Why Product Hunt needs Premium Subscriptions and Direct Messages.

Garen Orchyan
68 replies
I insist that Product Hunt needs a premium subscription and direct messages, similar to what Telegram and X have. Why does Product Hunt need this? 1) A premium subscription for $5-8 per month would allow for greater earnings, hence more resources for product improvement. 2) Accounts with premium subscriptions would carry more weight, aiding in combating spam and new accounts. 3) Most communication happens on LinkedIn. Adding direct messages would significantly increase user engagement on the site, benefiting advertising. But users would find it much more convenient. As for benefits to Product Hunters there are plenty: 1) Premium subscription - an opportunity to thank and support Product Hunt for its excellent work. 2) Verification checkmark - always a nice touch. 3) Direct messages - I believe for most it would be like Christmas. What do you think? Please comment and support the discussion to ensure more people see it

Replies

Denis Shepherd
Superscene 3D Constructor 3
Agreed!
Jake Tital
I totally agree with you. Also they should do something with those kitty coins like get exclusive access to networking events with people at the same coin level. 🪙
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Joep van den Bogaert
@jaketital Yeah indeed! Or maybe spend those on direct messages to reduce the spam problem.
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Jake Tital
@jopie that's a good one too!
André J
PH had DM's in the beginning. There was a pretty clear reason why they took it away 😅 Now we have LI for dm's 😂
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Julia Zakharova
@sentry_co That's it. PH has a staff of marketers. They already tested this a long time ago and have conclusions as to why they refused.
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MariadPDC
At the moment, my situation is precarious.
Anastasia Liamets
That's an interesting perspective! Direct messages would be def super useful
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Marc Andre
Founder Reports
Great points. I would love to see these additions.
Someone just shared what I had in my mind for so long. Way more stuff can be built on this idea!
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Imran Razak
Mind me whilst I speak my mind. I don’t think we need another subscription for this. I think instead they need to figure out how to help make money through Product Ads because right now it’s not affordable to run ads on product hunt and find customers that clearly exist on this platform. So maybe making the ads more accessible and utilising ML to find customers for the product will help generate a decent amount of revenues and won’t create a LinkedIn of product hunt. I think the accessibility is the core of the product so small creators can share their inventions without a paywall.
Og
Yes 💯
Roza Zakaryan
@orchyan I totally agree! I would definitely subscribe to a premium plan if it meant more features and helped them keep improving. I'd recommend to add custom lists also? I love finding cool new products but keeping track of them all can be a nightmare. Custom lists would be a game changer for me! I could create one for work tools, another for future gift ideas, and another for anything that sparks my interest.
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Aron Steehouwer
@orchyan @roza_zakaryan1 got it. I've saved it in my notitions
Unofficial Product Hunt Chrome Plugin
Unofficial Product Hunt Chrome Plugin
@orchyan @roza_zakaryan1 PH has a bookmarking feature that you can use, Roza
Fabio Salvadori
Uhm, so now I'd have to deal with spam both on Linkedin and in here. I think you're not seeing the difference between a community and a social network. In my opinion, if they will turn PH into a social network, it will be the end of it. And in fact I'm pretty sure they will not. You can still connect in here, through the forums and through following. When that happens both ways, it's only natural to get in touch on Linkedin, and even to ask for reciprocal support. If you introduce direct messaging on PH you'll encourage spam voting at an even greater scale that it is already. I don't even wanna think of what will happen in places like Fiverr, once you can DM people in here (PH marketing experts becoming the new trend). The professionals will turn off the option so nothing will change for them; the early adopters will leave the platform. My 2 cents of course. As per Premium Subscriptions, it would become a pay-to-get-listed system, completely defying what makes PH a successful platform. Verification checkmarks? They're there already. People hunt products in here (HUNTER) and if makers hunt their own, they have the MAKER checkmark. I fail to see how useful it is to verify a user, when the core of the platform is the product. What I think it would be really useful, instead, is to be able for makers to update their listing page with news, announcements and milestones whenever they see fit (without touching the original launch bits); traffic on listings tend to die pretty quickly after the launch, when instead it would be just natural to keep engaging with users interested in the product, in my opinion. This could be done even through a specific section in the forums where makers can start and curate one thread for each of their launched or pre-launching apps. And yeah, the forums could definitely do with an improvement.
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Julia Zakharova
@fabiosalvadori Thank you very much for explaining why developers shouldn’t introduce paid subscriptions and DMs here. Personally, I was too lazy to do it. But I was not too lazy to realize that this idea could ruin this site)
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Mick Essex
This would be amazing! Take my money PH!
Jess W
You make some compelling points. Giving users a way to directly support Product Hunt while receiving additional benefits in return seems like it could be a win-win. And direct messaging fills a current gap in the platform's functionality. That said, implementing these properly would require careful design to avoid issues like spam and maintaining Product Hunt's curated feel. But overall, I think these are ideas worth serious consideration from the Product Hunt team to improve the user experience! Thank you for your post.
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Garen Orchyan
@jess_who Thanks a lot Jess 🦄❤️
Noah Jessica
Yes it's a great idea
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Aron Steehouwer
@noah_jessica @leo_fournier what's your link? I'll support you aswell
Aron Steehouwer
@noah_jessica @leo_fournier thanks alot! I can't share a link to the teaser of the launch in here, but this is the landingpage: faindrrr.carrd.co
Aron Steehouwer
@noah_jessica we have a chatfunction, mvp launch is next week
Priyanka Saini
yeahhh its good idea. Also i think they should add “Launching Soon” tag in app also. i really missing that feature in app. we all most of the use ph app. https://www.producthunt.com/disc...
Ghost Kitty
The LinkedIn Inbound Playbook
The LinkedIn Inbound Playbook
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Garen Orchyan
@olenabomko I can handle it 😅😅
Aron Steehouwer
@olenabomko that's why users of faindrr need to have a connection before being able to chat
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Iuliia Demchyk ✨
@orchyan please check IntelSwift launch 🙏🙏🙏 hope for upvote 😇
Sahil🎧⚛️
direct messages are a great idea to connect with people but don't know how I feel about premium subscription :)
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