The Dark Side of Product Hunt: The Upvote Dilemma
Mark Amouzgar
16 replies
Hey Product Hunters,
I've got a story and a bit of a dilemma to share with you all. So, in the last hour, someone approached me offering upvotes, apparently they have a lot of product hunt accounts! It sounded a bit off, but then I noticed something really strange happening. Some products on the list suddenly skyrocketed - it was wild!
Here's the deal: This person implied that without their upvote service, making it into the top 5 would be a no-go. And guess what? Just 5 minutes later, I found myself bumped down to 6th place. It was like a bizarre upvote race, and it got me thinking about the use of fake upvotes. Isn't that crazy?
I'm all for real engagement and genuine support, so this kind of tactic feels pretty unfair. Don't get me wrong, I'm still thrilled with the support I've received, but it's a bit disheartening to see this kind of manipulation in play. What do you guys think about this? Is this a common occurrence on Product Hunt? Would love to hear your thoughts and experiences on this!
Replies
Rico@ricoboost
Hey Mark,
I had a similar experience during my launch this Tuesday. A guy approached me on Twitter offering a service that sounded sketchy, so I ignored him. Shortly after, my product got a sudden surge of upvotes, but then, unexpectedly, it plummeted to the bottom of the list. Moreover, about half of the upvotes I received later that day didn't seem to count. This leads me to believe that using a flood of fake accounts to spam a competitor might be a tactic employed by some in the community.
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@ricoboost Yes Exactly! I actually message the product hunt customer support but they didn't answer yet!
@mark_amouzgar I did the same, they told me my upvotes weren't legit and they manualy reviewing some suspcious upvotes. It was H+1 after launch I stayed stuck at 20 upvotes for the next 10H ! such a launch ! I never paid for Tinder gold I don't see myself paying even a penny got fake users ...
@mark_amouzgar @ricoboost We received a similar message on Tuesday and ignored it. It's really sad to see it impacting launches of people who are all working so damn hard to get their product out into the world.
Me too...
Since we planned our launch on PH, we've encountered similar offers. There were even blatant propositions in the comments of our newly operational Twitter account, suggesting we "Boost our product hunt listing". It's baffling, honestly
From my perspective, the real value of a product lies in its acceptance and validation by the users and the market, not in artificially inflated metrics
If your product is truly exceptional, it will naturally garner attention and recommendation from Hunters and users alike (much like the support and encouragement we've gratefully received
However, if a product falls short, purchased data amounts to nothing more than valueless digital noise
🤔️ As for addressing this issue... maybe increasing the weight of genuine user comments could be a step forward? Or perhaps incorporating some form of AI monitoring to detect and mitigate these practices?
It's a complex challenge but one that certainly needs addressing to preserve the integrity of platforms like PH
Sounds bad. The worst thing is that they're using PH's defense system so to say, that's a big problem
Thanks for sharing this, Mark. Please, keep us informed with a situation 🙏🏻 Good luck!
I really hope this issue gets fixed very soon. Actually got a bit scared about our launch on the 21st of November. I don't want to be part of this manipulation whirlwind.
WhaaaAaAaattTtttt!
Sad to hear, but I am still not able to connect the bits of your story.
So, they offered you upvotes service, which you denied. How come they down-voted you (there's no downvote button like Reddit at PH)?
Also, if you're trying to say that you got bumped because the other products accepted their upvote service, is there any evidence?
I think it's not appropriate to say that other products accepted the "upvote" service and that's why they got a better position! I looked at your product, and it's fantastic. However, there were some other products launched the same day, and they're amazing too. Some of them are above you, and some of them are below you too.
@naveed_rehman Hey Dear Navid! Because the service agent told me that this is the exact message: Sometimes ago 6th product also take upvote from another place as a result they cross your product and your product got 6th place.
@naveed_rehman I didn't say that at all! I think we should share these experiences here with all the makers to avoid it and also it's not a new topic in product hunt and seems you didn't hear about it before! Yes all the products are Great! Hope everyone have a great launch! good luck
Not cool.