Product Hunt’s Race to the Bottom
Quality and relevance don’t apply when you can be the best at front-loading the launch.
15-second read
Product Hunt has become an attention-hacking leaderboard that for some reason still holds credibility in the eyes of those who use lists to make decisions about what’s cool in tech.
It’s like the NYT Best Sellers list or the Best Places to Work.
Whoever’s best at pandering to the system gets to the top. Quality and relevance don’t apply when you can be the best at front-loading the launch.
Manufactured popularity is a terrible way to measure potential and credibility.
(Sounds a little like what LinkedIn has become.)
— Nate
P.S. This Hacker News thread on how Product Hunt really works is well worth the read.