hacker-news-strategy

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• README.md
• SKILL.md

SKILL.md (first lines)

# Hacker News Strategy

Hacker News is the most influential developer community — and the easiest to get wrong. This skill covers what actually works, what gets you flagged, and how to build authentic presence.

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## Before You Start

1. Read `.agents/developer-audience-context.md` if it exists
2. Check if the product/content is genuinely interesting to HN's audience (hackers, founders, deep tech enthusiasts)
3. Be honest: HN users can smell marketing from miles away

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## Understanding HN's Culture

### Who's Actually on Hacker News

| 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 |

### What HN Values

- **Technical depth** over marketing polish
- **Genuine novelty** over incremental updates
- **Transparency** over corporate speak
- **Building in public** over stealth launches
- **Contrarian insights** over conventional wisdom

### What HN Hates

- Self-promotion disguised as content
- Clickbait headlines
- Corporate PR speak
- Engagement bait ("What do you think?")
- Anything that feels like an ad

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## Post Types and When to Use Them

### Show HN

**Use when**: You built something and want feedback from the community.

| 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]" |

**Good Show HN examples**:
- "Show HN: I built a SQLite extension for vector search"
- "Show HN: Open source Heroku alternative written in Rust"
- "Show HN: Real-time collaborative code editor in the browser"

**Bad Show HN examples**:
- "Show HN: My startup just raised $5M" (not something to try)
- "Show HN: We updated our pricing page" (not interesting)
- "Show HN: Check out our new feature" (too vague)

### Launch HN

**Use when**: Major company launch or significant funding announcement.

| 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 |

### Regular Submissions

**Use when**: Sharing interesting content (yours or others).

| 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 |

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## Title Optimization

### Title Principles

| 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 |

### Title Transformations

| 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" |

### HN Moderators Edit Titles

Be aware: HN moderators (especially dang) will edit sensationalized titles to be more neutral. They'll also merge duplicate submissions and sometimes give worthy posts a second chance.

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From jonathimer/devmarketing-skills, MIT.

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