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When the user wants to promote on Hacker News, launch on HN, or understand what works on HN. Trigger phrases include "Hacker News," "HN post," "Show HN," "HN strategy," "getting upvotes on HN," "HN launch," or "why did my HN post die."
npx skill4agent add jonathimer/devmarketing-skills hacker-news-strategy.agents/developer-audience-context.md| Segment | What they care about |
|---|---|
| Founders | Fundraising, growth tactics, startup war stories |
| Senior engineers | Deep technical content, architecture, systems |
| Tech leads | Engineering management, team scaling, processes |
| Indie hackers | Solo projects, bootstrapping, revenue |
| Researchers | AI/ML, distributed systems, PLT, security |
| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
| Must be something people can try | Live demo, downloadable, or detailed walkthrough |
| Must be new | Not a repost or minor update |
| Creator must be available | Answer questions in comments for 2-3 hours |
| Title format | "Show HN: [Name] – [One-line description]" |
| Guideline | Details |
|---|---|
| Include technical details | What's under the hood, architectural decisions |
| Share the journey | How you got here, lessons learned |
| Be available | Founders should answer questions personally |
| Avoid PR speak | Write like a human, not a press release |
| What works | What doesn't |
|---|---|
| Technical blog posts with depth | Listicles and "10 tips" posts |
| War stories with lessons | Company announcements |
| Deep dives into problems | Product updates |
| Original research or data | Repackaged content |
| Contrarian technical takes | Obvious or consensus opinions |
| Do | Don't |
|---|---|
| Be specific and concrete | Use vague buzzwords |
| State what it is, not why it's great | Include superlatives ("amazing," "best") |
| Use technical terms appropriately | Dumb down for broader appeal |
| Keep it factual | Use clickbait patterns |
| Before (bad) | After (good) |
|---|---|
| "The Best Way to Handle Errors in Node.js" | "Error handling patterns in Node.js production systems" |
| "We Made Deployments 10x Faster" | "How we reduced deployment time from 20min to 2min" |
| "Announcing Our Amazing New Feature" | "Show HN: [Feature] – [What it does]" |
| "You Won't Believe What We Found" | "[Specific finding] in [specific context]" |
| "Why Everyone Should Use TypeScript" | "TypeScript's type system caught 15% of our production bugs" |
| Time (PT) | Why it works |
|---|---|
| 6-9 AM | Catches US East Coast morning, Europe afternoon |
| 10 AM - 12 PM | Peak US activity |
| Avoid: Weekends | Lower traffic, but less competition |
| Killer | Why |
|---|---|
| Voting rings | Multiple accounts/friends upvoting = detected and penalized |
| No early engagement | Post dies without initial momentum |
| Flagged by users | Multiple flags = post hidden |
| Duplicate content | Already posted = merged or killed |
| Self-promotion pattern | Multiple posts about same company |
| Timing | Action |
|---|---|
| Immediately | Post a top-level comment with context, backstory, or technical details |
| First 2 hours | Respond to every comment, especially critical ones |
| Throughout day | Keep checking back, answer follow-ups |
Hey HN, [your name] here, [role] at [company/project].
Quick backstory: [1-2 sentences on why you built this]
Technical context: [What's interesting under the hood]
Happy to answer any questions about [specific technical areas].| Criticism type | Response strategy |
|---|---|
| Valid technical concern | Acknowledge, explain reasoning, ask for suggestions |
| Misunderstanding | Clarify without being defensive |
| Trolling | Don't engage, or one brief factual response |
| Feature request | "Good idea, I'll look into it" or explain constraints |
| Competitive comparison | Be gracious, focus on your approach |
| Do | Don't |
|---|---|
| Share relevant technical experience | Promote your stuff in others' threads |
| Ask thoughtful questions | Leave generic praise |
| Add context from your expertise | Be contrarian just for attention |
| Correct misinformation politely | Start arguments |
| Behavior | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Asking for upvotes (anywhere) | Post killed, possible ban |
| Voting from same IP/network | Votes nullified, accounts penalized |
| Multiple accounts upvoting | Accounts banned |
| Submitting competitors negatively | Flagged as abuse |
| Astroturfing in comments | Account banned |
| Content type | Why it's flagged |
|---|---|
| Obvious marketing | Community polices this aggressively |
| Political hot takes | Off-topic for HN |
| Crypto/Web3 (often) | Community fatigue |
| Paywalled content | Frustrates readers |
| Low-effort content | Doesn't meet quality bar |
| Timeframe | Strategy |
|---|---|
| Week 1-4 | Comment only. No submissions. Build karma through genuine engagement. |
| Month 2-3 | Submit interesting content (not your own). Show you're a contributor. |
| Month 3+ | Occasional submissions of your own work, mixed with other contributions. |
| Karma level | Benefit |
|---|---|
| 30+ | Can downvote comments |
| 500+ | Posts get more initial trust |
| 1000+ | Strong signal of genuine community member |
| Tool | Use case |
|---|---|
| Octolens | Monitor HN for mentions of your product, competitors, and relevant keywords. Get alerts when discussions happen so you can participate authentically. |
| HN Search (hn.algolia.com) | Research past posts on your topic, see what worked |
| HN Front Page Check | Monitor if your post is on front page and at what rank |
| HN user pages | Research commenters before responding |
developer-audience-contextreddit-engagementdev-to-hashnodegithub-presence