from Hacker News

Ask HN: Will Hacker News Get An Official "Show HN" Section?

by tronium on 6/6/14, 12:33 PM with 34 comments

• by dang on 6/6/14, 6:42 PM

  Yep, it definitely will! This has been on our list for a long time and I'm hopeful we'll get to it soon.

  I'm going to bury this thread now. Questions like this are better sent to hn@ycombinator.com.

• by Arjuna on 6/6/14, 2:00 PM

  According to dang, the short answer is Yes. This is dang's response to a similar question, approximately 23 days ago:

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7739559

  In the same thread, I wrote up some "in the mean-time" search examples that can help surface "Show HN" submissions:

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7738243

• by kapkapkap on 6/6/14, 2:28 PM

  The root of the problem is that with the current setup, theres a huge 'luck factor' into whether or not your Show HN post most makes it off of 'New' and onto the first page. Its often 1 or 2 votes that can mean the difference between a post reaching the front page where it can then go on to recieve double/triple digit upvotes, versus remaining on 'New' and only getting 2-3 votes (in which case someone searching 'Show HN' thinks to themself 'well that post must not be very good, since it has so few votes'.

  Of course the same could be said about news articles, however people dont spend hundreds of hours writing a news article (in fact it's rarely even the poster's work at all). While it would certainly be unwise to rely on a Show HN post as the sole means to launch your project, it certainly one of the top 5 traffic generators when you are just getting off the ground, and it sucks when your thread falls into obscurity because you didnt get that one extra vote to move you off of 'New' onto the first page.

• by cschmidt on 6/6/14, 1:43 PM

  I would love that. I've been working on my startup for over two years, and my "Show HN" post last week didn't get a single upvote. I was really disappointed. I think the Show HN section would provide more visibility.

• by brudgers on 6/6/14, 2:00 PM

  This thread:

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=363

  is for feature requests. There is a link to it at the bottom of most pages on HN.

• by detcader on 6/6/14, 3:55 PM

  I personally like the non-forced feel of how it works now, though I agree luck is a factor. If it were "official," gaming will start instantly and the value of the meme drops (as with most things). People start fights like "I'm tired of seeing ____ in the Show HN section"; it takes the natural flexibility out of the whole thing. Once you introduce incentives for gaming (the 1.0 probability that many people, including people with money, will see your link) and create a sectioned-off social space, it becomes a whole different social dynamic.

  Maybe just have a link at the top bar/somewhere else to one of the websites other commentors have mentioned that feature all ShowHN projects.

• by spacemanmatt on 6/6/14, 2:16 PM

  For the duration and focus of my average HN interaction, more compartmentalization of the content here will mean I read less. Or maybe I'll only read default compartments. Be careful what you ask for.

• by edavis on 6/6/14, 2:54 PM

  FWIW, I think there should be. Always seemed a bit odd seeing Ask and Show posts merged together like that.

  In case anyone's interested, I've put together a project [1] that generates a "Show HN" RSS feed here: http://hnrss.org/feeds/showhn.xml

  [1] https://github.com/edavis/hnrss

• by jcfrei on 6/6/14, 1:53 PM

  there are a couple of community run webpages that filter Show HN posts. Ie. http://showinghn.com/ Or on twitter: https://twitter.com/ShowHNDaily

• by opendais on 6/6/14, 1:51 PM

  I think that a Show HN section is a good idea.

  However, I'd strongly suggest it is more like a subreddit than just a filter to only show 'Show HN' posts if possible. It would encourage people to use it but keeping it separate might keep it from overwhelming the more relevant content.

• by mountainair on 6/6/14, 3:18 PM

  You're not alone!

  In fact, it's so tricky to sort through the Show/Ask HN archives that I don't often use HN when I want to browse new projects, I use producthunt.com

• by andywood on 6/6/14, 6:21 PM

  And, will it get a never time out and eat my long form essay i painstakingly wrote on the bus... section?

• by cadalac on 6/6/14, 1:12 PM

  The "ask HN" section is usually very informative and useful, ie. dealing with problems, finding work, recommending products etc.

  I'm not sure a "show HN" section would have the same overall value for the community.

• by joeblau on 6/6/14, 3:19 PM

  +1 on this. It would be like Product Hunt for the HN community.