMDb and the social pressure of other apps. I just wanted something mindful that was for me, not for likes.

Since I m doing this completely alone with $0 budget, I m pretty nervous about the 'Launch Day' chaos.

At the beginning, my reason was very simple: I needed a job and I genuinely liked the product.

I graduated with a Marketing degree, but I never felt like I belonged in agencies or similar environments. It just wasn t for me. At the same time, I didn t have much experience in tech either. So I took a leap of faith and applied for a Customer Support role, almost blindly.

The early days were tough. I had no technical background, no real understanding of how apps were built, and everything felt overwhelming. But the product itself became my motivation. I started from the most basic things: learning simple technical terms, understanding how an app is structured, and slowly exploring how everything works behind the scenes.

We often see launch posts, milestones, and success stories.
What we don t see as much are honest breakdowns of products that quietly stalled or failed.

I feel there s a lot of learning hidden there about timing, assumptions, and trade-offs.

Happy New Year, everyone. How did you spend the first day of 2026?

For me, the first day of a new year feels like the opening step of a long journey. So instead of rushing into productivity, I chose to begin 2026 by taking care of both my body and my inner world.

Here s how my Day One looked:

An early morning run, pushed myself 1km further to reach 7km
Wrote down all my goals for the year, both personal and professional
Repotted my flowering plant into a new pot
Cooked a nutritious meal for myself with Stranger Things series
Started reading a new book
Cleaned and reset my living space

We recently discussed the changes that took place on the platform in 2025, so it s clear that the approach to Product Hunt will need to evolve as well.

Some features were removed, others were added, but there are still opportunities to gain visibility.

Hey Product Hunt community!

I'm building the99 ommunity - a platform where 99 /month from millions creates massive impact.

The idea: If 1 million people contribute 99 /month, that's $1M/month for global causes.

What makes it different:

Working from home has a ton of traps, like:

• Family members think that just because you re home, you re always available and need to drop everything for them.

• Your workday can stretch across the entire day, and sometimes you don t even know when to stop.

• You start missing real social contact.

• But it also has some huge upsides:

• You save time and money on commuting.

• You can sleep in a little longer.

• You get to schedule your day exactly how it suits you.

Everyone has their favourite routine to perform at their best.

Some are advocates for the Pomodoro technique (25 minutes of intensive work, with a 5-minute short break), others love time-blocking, a few plan the entire week on Sunday, and there are even people who say ice-cold showers la Wim Hof help them focus.

I have been managing several communities and doing marketing for over 3 or 4 years, and I have noticed a pattern where about 80% of people "test" you to see if you will do things for them for free.

I also notice that people from certain countries tend to do this more often. For example, Central and Eastern Europe + Southeast Asia.

On the contrary, people from the USA and China are willing to pay.

We ve got a big update: after ten years, we re officially sunsetting the Golden Kitty Awards.

Thank you everyone for the support. I have received nearly 40 signups and 1 paid user which is massive for me as I am still on the early stages of validating the product. So thank you everyone.
Next steps: Even though the signups are coming in I am tracking the usage of the app and I dont see many users running the evaluations and I need help. How should I get you to try and test the product.
My current thoughts are:
- User using their API keys means friction and would go away from the platform as can't test it immediately so perhaps allow free trial with my API key which involves unlimited runs with 3 test cases.

- Create a onboarding guide? Like the ones of enterprise softwares that says "Click here" "Next Steps": What tool can I use for this?

For both the options above will still need to inform them about the updates and hope they will signin again.

- Reach out to all 40 users for a 1-1 15 mins call and show them the product. Assuming 30% respond that 12 calls booked.
Do you have any suggestions? Keen on feedback. This is critical as I need to solve these issues before building next features i.e (Adding more models and multi model runs).