Solo developer finds most platforms silently block new accounts promoting side projects
A developer launching a side project with no existing audience discovered that major distribution platforms systematically restrict new or low-karma accounts. Hacker News silently flagged a Show HN post without explanation, while Reddit's AutoMod and spam filters blocked submissions across multiple subreddits. On X, having zero followers meant the algorithm had no network to distribute the post through, resulting in virtually no views. The only platform that provided genuine engagement was dev.to, which imposes no account-age or karma requirements before publishing. The developer concluded that building platform history organically — through consistent participation rather than one-off promotional posts — is the only reliable path forward in the early weeks of a launch.
This is an AI-generated summary. ShortSingh links to the original source for the complete article.
Discussion (0)
Log in to join the discussion and vote.
Log in