Are waitlist launches a no go on Hacker News?
Pretty new around here. Is launching a waitlist for an upcoming product a good idea? If yes, how much context-sharing is too much or too little?
Generally speaking, a waitlist isn’t interesting and doesn’t add value because users can’t try the product. It might be valuable to the creator but it can wait to be announced on HN when the product is ready.
As some others have suggested, you could write a detailed blog post about the values and share other details to see if that is valuable to the community and perhaps offer an opt in on your blog instead.
Good luck!
Forget about HN for a moment and ask yourself who benefits from a waitlist announcement vs waiting to announce your launch until the product actually exists. The only party who benefits from a waitlist is the owner of the list. That's great for that person, but spam contact harvesting pollution for everyone else, which is ultimately destructive to the community. "Great for me but destructive pollution for the community" defines an antisocial act. Is selfish community harm something that you want people to associate with your brand?
Waitlists are a no-go for 'Show HN' launches
HN likes things that are interesting and generally prefers more details rather than less. You could write a blog post about a really interesting aspect of your product, or of building your product, and share that, or you could share a usable demo of your product.
It's not Product Hunt, so please don't post "lead gen" stuff here. If you have a blog post on a related topic that mentions your product, I think that is usually OK, as it's not link spamming.
What counts is the content of your submission. It needs to be interesting in itself. That is, whatever the opposite of a teaser is.
I imagine you'll have a LOT of trouble getting people to vote for them.
“Waitlist launches” aren’t launches, they’re marketing tricks.
Your mileage might vary, though in my experience HN folks aren’t too fond of scams.
Community policy aside.
Does your question mean that you're worried about people will take your idea and build the product themself?
In most cases, that will not be the case. One can't just simply take an idea, rush to build it and release it overnight and be a competitor with you. Building a product is much harder than that. And even if you get a competitor, it's a good way to validate your idea.
It’s not OK now but it used to be OK.
Ten years ago I put up up posting that was just a page asking people for “I’m interested” emails.
176 points, 198 comments.
We got about 15,000 registrations I think.
Comments did not whip us for such a post. One included “you have my respect from the bottom of my heart.”
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6062876
There has to be some value added to the visitors. If a part of the product is avaialbe to explore while a premium version is waitlisted, I think that's cool.
Put the link in your about at least. Some of us do like seeing what is launching soon.
Refreshing to hear someone asking for permission rather than forgiveness
The most successful product lunches on HN are the ones where people can try it out immediately, no paywall, no registration, just straight in and have a go.
Waitlists, or "pre announcements" very very rarely get voted into the front page.