I stopped hunting for AI tags and pick the board whose hunters already buy tools like mine

For a while my launch filter was dumb. Search "AI." Sort by traffic. Submit. Hope the tag did the selling.

It did not. AI tags are crowded, loud, and full of people browsing demos they will never pay for. I wasted a few Mondays ranking fine next to chat wrappers while the buyers I actually wanted were somewhere quieter, looking for the category my tool sits in — reporting, billing, ops, whatever the job is when you strip the model name off.

Now I pick boards by hunter behavior, not by the word in the category chip.

Before I put something on IndieHunt, I scroll last month's winners. Not the titles. The commenters. Are they asking about pricing and workflows, or are they arguing about which model is cooler? Are the upvoters other founders with products in adjacent categories, or drive-by badge collectors? If the thread energy is "show me the invoice," I belong there. If it is "which LLM," I probably do not — even if my product uses one under the hood.

Same screen when I browse Product Hunt Alternatives. I am not hunting the biggest AI room. I am hunting the room where people already buy tools that look like mine. A smaller weekly board with paying operators beats a huge AI shelf where everyone is demo-curious and wallet-closed.

I still mention the model if someone asks. I just refuse to let the tag choose the audience for me. The product is the job. The model is an implementation detail. Launch rooms that forget that will train you to market the wrong thing.

Last time you picked a board, did you follow the AI tag — or did you follow where people like your buyers already hang out?