Show HN: I measured the half-life of 41,301 Show HN launches. It's 7 hours (jonno.nz)
I scraped every Show HN from the last 12 months (41,301 posts) plus the full comment tree of every launch with 10+ comments, ~100k comment timestamps, all from the Algolia HN API.
The median launch gets 2 points and 0 comments. For launches that do get traction, half the comments they'll ever get arrive within 7.2 hours and 90% within 26, and the top decile decays on the same clock as everyone else.
Vote timestamps aren't public, so comment timing is the attention proxy; caveats are in the post. Everything reproduces from the repo with one command (https://github.com/jonnonz1/hn-attention-cliff), and every number in the post maps to a named function. Keen to hear where the methodology falls short
12 comments
[ 4.2 ms ] story [ 38.8 ms ] threadBut let's hope this one beats the statistics..
Using "launch" may give readers the wrong impression. Show HN is not for product launches or advertising. It is for "something you've made that other people can play with" according to the specific rules for such submissions at https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html .
Submitters try to game the system to self-promote constantly but generally such improper submissions are ignored or shut down by the site moderators or users very quickly. Those who want to advertise or SEO on Hacker News are not welcome here.
All of these seem bad for people wanting to find the first few users.
Just so we are clear, i havent posted anything here with Show HN because i cant yet, I have a new account and it doesnt let me. But it just seems like this is the best place left to find users.
But if you know places where i could find the first few users for new apps right now without having to get karma points please tell me.