HACKER Q&A
📣 scorpion888

Why do my Show HN submissions get flagged immediately?


I'm hoping to understand what I might be doing wrong.

I've tried submitting a few Show HN posts over time, all related to software projects I've built. The posts seem relevant to Hacker News, don't contain affiliate links, and are not commercial advertisements.

However, they often get flagged almost immediately after submission, sometimes within seconds. Because it happens so quickly, it feels almost automatic, although I may be mistaken.

I'm not complaining about moderation. I'm genuinely trying to understand what signals might cause this and how I can improve future submissions.

Are there common mistakes first-time or low-karma users make when posting Show HN projects?

For people who have successfully posted Show HN projects before, what tends to work well, and what tends to trigger flags or negative reactions?

I'd appreciate any advice.

  👤 kay_o Accepted Answer ✓
All of your submissions look exactly like identical zero effort unwanted AI slop. Your page layout is completely identical to the default prompt generated as a baseline.

Your product is nothing special, unique, or anything requiring even the slightest amount of effort. Your product exists and is free, built into just about every IDE with AI.

You have not contributed or participated in any part of HN in any way other than self promotion.

These look like a significant amount of humans reported or flagged your post, not automatic removal filter.

> don't contain affiliate links, and are not commercial advertisements.

First thing on your page is pricing and view plans.

👤 drrob
You've not been a member here that long, so showing off stuff you've built will appear disingenuous and like you're just here to self-promote and grift. HN isn't really about that.

Spend a couple of years engaging with the site, adding to the discourse, and then look into showcasing your own stuff after that.

👤 evil-olive
your show HNs are getting flagged for being AI slop, and even this post asking why smells like you had an LLM write it for you:

> Are there common mistakes first-time or low-karma users make when posting Show HN projects?

> For people who have successfully posted Show HN projects before, what tends to work well, and what tends to trigger flags or negative reactions?