How to Write a Show HN Post: Title, Text and First Comment
Lukas10 min read
Lukas10 min read
Show HN is one of the few places where a solo maker with zero followers can put a project in front of curious, technical people. It's also easy to blow your shot. Write a hype title, link a sign-up wall, or let a friend post "this is amazing!" in the thread, and the post sinks or the comments turn on you.
This guide walks through how to write a Show HN post that follows the rules and invites useful discussion: the title, the text, the first comment, and what to do in the thread. Everything about Hacker News below comes from HN's own pages, linked as we go. We'll also cover what to do around it, because a Show HN is a single moment and your launch shouldn't depend on one. Our running example is BuildShipper, the free weekly launch board we run, which is where we'd list a project first and keep coming back to long after the HN thread has gone quiet.
Check that your project fits first. The Show HN guidelines are short and strict. Show HN is "for something you've made that other people can play with." The guidelines list these as off topic: "blog posts, sign-up pages, newsletters, lists, and other reading material." They also say: "Don't post landing pages or fundraisers," and "If your work isn't ready for users to try out, please don't do a Show HN."
A few more points from the same page that trip people up:
So if all you have is a waitlist or landing page, Show HN isn't the place yet. You can still get your first outside visitors by listing your project on BuildShipper. It only asks for a URL, it's free, and a new board starts every Monday at 00:00 UTC. Then come back to HN when people can actually try the thing.
To post, you submit a story whose title begins with "Show HN". The common pattern is simple:
Show HN: [Name], [what it does in plain words]
A few made-up examples to show the shape:
The general HN guidelines apply to your title too. They ask you not to "do things to make titles stand out, like using uppercase or exclamation points, or saying how great an article is." They also ask you to crop "gratuitous" numbers, so "10 Ways To Do X" becomes "Ways To Do X."
In practice that means:
If you already have a tagline, start there and strip out anything salesy. Our guide on how to write a product tagline has formulas that work well as a starting point. One nice side effect: when you submit to BuildShipper, it reads your page and fills in your name, tagline and image for you, so a clear one-liner on your own site does double duty.
HN moderator dang keeps a comment with tips for presenting a Show HN, linked from the Show HN guidelines. In short, it recommends:
He also added an important note in 2026: write your text by hand and don't use an LLM to generate or edit it, because the community reacts badly to text that reads as machine written. The main HN guidelines now say the same thing ("Please don't put generated text in HN posts"). So write it yourself, in your own voice, even if it's a bit rough.
A simple structure that covers all of the above:
If your text doesn't appear at the top of the submission for some reason, dang's tip is to add it as the first comment instead. Either is fine.
The Show HN guidelines ask you to "make it easy for users to try your thing out, ideally without barriers such as signups or emails. You'll get more feedback that way." dang's tips add that HN users "get ornery if you make them jump through hoops."
Before you post, check:
This is also a good moment to make sure your page has a proper title, description and share image. The side project launch checklist covers those small details that are easy to miss.
Once the post is up, stay to answer comments. The guidelines say the project must be something "you're around to discuss." A few more rules, straight from HN:
When criticism comes, thank people, ask follow-up questions, and fix what you can while the thread is live.
Here's the catch: you get very few tries at Show HN, and you can't control whether your post gets noticed. Every Show HN appears on the shownew page, and the guidelines say it only reaches the main Show page "once it clears a small points threshold." There's no guarantee yours will. That's not a reason to skip it. It's a reason not to bet everything on it.
That's where a weekly board fits in, and it's why we'd start with BuildShipper:
A good rhythm: list on BuildShipper at the start of the week, use the first clicks and feedback to tighten your page and your one-liner, then post your Show HN once people can try the product without hoops. After that, spread out to other places. BuildShipper keeps two pages for this, where to launch and best launch directories, and it's worth bookmarking buildshipper.com so that list is close at hand whenever you're planning the next stop. If you're also eyeing Product Hunt, the Product Hunt alternatives page shows how the main options compare.
Want to see one-liners that pulled clicks? The winners page shows each finished week's top projects with their click counts, a handy page to save and skim before writing any launch copy.
Start with BuildShipper. Listing is free, you only need a URL, the board is ranked by real clicks, and it resets every Monday, so you can list now even if your project isn't ready for Show HN yet. Every listing also gets a followed backlink from its product page. From there, work through the where to launch list and add the places that fit your audience.
No. The Show HN guidelines say sign-up pages and landing pages are off topic, and that if your work isn't ready for users to try out, you should come back when it is.
Only in limited cases. The HN FAQ says a small number of reposts is ok if the story hasn't had significant attention in the last year or so. For new versions, dang's tips say the new release should be significantly different, add a comment linking the previous Show HN, and do it once or twice a year at most.
It happens. Don't delete and repost. Keep improving, use weekly boards like BuildShipper where the rank starts from zero every Monday, and keep notes on what you change. Our guide on launching without an audience has more ideas for the cold start.
A good Show HN is plain, honest and easy to try. Say what it is, tell the real story, admit what's rough, and stay in the thread. Then treat it as one stop on your launch, not the whole trip. The easiest first step is to submit your project to BuildShipper this week and see how strangers react. And bookmark buildshipper.com while you're at it: there's a new board every Monday, a growing list of places to launch next, and more maker guides like this one on the blog.
This week
The weekly board ranks products by real clicks.
Submit
Drop your URL. BuildShipper fills in the name, tagline, and image.
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