Comments on live “Ryan Hoover”
Jonathan Howard
@staringispolite · Growth engineer & founder
Pain point I see a lot: people getting hunted before they're ready for a launch
8sharetweet・
M
Ryan Hoover
@rrhoover · Founder, Product Hunt
@staringispolite totally. There's an interesting balance where we want to empower the community to post any cool thing they find but also ensure the maker is ready to participate (and that the product isn't too raw for public use).
How would you approach this challenge?
1sharetweet・
Jonathan Howard
@staringispolite · Growth engineer & founder
@rrhoover A few things come to mind:
1) By default, community still gets to submit whatever they like as it works now
2) ProductHunt "embargoes":
- Allow users to "reserve" URLs they don't want hunted yet. This would only available to makers of that product, and behind the scenes, would involve the same verification that currently exists for marking someone a maker of a product.
- A reservation expires after a reasonable amount of time, so people can't just park things arbitrarily.
- To a ProductHunt user who submits that URL, the submit form would display an error message saying something like "Good find! But the makers have said they're not ready for prime time, and requested we don't hunt this just yet."
6sharetweet・
Jonathan Howard
@staringispolite · Growth engineer & founder
@rrhoover
3) A step further would be, let's call it a "preview":
- In addition to #1 and #2 above, makers could keep their product's page only visible to the hunter and makers. To submit, the hunter submits the form as normal, but if they're also a maker, they get an optional checkbox "Keep private for now, please". They'd get time to get all the images right, get your teammates approved as makers, etc. Then click a button to make it public
- There could be a time limit on this preview as well so people can't park pages forever, but advance notice of launches should be good for ProductHunt too ^_^ And makers being ready to interact with the community is better for everyone
2sharetweet・
Jonathan Howard
@staringispolite · Growth engineer & founder
@rrhoover
4) In the event someone else submits your product too soon:
- Anyone marked as a maker can put it back into preview mode, or perhaps submit a manual review by a mod requesting a "relaunch".
- When they're ready to launch, the homepage ranking would act as if it were submitted just then (current behavior: typically doesn't do well, you don't get a second chance, won't make it to homepage)
- Only available for a limited time after a hunt so it can't be gamed
2sharetweet・
Matthieu de Luze
@matthieudeluze · Co-Founder @ Studiolabs & Social Media
I agree 100% with you @staringispolite, getting hunted too early can be deadly makers that aren't ready.
I've seen a lot of makers who had to face this issue.
Love your ideas here, and I think point 4 is the best solution: if someone is identified as a maker he would have to be able to confirm, postpone the launch or put it in preview mode only so that the hunter and him can prepare it properly.
What do you think @rrhoover?
upvotesharetweet・
M
Ryan Hoover
@rrhoover · Founder, Product Hunt
@staringispolite great thoughts on this!
This "preview" mode could also turn into a pre-launch landing page to collect emails or interest.
Another reason I forgot to mention earlier is that we may be making bigger changes to the feed that could influence how this would work, which is another justification for holding off.
upvotesharetweet・