[HN Gopher] Show HN: I am Building a Producthunt alternative
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Show HN: I am Building a Producthunt alternative
Author : heyarviind2
Score : 152 points
Date : 2024-11-25 17:56 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (huntlie.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (huntlie.com)
| stevekemp wrote:
| ProductHunt has been gamed to the extent that it's no longer in
| any way real - it's just who can spam the most.
|
| What will stop your site from the same fate?
| heyarviind2 wrote:
| I want to take an approach of Instagram algorithm, no matter
| what votes you have you will see all the products once every
| visit.
| crowcroft wrote:
| Why do you think that's a good idea?
| akutlay wrote:
| I can't add a product, it asks me to add an icon despite the fact
| that I already uploaded one.
| heyarviind2 wrote:
| you can click on next even after it gives an error
| bootstrpppin wrote:
| Are you going to launch it on PH?
|
| Joking aside, I really think you need a unique angle and a solid
| distribution strategy: there are 1,000 PH clones but they don't
| stick because they're the same as PH, just with less
| users/traction/eyeballs.
| denysvitali wrote:
| 0% off, use coupon "undefined"
|
| :)
| heyarviind2 wrote:
| fixed it, :P
| encoderer wrote:
| Terrible name.
|
| Hunt doesn't mean anything. Huntly is bad. Huntlie is terrible.
| Forget about product hunt. Invent a new brand.
|
| Let people submit for free but you choose when they get
| published. If they want to pick a date charge for that.
| gre wrote:
| An open source applicant tracking system that grows with your
| company 50% Off, use coupon HUNTILE
|
| I first read it as "Huntile" which is like Product Hunt +
| quartile. Then I saw it's Huntlie, "HUNT LIE" which has
| negative connotations. And then I click the site and see the
| coupon code is "HUNTILE". christ
| muhammadusman wrote:
| Don't use the term "hunt" in the name, to me it just screams
| "dupe" instead of something unique. Go the route of improving
| what PH has and adding things that are missing.
|
| Some ideas: - Users should be able to update their post to some
| extent.
|
| - There's no "product page" in your app, build something where I
| can see people commenting, reacting, and maybe even sharing their
| own screenshots of it because that's something PH does pretty
| well but can be improved.
|
| - "LAUNCHES WORTH YOUR SCROLL" sounds kinda cringe, change to
| something like "Find the next best thing" or make it random on
| load and have a few less in your face versions of it. Reddit has
| "homepage of the internet" which seems appropriate. You can have
| "have you launched yet?", "find the next best thing", "what's
| trending today"...etc
|
| I have more ideas, feel free to message me or drop a way to
| contact you if you'd like more feedback :)
| heyarviind2 wrote:
| Hey thank you so much for the feedback. I want to hear more
| from you.
|
| Can we connect on Twitter/x: @heyarviind?
| aardvark179 wrote:
| Maybe not, "next best thing," I don't know about American
| English but in British English next best means second best.
| tuckerman wrote:
| At least in American English "next to best" would mean second
| whereas "next best thing" means something likely to be the
| best thing in the near future and it's a very common idiom.
| phone_book wrote:
| i am american and think "next best thing" means second
| best. maybe "next big thing" would be better but is a bit
| generic
| stoneman24 wrote:
| How about "next favourite thing"
| corobo wrote:
| Do you not have sentence structures along the line of "I
| wanted the premium model but it was out of my budget so I
| went for the next best thing"?
|
| I get we're trying to go for "next [best thing]" but yeah I
| (also UK) read it as "[next best] thing" and can't think of
| any examples where I'd read it as the former
| ImPostingOnHN wrote:
| I think you might be referring to the common american
| english idiom "next _big_ thing ", as "next best thing"
| means 2nd best in american english as well.
|
| Note that _" next bigGEST thing"_ also means the 2nd
| biggest thing.
| mathgeek wrote:
| This is the common usage in my experience (US).
| silisili wrote:
| To jump in on the confusion, I'm American and have seen it
| used both ways, completely dependent on context. When I
| read the original comment I understood it as 'next thing
| that we all think is best' rather than 'second best.'
|
| But after reading the comments and thinking on it, I
| realize it's probably used more often in the context of
| 'second best.'
| Gormo wrote:
| Another American here -- never heard "next best" meaning
| anything other than second-best to what you're currently
| looking at.
|
| "Next big thing" is commonly used and unambiguously means
| what's intended here.
| yyuugg wrote:
| In American English "next best thing" means second best. It
| is used to suggest an alternative when you can't get what
| you want. "Don't have Coke, maybe get a Pepsi, it's the
| next best thing."
|
| "Next _big_ thing " means upcoming good thing.
| _heimdall wrote:
| I've seen it used both ways, "next best thing" is one of
| those phrases at least in American English that is highly
| context-dependent.
| lolinder wrote:
| Which still makes it a bad choice for marketing copy.
|
| They want something that isn't likely to be
| misinterpreted, and I've never seen that phrase used to
| mean "next big thing", only "second best".
| Zandikar wrote:
| As an American, I can't recall "The next best thing" ever
| meaning "second best' but rather the up and coming latest
| and greatest thing.
|
| Big country though, could be a regional thing.
| ribeyes wrote:
| i guess it's somewhat ambiguous here, but "next-best" would
| be second-best, while "next best" means "future best"
| bayouborne wrote:
| I immediately got it. Understanding that the typical reader
| in this space is generally atypical "find the next best
| thing" would likely mean "look here to find the thing that's
| better than the current best." I guess it largely depends on
| who your audience is.
| kelnos wrote:
| It's not "(next best) thing", it's "next (best thing)". As in
| the best thing that is coming up next. Not the thing that is
| next-best.
| malfist wrote:
| It really is an unfortunate name. How do you pronounce it, hunt
| lie? Hunt Lee? I'm not sure, but my first impression was it was
| a portmanteau of hunt and lie, which wouldn't be something I'd
| want my startup to be associated with
| benatkin wrote:
| huntle would be better, or relativelyhuntled.com
| https://getyarn.io/yarn-
| clip/c5ab6ff2-0439-4ae2-8782-08830bf...
| adamtaylor_13 wrote:
| "Clever doesn't sell, clarity does."
| 6510 wrote:
| Get rid of it and make a link called "about" then do the boring
| thing and explain what is going on, why, how much, when, who?
| wtf?
| sam1r wrote:
| >>> Don't use the term "hunt" in the name, to me it just
| screams "dupe" instead of something unique. Go the route of
| improving what PH has and adding things that are missing.
|
| Here's additionally a solution versus just criticism^^:
|
| How about PoshProduct. ProductPower.
|
| The word product screams attention to both product hunt and
| ProductPower users. Just make the emoji bolt your logo. Product
| Power! Be the first to know.
|
| Good luck! This is awesome.
| jperras wrote:
| > Don't use the term "hunt" in the name, to me it just screams
| "dupe" instead of something unique. > [...] > You can have
| "have you launched yet?", "find the next best thing", "what's
| trending today"...etc
|
| OP: I may or may not be in possession of hasitlaunched dot com,
| should you be interested in purchasing it...
| dowager_dan99 wrote:
| The thing that jumped out to me more the "hunt" word was "lie"
| - not great connotations. I assume it's supposed to be more
| like "ly"?
| CrociDB wrote:
| That was the first thing I noticed too.
| srbhr wrote:
| I've added a product (SWIRL) it shows 0% off. :) How can I change
| that?
| heyarviind2 wrote:
| have you enabled the discount checkbox?
|
| Anyway let me know the coupon code and percentage off, i can
| add it manually ;)
| dinkblam wrote:
| same here, didn't specify a discount either
| olegp wrote:
| Congrats on launching! I just submitted https://www.freeats.com
|
| I liked the submission flow, it was nice and simple. The only
| issue is that at the end of the process I got a page that looked
| like it was broken, so had to manually navigate to the main page.
| heyarviind2 wrote:
| sorry about that, i am fixing it
| olegp wrote:
| No problem, it's better to launch early.
| permanent wrote:
| Added an icon, and still it says:
|
| > Product icon is required
| bochoh wrote:
| Having the same issue here! Cheers on launching
| supertofu wrote:
| When everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. Re: the
| black visit buttons. Save black for the top 3 featured, and make
| the rest a milder color. It's cognitively fatiguing to have a
| giant list of primary buttons.
| triyambakam wrote:
| How is the name supposed to be pronounced? It looks like the two
| English words hunt and lie which doesn't sound very nice.
| heyarviind2 wrote:
| it is pronounced as hunt-lee
|
| https://www.names-hub.com/name/huntlie
| trollied wrote:
| It really isn't though. Any native English speaker is going
| to see Hunt Lie.
| cabinguy wrote:
| Confirmed. I immediately read "hunt lie."
| emmanueloga_ wrote:
| In the context of discovering brand-new companies, it
| does come across as somewhat ironic.
|
| Maybe consider the "Kodak recipe" for an alternative?
| [1]: "Keep it short, easy to pronounce, and avoid
| similarities to existing names or associations." (short
| is harder in 2024 though!)
|
| I'm on the fence on whether the name should have meaning.
| There are plenty of successful companies on either side.
|
| --
|
| 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak#Name
| willsmith72 wrote:
| Imo better to start with a generic name in the early days
| at least. Best case your generic name becomes a brand
| name, ie airbnb.
| stared wrote:
| I am not a native speaker, but the very first thing I saw
| was "Hunt Lie". It conveyed the message "Product Hunt, but
| for scam".
|
| "Huntly", maybe?
| hackernewds wrote:
| why not spell it Huntly? like most annoying apps do
| joenot443 wrote:
| What you've linked is a site for human names, not product
| names.
|
| English has funny cases where readers will implicitly
| pronounce personal names differently than they might products
| or brands.
| codazoda wrote:
| I also read it as "hunt lie" instead of "hunt lee" FWIW.
| makk wrote:
| Reminds me of expertsexchange.com before they put the hyphen
| in it (now experts-exchange.com)
| OJFord wrote:
| Fwiw it parsed to me as 'Hun tile', certainly no better.
|
| If it's meant to be hunt-lee per sibling comment then 'huntly'
| (with the domain hunt.ly) is by far the established (still-
| annoying) way to do that.
| Brajeshwar wrote:
| I think he meant Huntly, but unfortunately, we Indians have our
| own idiosyncratic way with English. The founder/builder is
| Indian (I'm Indian, and I know).
| OJFord wrote:
| Lie for lee though? That would make me read it like lie /
| liye
| inerte wrote:
| Unrelated, but I am thinking about how do I get alpha users for
| an app I am building, and decided to check Product Hunt if they
| offer any sort of feature to help with that, and I ended up on
| this page https://www.producthunt.com/questions
|
| Looks like someone is trying to pull a Forbes...
|
| And I guess related to you, please don't do that :)
| etewiah wrote:
| Crikey, that looks horrible...
|
| Any ideas what that is about? Sorry I don't understand the
| Forbes reference.
| inerte wrote:
| Forbes, a name that probably makes people think about
| business articles, has been publishing all sorts of non-
| business pieces and they did extremely well on SEO because
| the domain has a lot of authority and inbound links.
|
| So well that basically people were speculating the SEO part
| would take over the more traditional business.
|
| Google caught up recently (as in a few weeks ago) and has
| heavily punished their ranks.
|
| Ironically if you search Google for "Forbes SEO" you'll find
| many articles about what happened. I think it all started
| with something titled "The parasitic company trying to take
| over Forbes"
| amiantos wrote:
| Why?
| blakeburch wrote:
| Glad to see someone working on an alternative!
|
| Personal note - I used to be a pretty frequent user of
| ProductHunt. Some folks I worked with jokingly called me the SaaS
| King. If you had a problem, I knew of 3 tools to potentially
| solve it.
|
| The biggest reason why I stopped using ProductHunt was because
| people opted to submit and upvote low quality "list of X"
| aggregation services and minor updates, not real products.
| Hopefully you've thought about how to refine the curation.
|
| Also, agreed with the feedback from muhammadusman about having a
| product page. Right now, it's just a list of links with synopsis
| - not enough to intrigue me to explore further.
| thehadiahmadi wrote:
| Hi, I liked the idea. There are some issues, maybe these are in
| your todo list, but I want to tell you based on my usage.
|
| 1. there is no difference before and after login. (maybe login is
| unsuccessful) 2. I cannot edit/delete my submitted project. 3. No
| search for projects. 4. No Dark mode :)
| klntsky wrote:
| Product hunt clones should all launch on each other
| crowcroft wrote:
| We need to go meta and build a Product Hunt clone focussed on
| being the best Product Hunt clone directory.
| escapecharacter wrote:
| Product Rat King
| richardw wrote:
| Done:
|
| https://www.producthunt.com/products/product-
| hunt/alternativ...
| rrr_oh_man wrote:
| Login doesn't work...
|
| How to correct a post?
|
| :-)
| dt3ft wrote:
| Congrats!
|
| I tried submitting https://fdeploy.com but the product icon
| wouldn't upload. Which file formats are supported?
| xwowsersx wrote:
| Looks promising! May I offer some gentle feedback on your blurb
| above the fold?
|
| > fDeploy is a self-hosted deployment software for Windows
| being currently built in Stockholm, Sweden by developers with
| over 10 years of experience in the industry, focusing only on
| the most essential and most valuable features.
|
| I'd recommend focusing on what the most valuable features are
| and making those the highlight. Leading with who is building it
| and where doesn't add much unless your team is especially well-
| known or noteworthy. Also, citing "10 years of experience" as
| social proof might not resonate strongly--it's not a
| differentiator for most audiences (10 years is not that long).
| Instead, consider showcasing the unique aspects of the product
| that would immediately grab attention.
| dt3ft wrote:
| I will set some time aside to rewrite that. Thank you for the
| feedback, much appreciated!
| nhatcher wrote:
| There was a slightly similar product some days ago:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41860810
| TripleChecker wrote:
| Tried to add a product but nothing happens when I submit.
|
| Domain isn't the easiest to remember IMO.
| joshdavham wrote:
| Looks interesting!
|
| Could I get a short pitch on what makes your alternative
| better/different?
| that_guy_iain wrote:
| There are so many product hunt alternatives that it's hard to
| keep track. There are literally services to go around and list
| you on all of the alternatives. I believe it's about 60+.
|
| The problem with ProductHunt is that it's basically the glory
| days are behind it. If you want to have a successful ProductHunt
| launch the key is simple, wait until you're established and then
| send an email to all your customers to upvote you.
|
| People focus so much on having a good ProductHunt launch like
| it'll make a difference. They go around begging everyone they
| know and spamming everyone they don't know asking for an upvote.
| They'll spend weeks focusing on this product hunt launch and
| overall get less traffic than they would from posting on here
| with Show HN and less traffic than they would get from posting on
| the right subreddits.
|
| Product Hunt and similar launch sites are just focusing don't he
| false hope that new founders have that the launch matters.
| IgorPartola wrote:
| What problem does PH solve/what problem would this solve?
|
| Honestly PH always felt to me like a time waster. "Oh look at
| this idea. Neat. Next."
|
| Now, a website where I can type in the problem I am having and it
| suggests solutions (with a mix of self hosted vs commercial
| products depending on my settings) would be super useful. For
| example: "I want to organize a library full of old photos that
| don't have metadata" or "I want a cheap online backup solution
| with support for Linux servers" or "I want to automate sending
| personalized-feeling birthday cards to people I know
| professionally".
| breadwinner wrote:
| PH is a website that program managers from big companies such
| as Microsoft and Google go to get ideas for new features.
|
| I recommend against post anything to PH unless you have
| patents, or a big marketing budget, if not your idea will just
| be copied by big companies before you can get the word out
| about your product.
| gkoberger wrote:
| Do you have any examples of this happening? How many products
| on Product Hunt do you think are patent-able?
|
| My startup was posted on PH, and many years later we're quite
| successful. We had $0 budget and it was just me at the time,
| and it worked out wonderfully.
| bootstrpppin wrote:
| That's a pretty cynical view....besides, big companies would
| take months/years to to copy an idea - even if it's a good
| one - and by then the market has moved.
| agnishom wrote:
| "Oh look at this idea. Neat. Next."
|
| That's exactly what HackerRank feels like. Same with "normal"
| social media like Reddit or Twitter
| hackernewds wrote:
| then what keeps you here I'm curious
| agnishom wrote:
| you misunderstand. People actually _like_ this feeling.
| PittleyDunkin wrote:
| Occasionally people post here about stuff aside from making
| money, which is nice
| asdf6969 wrote:
| It's a way for developers to sell products to each other in a
| big circle without actually producing anything
| anonzzzies wrote:
| It can get you started, it did for many. It seems kind of
| crappy these days but it still works as a channel to get your
| product out.
| FiddlerClamp wrote:
| This could use an RSS feed (Blogtrottr reported there isn't one).
| Looking forward to seeing how it develops!
| rootsudo wrote:
| I don't want to be a debbie downer, but I'm seeing this sort of
| post often now on HN. If not bimonthly.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41714345
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41867294
| slurpyb wrote:
| Is this a pisstake??
| inquisitor27552 wrote:
| hunt lies rebrand!
| Brajeshwar wrote:
| When one builds a Product Hunt (PH) alternative, one needs to
| remember that PH succeeded because of Ryan Hoover. Just as with
| any new Startup App/Website of that time, it was not fancy,
| interesting or likable at all. Ryan's shouts, marketing, and his
| everything everywhere all at once presence made PH. When I think
| of PH, I remember his avatar (profile picture); that 'P' reminds
| me more of Pinterest than PH.
|
| PH is a successful directory-listing-ish website, there is always
| a limit to its success. Ryan, being a super smart founder,
| realizes that and moves out at the perfect time at its super-high
| hype cycle.
|
| All PH-esque clones can focus on specific niches and become good
| lifestyle businesses. Like other business ideas, shred apart
| Craigslist and build PH of them.
| nadermx wrote:
| If I remember correctly it started as an email list too, like
| Craig's list, before it needed a site.
| Brajeshwar wrote:
| Holy D*n. I think you are correct, and I was one of the early
| subscribers subscribed via Twitter Login (only option or
| something like that).
| rrr_oh_man wrote:
| Holy Dickin'?
| popcorncowboy wrote:
| `D x n` multi-dimensionality reference?
| rrr_oh_man wrote:
| Thank you!
| ntlk wrote:
| It started out on a service called Linkydink
| https://medium.com/@rrhoover/the-wisdom-of-the-20-minute-
| sta...
| ndjdjddjsjj wrote:
| Discovery plays are usually a tarpit idea though. Supply of
| founders high. Supply of customers low.
|
| It is the equivalent of queuing up for an X-factor (or whatever
| they call it these days) audition, aiming to be the next One
| Direction. Someone will win of course which makes it seem
| possible.
|
| Find the short queues! If someone says "why the fuck you
| interested in that" it might be a good sign.
| Brajeshwar wrote:
| In the case of my suggestion, it is not to win, more of a
| play to be present and seen. Monetize via endorsement (paid
| listings) or ads. If you have like 10s of them, less than 10%
| have to attract just above average to be self-sustaining.
| barlog wrote:
| RH and chrismessina.me yay.
| rrhoover wrote:
| Appreciate that. :)
|
| We also entered the market at the right time. 2013 was very
| optimistic as mobile hit mainstream and barriers to build
| lowered. We're entering a similar phase with AI today.
| r0fl wrote:
| Switching between newest and featured brings me to the top of the
| late each time
|
| That's pretty annoying
|
| Should just stay where the surfer is
| faizmokh wrote:
| Not gonna lie. It kinda feels like the site was generated by AI
| with minimal modifications. Hence, it made me wonder how long it
| will last.
| davidedicillo wrote:
| I tried to add a product (https://platformchecker.com), and
| initially, the process wasn't clear. The icon isn't marked as
| mandatory (it is) and the discount code is (it is not).
| anonzzzies wrote:
| I would like a startups-which-are-not-shallow-llm-wrappers.com.
| Basically don't allow any product that you go to and shows you a
| chatbox 'type to create X'. It will be eaten tomorrow by openai,
| anthropic etc, so there is no product there; yet all is infested
| with these on sites like PH.
| uwemaurer wrote:
| I tried to post my side project (https://awesome.facts.dev/) but
| nothing happened when I clicked 'Submit'.
|
| I see that a POST to https://huntlie.com/api/products returns
| Server Error 500 {error: "Failed to create record."}
|
| I hope it helps!
| arthur_sav wrote:
| Great, just posted my product there PandaExtract
| PittleyDunkin wrote:
| What we really need is one of these service directories that
| excludes commercial results. I don't care about what I can buy, I
| care about what I can do for free.
| rrr_oh_man wrote:
| SaaS Groupon, but for free?
| progx wrote:
| PH-Sites, are that the new ToDo-List-Examples?
| Pikamander2 wrote:
| Looks like the site is broken? The login feature doesn't work,
| and trying to post a product gives a 500 error.
|
| {message: 'Request failed with status code 500', name:
| 'AxiosError', code: 'ERR_BAD_RESPONSE', config: {...}, request:
| XMLHttpRequest, ...}
| newsclues wrote:
| I hope to see a catalogue for open source tools, so when I'm
| trying to accomplish something I can find a tool that can do
| that.
|
| A well organized pegboard for OSS
| bevan wrote:
| Just tried posting my site (which I was gonna launch on HN today
| anyway).
|
| https://strawberry.army ("Hover Youtube Thumbnails for Instant
| Summaries")
|
| ...but got a 500 error. No other clues in the console.
|
| Good luck with this!
| seanw265 wrote:
| I received a 500 error when attempting to submit a product.
|
| I also attempted to log in (with Google) and it doesn't seem to
| have taken. I still see the "Login" button at the top of the
| page.
|
| I kind of regret giving you my data via Sign in with Google now.
| wkirby wrote:
| 500 error when attempting to add a product.
|
| > "Failed to load the submitted data due to invalid formatting."
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(page generated 2024-11-26 23:01 UTC)