Maker Comment: The First Comment on Your Own Launch
A maker comment is the first comment the builder writes under their own launch, adding the story that a tagline and a thumbnail cannot carry. A good one says who built the product, why, what is still rough and what feedback would help. It reads like a person talking to a visitor. It is not a copy of the description and it is not a request for votes.
What is a maker comment, and why do launch sites expect one?
A listing has a fixed shape: a name, a tagline, some screenshots and a description. That is enough to say what a product is, and not enough to say who made it or why. The maker comment fills the gap. On launch platforms with comment threads it is the first reply in the room, and everyone who asks a question after it is answering something you started.
The habit is widely associated with Product Hunt, whose pages refused our automated check, so we describe the custom and not its current rules. It also appears wherever a launch has a thread. Hacker News asks that a Show HN be something you made and are around to discuss, and its guidelines say to write the text yourself. Here, comments under a launch are threaded, and yours is the one that starts the conversation.
Five things worth including, in this order
- Who you are, in one line. A visitor decides how to read the rest from this. “I run support for a small clinic and built this on weekends” sets expectations better than a job title.
- The problem that made you build it. Name the moment of annoyance, not a market size.
- What is unfinished. Early readers trust a maker who says which part is rough. It also saves them from filing the bug you already know about.
- One question. Ask something a visitor can answer in a sentence, such as which step of setup they would skip.
- How to try it. Say whether there is a signup, and link the page where the product can be used.
Leave out the feature list, because the description already has it, and leave out any request for votes. A reader who senses a campaign stops reading the comment and treats the product accordingly.
Example: a weak comment and a better one
Both drafts below are invented, for a made-up command-line tool that cleans messy CSV files. The weak one is what most first comments look like. The better one answers the five points in about a hundred words.
Hi everyone! Excited to share tidycsv with you all today. It cleans CSV files quickly and easily. Please check it out and let me know what you think. Upvotes appreciated!
I do accounting for three small shops and spent too many Fridays fixing exports where dates, decimals and encodings were all different. tidycsv is a small command that detects those three things and rewrites the file. It handles Excel exports well and I know it chokes on files over a few hundred megabytes. Question for the people who deal with this daily: which messy-file problem would you want it to fix next? It installs with one command and needs no signup.
The second draft is longer, but every sentence tells a visitor something they can act on. The maker first comment template gives fill-in versions, with advice on which sentence to cut when you are short of room.
Where does it go on this board?
When you launch your product free, you write a description in the form, and the comment thread sits under the published launch page. Put the facts in the description and the personal note in your first comment. The two should not repeat each other, since a visitor reads both within seconds.
The description of a published launch is final, so a good answer in the thread cannot be folded back into it. Leave the answer where visitors find it, next to the question, and copy it into the FAQ on your own page. To see how other builders frame what they are making, read the ideas on the board.
How do you tell whether yours worked?
- Count replies that are specific. “Looks great” is a vote. “The date detection missed day-first formats” is a comment that improves the product.
- Note which part drew questions. If three people ask about pricing, the description did not say it.
- Track your own response time. Answer everyone the first day, even briefly.
- Look at the clicks. If the comment has replies but your tagged link has no visits, the story landed and the first screen did not.
The how to respond to launch comments answer covers tone, including what to say to a harsh reply.
What goes wrong with maker comments
The first error is pasting the description again. The second is writing a speech: a reader should be able to take in the comment in the time it takes to scroll past it. The third is arguing with the first critical reply, which turns a thread about the product into a thread about you. Thank the person, say what you will check, and move on.
Related terms: an upvote is the signal you must not ask for in the comment, show hn is the thread where the maker’s presence is part of the rules, and a launch platform is the kind of site that gives your comment a room.
Frequently asked questions
What is a maker comment?
It is the first comment the builder posts under their own launch. It gives the human story that a tagline cannot: who made it, why, what is still rough and what feedback would help. It sets the tone for every reply that follows, so write it as a person and not as an advert.
How long should a maker comment be?
Aim for roughly a hundred words, which a visitor can read before deciding to scroll on. Cover who you are, the problem, what is unfinished, one question and how to try it. If you need more, put the extra detail in your description and answer follow-up questions in the thread.
Should the maker comment ask for upvotes?
No. Hacker News tells posters not to solicit upvotes or comments, and a request for votes makes readers less likely to engage with the product. Ask one question that a visitor can answer instead. Replies teach you something, while a vote only changes a number.
Do I need a maker comment on every platform?
Only where the platform has a thread under the launch, which most do. The content can be reused, but adjust it for the audience, because a developer crowd and a general one care about different details. Never paste an identical comment onto several sites in the same hour.
Written by Post your build ideas with AI assistance and edited for this site. Where a page names another product, the facts came from that product’s own pages on the date shown above; terms change, so check them before you rely on them. About the publisher.