It's Christmas: I'm on the first page of HN!

I've released a book on Monday, called Building Your Mouseless Development Envrionment. If you want to know more about the story around it, I wrote about that yesterday in another post.

And now, I'm on the front page of HN and on the top of Show HN. So I decided to have a clickbait title for a very good reason: I have a story to tell, with, I believe, some things to learn.

Sorry if this post is in the wrong group, I wasn't sure where to put that. I believe the story is about personal growth, that's why. Sorry if it's too long, too, I'll try to be entertaining.

Once upon a time, when I was young and naive, I was posting every single blog post I was writing on HN.

Abruptly, I realized that nobody was seeing them for months. They blocked my blog, and I had no idea.

I reached to HN beginning of 2020. "Why did you block my blog?" I asked. I was angry. "Why is that? What did I do?".

A moderator answered. "The website was banned. Sorry! I fixed it!". Ah! What a mistake on their side! Me, Matthieu the Great, I could continue promoting like crazy my blog on HN! I deserved it, you know. I was Matthieu The Great! Everybody should read my content!

Six months later, the same moderator reached out to me, telling me really nicely that I was promoting myself too much, without sharing anything else, explaining precisely why it wasn't that good.

First, I was angry again. They refused to see my talents! They refused to let me promoting my important self! I almost answered something like the following:

"You, dear sir, don't know who you're talking with! I'm Matthieu The Great! I didn't do anything wrong! Why do you want to ban my blog again? I don't even sell anything on it! My heart is pure and you're an evil demon!".

But I stopped. I read the email again. Suddenly, I realized something: he was totally right.

There was something curious at the end of the email, too:

"Normally we remove submission privileges from accounts that post promotionally, but I don't want to do that in your case."

I understood that my ego was just some insecurity linked to a strong imposter syndrome. But this moderator saw some quality in my work, and I felt suddenly so thankful for that. I saw that he wasn't the demon, but I was.

I began to think about the life of a moderator on HN. How many promotional content they need to block every day? How many people in our world just try to promote their own persons without thinking about anything else? Did I want to be like that?

I apologized:

"Thanks for your email, and thanks to let me the submission privilege. You're right, I'll try to post other content I find interesting, and not always mine."

He answered me back, visibly surprised to have my apologies. I realized at that point how many angry emails he was probably receiving every day. I realized how hard it is to be moderator on a website like HN.

I empathized.

I almost totally stopped self-promoting on HN from that day on. I tried to bring more obscure and interesting content on the platform.

But with the book I was writing, I made the same mistake again: I posted the landing page (with only a newsletter form at that point) and it was blocked directly. I understood why: I let my enthusiasm going wild, and I didn't think about the possible consequences. I didn't say anything, didn't complain, and continued writing the book.

Fast-forward yesterday: I sent an email to the same moderator, asking if I could post my landing page. I wasn't sure if it was too much self-promotion, since there was now a sample of the book available and a video explaining a bit what I was talking about. I admitted up front that this landing page has been already blocked once.

His answer was really useful. He explained that the first post of my landing page was blocked because it had no value. Now that it included a sample of the book and a video, it was much better. He advised me for the title and the first comment I could write on HN. I was flabbergasted (this is my favorite word in English :D).

I followed his advice and posted on HN. This morning felt like Christmas when I was little: dopamine all over my brain. I was on the first page of HN, first on Show HN, all of that thanks to the same HN moderator. He put me on the front page because, unlike many others I guess, I really tried to understand his point of view. I'm so grateful to be in contact with such an helpful person, and I'm so grateful I saw, not too late, how horrible I was.

The conclusion of the story: respect the moderators and the platforms you're on. Empathize and be grateful they are there. They don't owe you anything. You are on their platform, and you should respect their rules.

I believe this is true as well for Indie Hackers. A big shout out to @rosiesherry for her amazing work. Without her, Indie Hackers wouldn't be the community I'm so happy to be part of.

EDIT: and thanks to @csallen and @channingallen, everybody involved in Indie Hackers, and all the community for creating this special place :)