Dear ProductHunt,

Today marks a special milestone for me—my 365-day streak on Product Hunt. It’s our one-year ‘streakerversary,’ and I wanted to take this opportunity to share my thoughts, observations, and a few wishes for the future. What started as a personal challenge in discipline turned into a deep dive into the PH community. Over the past year, I've picked up on a lot, and since we can all learn from each other, here’s my love letter to Product Hunt—with a few suggestions sprinkled in. Let’s address the elephant in the room—bots. This is no secret; it's a widely discussed issue across various forums, podcasts, and even dedicated clones of Product Hunt. I've personally received offers for a 'guaranteed Top 5 rank' for a fee, and I'm certain I'm not alone. It’s a significant problem, and though I know it's complex to solve, it’s probably the most crucial one to tackle. I've seen diligent, creative makers build communities and generate genuine buzz for their launches, only to feel shortchanged by bot-voting irregularities. These are the kinds of makers we should be celebrating—the indie hackers, the dreamers, the creatives—not the big corporations with deep pockets and paid mailing lists. It’s disheartening to see talented individuals leave the platform because of this, and I think the entire community shares this sentiment. Ranking is another point of concern. The heavy reliance on "upvote count" seems to make it easier to game the system. We’ve entered a realm similar to search engines, where those with the deepest pockets often rank higher due to higher spend. Many have learned not to launch on days when VC-backed startups do, out of fear of being overshadowed. This trend is heartbreaking because it discourages the very spirit of innovation and fair competition. Now, let’s talk about the community. PH has one of the largest user bases of founders and makers, and yet, the avenues for engagement are limited. The primary ways to interact are through comments on launches, digging through the menu (only recently discovered) to find meetups, or cold outreach on other platforms. Why not create more opportunities for engagement directly on PH? A controlled DM feature, groups (like in the r-slash app), or a way to search for makers by location could significantly enhance community interaction. Imagine being able to DM a nearby maker for a coffee chat or collaboration—wouldn’t that be amazing? Moderation is another area where I have some questions. I can see that the platform is actively moderated by humans, but it's hard to tell if the reports I submit are acted upon. Does the 'Report' button actually work, or is it just a placebo? A simple confirmation email acknowledging that my report was addressed would be encouraging. I’d even volunteer to help keep the platform clean. Also, where can I find all my community posts from the past year? It would be nice to revisit them and see how my thoughts and writing have evolved. Have they been removed? 😭 On a positive note, I appreciate the human moderation of the "Featured" products. While this change faced some criticism, I personally prefer it. My only small request is the ability to 'mute' certain keywords in my Featured launch list. Sometimes, there's just too much 'AI' or '[M]otion templates for x.' Don’t get me wrong—I love AI tools and [M]otion, but a bit of customization would be nice. Finally, I want to acknowledge the things that PH does exceptionally well: highlighting solo makers and bootstrapped projects, improving the launch dashboard (hats off!), maintaining a consistent look and feel, and producing a wonderfully written newsletter that’s always a delight to read. Thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts and feedback. This is a love letter, not a critique. I’m here because I care about this platform and want to help make it better. We’re all in this together, facing similar challenges, and it’s comforting to know that we can work towards solutions as a community. I have more to say, but I’ll save it for another time. Thanks for reading. With much love, A Random PH User