Show HN: I am Building a Producthunt alternative

What problem does PH solve/what problem would this solve?

Honestly PH always felt to me like a time waster. “Oh look at this idea. Neat. Next.”

Now, a website where I can type in the problem I am having and it suggests solutions (with a mix of self hosted vs commercial products depending on my settings) would be super useful. For example: “I want to organize a library full of old photos that don’t have metadata” or “I want a cheap online backup solution with support for Linux servers” or “I want to automate sending personalized-feeling birthday cards to people I know professionally”.

PH is a website that program managers from big companies such as Microsoft and Google go to get ideas for new features.

I recommend against post anything to PH unless you have patents, or a big marketing budget, if not your idea will just be copied by big companies before you can get the word out about your product.

"Oh look at this idea. Neat. Next."

That's exactly what HackerRank feels like. Same with "normal" social media like Reddit or Twitter

Do you have any examples of this happening? How many products on Product Hunt do you think are patent-able?

My startup was posted on PH, and many years later we're quite successful. We had $0 budget and it was just me at the time, and it worked out wonderfully.

then what keeps you here I'm curious

It’s a way for developers to sell products to each other in a big circle without actually producing anything

It can get you started, it did for many. It seems kind of crappy these days but it still works as a channel to get your product out.

you misunderstand. People actually _like_ this feeling.

Occasionally people post here about stuff aside from making money, which is nice

That's a pretty cynical view....besides, big companies would take months/years to to copy an idea - even if it's a good one - and by then the market has moved.