Hacker News vs X for a Launch: The Show HN Rules, Line by Line

Most founders write one launch post and paste it into both places. On Hacker News that post can break three rules before anyone reads it: it opens with a hook, which reads as marketing; it points at a waitlist, which isn't a Show HN; and it ends with an ask, which HN bans.

The real question is whether your product passes the Show HN test, and how to keep the two launches from hurting each other. Quotes are from the Show HN guidelines, the HN guidelines and the moderators' tips for Show HN posts.

"Something you've made that other people can play with"

Show HN is for something you've made that other people can play with.

This is the line that decides whether you get to do a Show HN at all. The guidelines list what's off topic: blog posts, sign-up pages, newsletters, lists and other reading material. They also say don't post landing pages or fundraisers, and they ask you to make the thing easy to try, ideally without signups or emails.

On X none of that applies. You can launch a waitlist, a teaser, a pre-order page. Plenty of launches on X are exactly that. On HN a waitlist launch breaks the rules before anyone reads it.

Our rule: if a stranger can't use the product within a minute of clicking, it isn't a Show HN yet. Launch on X now, and come back to HN when there's a demo, a free tier or a sandbox account that needs no email. If the interesting part is how you built it, the guidelines point you to a regular submission of a write-up instead.

"Please don't ask friends to upvote or comment"

Please don't ask friends to upvote or comment. That's not ok on HN.

The main guidelines go further: don't solicit upvotes, comments or submissions. The moderators' tips add that friends and users shouldn't post booster comments in the thread, because HN readers spot them and treat them as spam.

This is the biggest practical difference from X. On X, getting people talking is the job. X's 2023 published ranking weights counted a reply at 13.5 and a like at 0.5 (the-algorithm-ml), so a launch post that ends on a question and a founder who answers every reply is doing exactly what the platform rewards.

Which creates a trap. Your X launch post is where your friends are. If it says "we're on Hacker News, go comment", you've just solicited comments, in public, with a link.

• Keep the HN link out of your X launch post and its replies on the day.
• If someone on X asks where else you're posting, answer them. Just don't make it the call to action.
• Don't message friends the HN link either. A DM asking for comments is still asking.

"Drop any language that sounds like marketing"

The moderators' tips are blunt here: marketing or sales language is "an instant turnoff" on HN, and you should use factual, direct language. They ask for a clear statement of what the project is, the backstory of how you came to work on it and what's different about it. Personal stories and technical details are welcome.

Two more details from the same tips that founders miss. Don't make your HN username your company name, because it reads as a brand rather than a person. And, in an edit dated March 2026, write the text by hand. The moderators say not to use an LLM to generate or even edit what you post to HN, because readers are pushing back on text that sounds machine-written.

That's a rule about the words you post on HN, not about your product. It does mean you can't reuse your X copy. A launch tweet is built to stop a scroll. An HN post is built to answer "what is this and how does it work" for a reader who is already skeptical. Write them separately.

Where the launch video goes

On X it's the centre of the launch. Upload it to the post rather than linking to YouTube, and caption it so it works with the sound off. X's own video help page covers formats and lengths, and our X launch video guide covers how to cut one for the feed.

On HN there's no place for it in the post. The submission is a title and a URL, plus your text. The Show HN page mentions video only for hardware and things that are hard to try over the internet. For software, the try-it-yourself link does the job a video does on X. A short video on the page you link to still helps the HN reader who wants to see it working before trying it.

So the same launch needs the video twice: a captioned cut uploaded to the X post, and the same cut playing on the page your Show HN links to. That's what Flowjam makes: a 30 to 60 second product video from your product, delivered as a master cut for your site plus a version sized for X, ready before either launch. See how our launch videos work.

Order: X first, Show HN when it's ready

We wouldn't run both on the same day unless two people are available. The Show HN rules say you need to be around to discuss the project, and an HN thread with hard technical questions can take your whole afternoon. So does a good X launch, where the first hours of replies are the launch.

The order we'd pick for most startups: launch on X when the product and the video are ready, with the link in the first reply and a question at the end (line by line in our launch tweet guide). Post the Show HN later, on a day you can spend in the thread, once there's a version people can try without signing up. If you're also on Product Hunt, that's a third day, or the same day as X; we covered that split in Product Hunt vs X.

The exception is a developer tool with no audience on X. HN is where its buyers already are, and a good Show HN can do more than a launch tweet nobody sees. Lead with HN, then post on X afterwards with what people asked in the thread. That's a natural first post for a new account, and it doesn't ask anyone for anything.

For the full X side, from the launch post to the thread to the first hour of replies, see the guide to launching on X. For the HN side in more depth, see our Hacker News front page playbook.

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