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Comment by dang | Hacker News Reader

This looks like a duplicate of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9040423.

It isn't. We've been working for 6 months since the last submission, it's a completely different version of the web site and service, and we're open to anyone for the first time. We're not launching to the general public yet, we're still just looking for more feedback and help from others on HN.

How is this not 100% in the spirit of Show HN?

We're stricter about duplicates on Show HN than reposts in general. Once a project has had significant attention as a Show HN, incremental upgrades aren't enough to make a new one. It needs to be a different project, or at least have some major difference. Otherwise people use Show HNs for new feature releases or just extra attention, which is not in the spirit of the thing.

Releasing the work to more people (which I assume is what "developer release" means) doesn't count as a new Show HN. It might be a huge milestone internally but doesn't imply a big state change in what people can play with and give feedback on.

However, if this is true:

> it's a completely different version of the web site and service

then it probably qualifies, so we'll take your word on that and put the post back.

You can see our old site and product on archive.org if you have any doubts, everything is different, but it does seem true that our idea of Show HN is not quite what the policy is. We'll make only regular submissions from now on. Thanks for undoing the demotion.

Sure. And I don't mean to discourage you from sharing good work. Think of Show HN as a list of "new things to play with". If the community has already tried out your base service, a repost isn't a new thing to play with (at least not at first sight).

But if it's a new service, or there's something major for people to try that they couldn't have before, that might make a fine Show HN in its own right. In that case the title and the post should present what's new, and it should be more than just an incremental upgrade. That line is admittedly fuzzy, but this is about as clear as I can make it.

The guidelines say that "new features and upgrades" shouldn't qualify for a post, but the separation between "new features" and "new products" is often pretty unclear, and sometimes the same code can be marketed either way. IMO it might be worth expanding on this in the guidelines.

No question about it, but I don't know of a clearer criterion. Any suggestions?

I had seen this before, but yeah, it's been a while and it makes sense to announce a change in status in a new post.

Thank you!

(And no, I do not know ocdtrekkie although I am also an OCD trekkie.)

A new post, sure. A new Show HN, not necessarily.

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