Is anyone monitoring all the fake accounts voting here? 👎

Amit
19 replies
I just launched my project, but it seems I'm the only one playing fair. All the first places products are pushed by such obvious fake accounts. Does anyone care ❓

Replies

Laura Mesa
Hi there Amit - thank you for posting this question. I work with Product Hunt's product support team. We are are dedicated to monitoring all the activity on the site with an eye for ensuring everyone is behaving according to our terms and conditions. Having said that, as much as we try to be on top of everything, we know some things might sneak through. That's why we'd love help from people in the community to help flag when you see something that doesn't look or feel quite right. If you'd like to continue the conversation with your observations on Intercom, our team is there to help!
Puneet Kohli
@laura_mesa It doesn't matter if you remove the fake votes because these products have already gamed the system to get #1 spot, and then other organic users automatically get eyes on them and upvote.
Amit
@laura_mesa What you call 'sneak through' are multiple spam accounts that opened a few days ago, and their only activity is to comment on the same product. They didn't even warm up before. So obviously fake, and all your monitoring do nothing. I personally reported on more than 20 spam accounts, and nothing happened. And this is another problem. You expect honest makers to do this work and report all those fake accounts to you instead of putting effort into their launch. As long as you don't apply sanctions against fraudulent creators, they have nothing to lose. In the worst-case scenario for them, you caught this and deleted their spam accounts; they still got what they wanted and are still at the top of the page all day at the expense of other honest creators.
Laura Mesa
@amitb I appreciate your frustration - we have built both automated and human power systems to work on this issue each and every day. And you're right - we do expect honest makers to help us flag and deal with these issues because Product Hunt IS a community. No one system or policy is a silver bullet to solve all of these issues. For us as a community to make impactful change, we have to work on this problem together, each and every day. We are actively looking into the profiles you sent below and will take action according to our terms and conditions. If you'd like to have a dialogue about this over zoom, I'd be happy to set it up.
Puneet Kohli
@amitb @laura_mesa I'd be willing to have a zoom chat today on this topic. There is a lot of bad practices going on with today's launches that you SHOULD be made aware of.
Puneet Kohli
I agree! I also launched today and it's crazy. The product w/ fake votes had over 200 votes in an hour.
Kareem
@amitb crazy how you literally gave them a list of obvious bot accounts, but they still remain. I think PH has had it's run; time for a new platform.
Amit
Haha, Someone just offered me 40 votes for $10. My Facebook DM: https://imgur.com/a/j1FvAZY
Corne Coetzee
@amitb @laura_mesa @puneet_kohli The day a posted my product it included my email and I received 3-4 offers to pay for upvotes
Laura Mesa
@cornecoetzee - thank you for reporting. Could you forward the email you received to hello@producthunt.com?
Amit
@cornecoetzee Yeah I'm starting to get them too, via the contact form on my site.
Amit
@cornecoetzee @laura_mesa Just wondering, and not that it makes any difference anymore, but what about the profiles in the links above?
Laura Mesa
@amitb I have gone through your list personally and removed anyone who committed more than one spam comment. This did not apply to all the names you reported, but they've all been flagged in the system.
Amit
@laura_mesa What do you mean by removing? They all still exist. And what about all the hundreds, if not thousands, of fake votes today? I created this list in five minutes only from a random product to make a point... The problem is much broader. But the more I get into it, the more I realize it's something everyone knows about, including you, and no one does anything... It turns out that only I was naive enough to think that you care and would actually do something.