How do I get upvotes on a launch board?

By telling people what you are building for a few weeks beforehand, then telling them it is live. Early votes come almost entirely from people who already had context, which is why the work happens before launch day rather than on it.

Is it against the rules to ask people to upvote?

Sharing your launch and asking people to take a look is fine. What is not allowed is incentivised voting, vote-for-vote arrangements, or multiple accounts — those get accounts removed.

Do vote exchange groups work?

They produce a higher number and no users. The votes come from people with no interest in the product, so nothing downstream moves, and the pattern is easy to detect from account behaviour.

How many upvotes is a good launch?

It varies enormously by category and day. A more useful measure is how many people tried the product and gave you feedback — six real conversations is worth more than a hundred votes from people who never opened it.

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How to Get Your First Upvotes Without Begging

25 August 20267 min read

Four-step flow covering the three weeks before a launch

The short answer

Early upvotes come from people who already knew you were building something, so the work happens in the weeks before launch, not on the day. Tell people what you are making as you make it, then tell them it is live — do not ask for votes. Vote-swap groups produce numbers with no users behind them and are straightforward for us to detect.

The uncomfortable finding from watching launches is that most of the outcome is decided before launch day starts. By the time you post, you either have people who know what you have been building or you do not, and there is not much you can do about it that morning.

The good news is that the pre-work is not complicated and does not require an audience of thousands.

Why asking for votes does not work

"Please upvote my launch" is a request for a favour with nothing in it for the reader. It converts badly even among people who like you, and it makes the next ask harder.

"I built the thing I have been posting about — it is live" is an update on a story someone was already following. It converts far better because the reader has context and a reason to care.

The three weeks before

1Pick one or two places your users already areA subreddit, a Discord, a Slack community, a hashtag. Not five places — one or two, properly.
2Be useful without mentioning your productAnswer questions in your area of expertise. This is the part people skip and it is the part that works.
3Show the work as you goScreenshots of what you are building, problems you hit, decisions you changed your mind about. Building in public is not a growth hack, it is just giving people a reason to be interested later.
4Say when it is comingA week out, mention the date. Not as a request — as information.
5On the day, post the link onceIn the same places, in the same voice. Then answer everything that comes back.

What to do on launch day

Do	Do not
Reply to every comment, properly and quickly	Post the identical blurb to fifteen communities
Answer the critical comments best of all	Argue with people who did not understand it
Share what you learned mid-day, publicly	DM strangers asking for votes
Thank people by name	Join a vote-for-vote group

The comment replies matter more than people expect. A thread where the maker is present and answering keeps resurfacing, and it is the single most visible signal that a real person is behind the product.

Two columns of launch day behaviour to do and to avoid — The difference between a live thread and a dead one.

Why vote rings fail

Groups that trade votes are common enough that most makers get invited to one. We remove accounts that participate, but the practical argument is stronger than the enforcement one.

The votes come from people who will never use the product, so signups do not move.
The traffic does not convert, which makes your launch look worse in your own analytics than a smaller honest one.
It is visible in the data — accounts created together, voting in the same order, on nothing else.
You end up with a badge and no customers, which is the least useful outcome available.

Our position on this is set out in the content policy, and the ranking mechanics are in how ranking works.

The votes that keep coming

Launch day is a spike. What produces votes for months afterwards is being findable: a listing in the right category, a tagline that reads well in a list, screenshots that explain the product, and an FAQ that answers what people ask.

Those are the same things that make the page useful to someone who arrives from a search six months later, which is the traffic that eventually outweighs the launch.

Frequently asked questions

How do I get upvotes on a launch board?: By telling people what you are building for a few weeks beforehand, then telling them it is live. Early votes come almost entirely from people who already had context, which is why the work happens before launch day rather than on it.
Is it against the rules to ask people to upvote?: Sharing your launch and asking people to take a look is fine. What is not allowed is incentivised voting, vote-for-vote arrangements, or multiple accounts — those get accounts removed.
Do vote exchange groups work?: They produce a higher number and no users. The votes come from people with no interest in the product, so nothing downstream moves, and the pattern is easy to detect from account behaviour.
How many upvotes is a good launch?: It varies enormously by category and day. A more useful measure is how many people tried the product and gave you feedback — six real conversations is worth more than a hundred votes from people who never opened it.

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