Does the Product Hunt have the same hype as 2 years ago?

Nowadays PH is full of bots, and this needs to be prevented by changing some algorithms, personally when I get a comment or new follower, first I need to check the profile history and engagement which takes me time! so due this I can't be active on the platform, even ranked launches are not a guarantee that it's a great products.

I think this is a classic Product Cycle. They need to innovate in order to tackle the challenges. They had a first mover's advantage, now they need to capitalise on it further to see how they can make changes.

Though I've only been here for six months, I've noticed a decline in the hype, as well as a drop in the excitement around discussions.

It's still a solid spot to get inspired and see what’s out there, but it’s not really the best place to actually launch if you’re looking for real traction. It feels less like ‘the best product wins’ and more like ‘the best tactics win’ — think bots, heavy promos, all that. A lot of people here are just browsing for ideas, not really here to buy or engage deeply with products. And I have to say, it feels like genuine engagement has dipped lately. There’s been this flood of launches every day, and the algorithm seems to be struggling to give everything fair attention. Limiting daily launches could bring some of that quality back. For now, I’ll keep browsing daily but be less active in discussions (except if it's from you, Nika!) and hold off on sharing any of new products here.

less hype same backlink

I think most of them are only using it to get a good backlink.

I think it’s less hype overall. Everything comes and goes. They need to make it easier for creators by innovating more: - Randomized featured launches - Competitions - Visibility based on engagement - Maybe finally lower the minimum price for ad spend? Why is $5K the minimum? Would be more competitive and fair game to be honest.

Good question. Hmm, I'm launching my first ever product next week (fingers crossed), so 92% less hype isn't encouraging 😅 I've also had a fare few spam messages regarding upvotes on Linkedin.

Based on SimilarWeb traffic is going down. 1y ago, the monthly visit was 4.5M. Now it's 3M. However, looks like their returning user % is increasing. Feels like they are focused on high quality users, more engagement from their existing users, rather than acquiring new users at the expense of reducing quality. So, I'm positive about them making investments to make the platform engaging for the core audience.