How to write a Show HN post

The rules page opens with the test: “Show HN is for something you’ve made that other people can play with” (Show HN rules). It has to be work you did personally, and you have to be around to discuss it. Two things follow from that sentence, and the page spells both out.

• There must be something to try. The page lists blog posts, sign-up pages, newsletters, lists and other reading material as off topic, and says “Don’t post landing pages or fundraisers.” If the work isn’t ready for users to try, it asks you not to do a Show HN yet. A waitlist page fails this test.
• It must be substantial. New features and upgrades “generally aren’t substantive enough to be Show HNs”, though the page allows that a major overhaul probably is.

The page also asks you to make the thing easy to try, “ideally without barriers such as signups or emails”. If your product needs an account, consider a demo mode, a public sandbox or a pre-filled example that works without one. For hardware or anything that can’t be tried online, a moderator’s advice, linked from the rules page, is to find another way to show how it works, such as a video or a detailed post with photos (Show HN tips from an HN moderator).

The only format rule on the Show HN page is that the title begins with “Show HN”. Everything else comes from the site-wide guidelines on titles, which ask you not to make a title stand out with uppercase or exclamation points, not to say how great the thing is, and to crop a gratuitous number or number-plus-adjective (HN guidelines).

The moderator’s tips add one more requirement: include a clear statement of what the project is or does. So a working pattern is the label, the name, then a plain description. These examples are ours, written to show the difference:

Good:  Show HN: Tallybook – double-entry bookkeeping in a single SQLite file
Good:  Show HN: I built a terminal client for reading RSS feeds

Bad:   Show HN: Tallybook – The #1 AI-Powered Accounting Revolution!
Bad:   Show HN: TALLYBOOK IS LIVE (please check it out)

The good titles say what a reader will find. The bad ones break three guidelines at once and describe nothing.

The moderator’s tips ask for text “giving the backstory of how you came to work on this, and explaining what’s different about it”. That text should appear at the top of the submission. If it doesn’t show up, add it as the first comment in the thread (source). For ordinary link submissions the FAQ gives the same instruction: submit the link, then add a regular comment (HN FAQ).

The same tips say what belongs in it and what doesn’t:

• Use factual, direct language. “Drop any language that sounds like marketing or sales. On HN, that is an instant turnoff.”
• Tell the personal story and the technical details. The tips call both “great”. Why you needed it, what you tried first, how it’s built, what was hard.
• Link earlier threads. If the project or an earlier version has been discussed on HN before, include those links.
• Write it yourself. The guidelines say “Don’t post generated text or AI-edited text”, and the tips say not to use an LLM for any of it, “not even a tiny bit, including to edit or spruce it up”.

A structure that covers all of that in five short paragraphs:

1. One sentence on what it is and who you are in relation to it.
2. The problem you had and why existing tools didn’t fit.
3. How it works: the stack, the interesting decision, the trade-off you accepted.
4. What’s unfinished or weak. Readers will find it anyway.
5. How to try it without signing up, and what kind of feedback you’d like.

Bad: “We’re thrilled to announce the fastest, most powerful bookkeeping platform.” Good: “I got tired of exporting CSVs, so I wrote this. It stores everything in one SQLite file. It doesn’t handle multiple currencies yet.”

Hacker News states this rule three times, in three places. The Show HN page: “Please don’t ask friends to upvote or comment.” The guidelines: “Don’t solicit upvotes, comments, or submissions.” The FAQ, answering whether you can ask people to upvote: “No. Users should vote for a story because they personally find it intellectually interesting”, followed by “We penalize or ban submissions, accounts, and sites that break this rule.” Asking for comments gets the same answer, with a warning that readers “will detect it, flag it, and use unkind words like ‘spam’”.

In practice that means:

• Don’t post the HN link in your team chat, your Discord or your newsletter with a request to vote.
• Tell friends and users not to add supportive “booster” comments. The moderator’s tips say HN users are adept at spotting them and consider it spamming.
• Post from a personal account. The tips say not to use your company or project name as your username.
• Don’t use the account only for your own links. The guidelines say “Please don’t use HN primarily for promotion. It’s ok to post your own stuff part of the time.”

Being around to discuss the work is part of the definition of a Show HN, so plan to be at your keyboard for the hours after you post. The guidelines for comments apply to you as much as to anyone: “Be kind. Don’t be snarky.” The Show HN page asks commenters to be curious and not to cross-examine, but some will be blunt anyway.

• Answer the question that was asked. If someone asks how it differs from an existing tool, give the specific difference, including where the other tool is better.
• Concede real flaws. “You’re right, that’s a bug, fixed in the next deploy” ends an argument. Defending it starts one.
• Don’t mention the votes. The guidelines ask people not to comment about the voting on comments.
• Write replies yourself. The rule against generated and AI-edited text covers comments too.
• Put an email address in your profile. The moderator’s tips ask for this so moderators can contact you if they notice something.

The FAQ explains the labels. [flagged] means users flagged the post as breaking the guidelines or not belonging on HN. [dead] means it was killed by software, user flags or moderators. Other users with enough karma can vouch for a dead post, and it’s restored when enough of them do (HN FAQ). The rules above point to the things to check first: a page with nothing to try, a title written as an advert, solicited votes, and booster comments.

More often a Show HN is simply not noticed. The FAQ says a post needs to pass a small points threshold before it appears on the main Show page, and that ranking divides points by a power of the time since submission, so a post that gets no early votes drops away. What you’re allowed to do about it is limited:

• Don’t delete and repost. Both the guidelines and the FAQ say deletion is for things that shouldn’t have been submitted in the first place.
• A small number of reposts is ok if the story hasn’t had significant attention in the last year or so, according to the FAQ. Otherwise reposts are buried as duplicates.
• A new release can be a new Show HN only if the version is significantly different. The moderator’s tips ask you to add a comment linking the previous thread and explaining what changed.

Hacker News is one channel among several. The guide on where to launch covers the others, and what to do after a quiet launch covers the days that follow.

1. Open your link in a private window. Can a stranger try the product without giving an email?
2. Does the title start with “Show HN” and say what the thing is, with no capitals, exclamation marks or superlatives?
3. Is the backstory written, in your own words, with the technical details and the known gaps?
4. Is the account a personal one, with an email address in the profile?
5. Have you told your team and friends not to vote or comment because you asked?
6. Are you free for the next few hours to answer?

For the site itself, use the launch checklist and the launch readiness checker.