ProductHunt has a spam problem. They're ignoring it

Posted by joanwestenberg on Thursday February 16, 2023 @05:58PM
from the self-post dept.

I've been trying to bring this to the PH admin attention for months now. I’m seeing this happen more and more frequently. Clearly fake comments on product hunt launches. It’s becoming a major issue, because it means I’m no longer interested in reading community responses to products.

Example: so many of the comments on this project are low effort fakes.

https://www.producthunt.com/posts/shardible

( 6 comments | 2 points | on HN )

Re:ProductHunt has a spam problem. They're ignoring it by asebold on Thursday February 16, 2023 @06:31PM (#34828303)

It's been this way for a while. At this point, I think PH doesn't mind that it's happening. Maybe it makes people feel like they're getting engagement, and therefore, that their launch was more of a success? So they keep coming back and launching products there?

I stopped hanging out there once I realized how much spam there was. And that you could pay people to "hunt" products. Totally inauthentic.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:ProductHunt has a spam problem. They're ignoring it by jzombie on Thursday February 16, 2023 @06:13PM (#34828058)

Just an assumption here, I haven't really done my research.

The main goal of most money-making websites is not about the features or products they offer, but mostly as a vessel to funnel money to the founders and sprinkle some of it to the help involved.

As long as most users don't report such an issue, and especially if it doesn't negatively impact the bottom line, the chances of a fix are even less.

So, none of this surprises me in the least.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:ProductHunt has a spam problem. They're ignoring it by palashkulsh on Friday February 17, 2023 @02:27AM (#34831866)

Classic short term positive long term negative

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:ProductHunt has a spam problem. They're ignoring it by nikolay on Thursday February 16, 2023 @07:35PM (#34828964)

I stopped checking it - too much repetition of stuff I've already seen, too much low-quality junk, i.e. the signal-to-noise ratio keeps rapidly declining!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:ProductHunt has a spam problem. They're ignoring it by skilled on Thursday February 16, 2023 @11:26PM (#34830775)

Not only comments but also link spam. I emailed them a year ago with details and proof but the answer I got implied that they don’t really care and the issue is too big to solve, not worth pursuing.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:ProductHunt has a spam problem. They're ignoring it by quickthrower2 on Friday February 17, 2023 @01:34AM (#34831537)

They don’t care about their core business then, which is eyeballs on new products, because those eyeballs will get tired and stop coming up.

[ Parent | on HN ]