Build log · 16 July 2026

I launched on three platforms. Two removed me.

Yesterday I launched SignalRoute on three platforms in one day. Here is exactly what happened, with nothing rounded up.

Reddit removed me. Twice.

I posted a free tool to r/SideProject. No signup, no payment, nothing gated. The post was removed by Reddit's filters within a minute. I rewrote it and posted again. Removed again.

Right underneath my removed post, someone else's launch post sat there, live and fine. Same subreddit, same kind of content, same day.

Hacker News killed my comment

The Show HN submission itself went up. But the comment underneath — the one where I explained what the tool does and openly admitted its biggest limitation — was auto-killed. Dead. Invisible to anyone who hasn't turned on showdead in their settings.

That comment had no links and no marketing. It said the scoring was crude and asked people to tell me if it was too crude to be useful.

Product Hunt just ignored me

The listing was complete: gallery, description, maker comment, the lot. It went live at 8am and sat there all day. One follower. No organic discovery at all.

The reason wasn't my content

I assumed I'd written something bad. I hadn't. The reason was sitting in my profile the whole time.

One karma. That's my entire Hacker News history. My Reddit account is about the same. Both accounts are new and have never contributed anything.

Every one of those platforms automatically suppresses accounts with no history. Not because of what I posted — because of who posted it. I was a stranger, and to an anti-spam filter a stranger with a link looks exactly like a spammer. They're not wrong to do it. It's the only thing standing between those communities and an infinite tide of marketing.

What actually worked the same week

While all that was failing, I sent 26 cold emails. Every single one arrived. One bounced — an address that turned out to be a closed internal group. That's it.

No filter. No karma check. No gatekeeper. Cold email doesn't care who you are. Communities do, and they should.

The order I got wrong

You earn standing first, then you post. I did it backwards, which is why I spent a launch day arguing with spam filters instead of talking to people.

So the plan changed. For the next two weeks I'm not posting links anywhere. I'm commenting — answering questions I actually know the answer to, on threads where I have something specific to add. No product mentions. The bio does the selling.

Then, when there's a reason for a platform to believe I'm a person rather than a campaign, I'll post again.

What this cost

One day. Which is cheap compared to the founders who conclude their product is bad when actually their account is just new.

If you're about to launch something: go and look at your karma first. If it's near zero, your launch is already over. Spend two weeks being useful, then launch.

I'll post what happens either way.