The only rule is against asking people to upvote you. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html Letting people know that your link is on HN is not against the rules. Hackernews-button didn't get any comments from mods. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5782081 Neither did hn-button. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5782081 (PG did say he was afraid this kind of thing would have negative effects, but that was 5 years ago and no rule change since. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2934178 )