[rantymcrant]

I'd like to see an analysis of the rise of self promotion on HN.

I define self promotion on HN as a "Show HN: I ..." post vs "Show HN: Something ..."

Examples from the top 100 right now

* "Show HN: Exploring HN by mapping and analyzing 40M posts and comments for fun"

* "Show HN: Browser-based knitting (pattern) software"

These are not self promotional titles. The subjects are the exploration and the software respectively.

* "Show HN: I built a non-linear UI for ChatGPT"

* "Show HN: I created 3,800+ Open Source React Icons"

These are self promotional titles. The subject of each is "I"

My own simple check just via algolia search results checking for titles that start with "Show HN: I" gave these results for years starting April 1st. Graphed divided by the total number of results for that year

    2023 ****************************************
    2022 ***********************************
    2021 ***************************
    2020 **************************************
    2019 *************************
    2018 *************
    2017 *******
    2016 **********
    2015 ********
    2014 ************
    2013 *********************
    2012 *****************
    2011 *********
    2010 ***

I feel like maybe I grew up in a time when generally, self promotion was considered a bad character trait. Your actions are supposed to be what promotes you, calling attention to them is not but I feel that culture is changing.

I wonder if the rise in self promotion (assuming there is a rise) has to do with social media etc...

I perceive a similar rise on Youtube but I have no data, just a feeling from the number of youtube recommendations for videos of "I....."

[Thorrez]

Your definition of self promotion is a bit different from what I usually think. I usually consider self promotion to be someone promoting something that that same person did. Both of your non-self-promotion examples would be self promotion under my definition.

So what you consider to be self promotion vs non-self-promotion, I consider to be self promotion with a title that very clearly indicates that vs self promotion with a title that less clearly indicates that. However, the "Show HN" phrase is only used for self promotion I think, so even without the "I", anyone familiar with the convention will know it's self promotion.

[rantymcrant]

> However, the "Show HN" phrase is only used for self promotion I think, so even without the "I", anyone familiar with the convention will know it's self promotion.

I think that's an extremely cynical view though a common one. I've never thought of "Show HN" as self promotion if it doesn't include "I" unless I go through to the actual product/library/post and find it full of self promotion. I agree with you that a post that doesn't include "I" can be self promotion but I don't think it always is even if the person made/worked on it.

"Show HN: XYZ and LLM library in rust" to me is informational. It's point is, more often than not, to inform people of something they might get use out of. I know that's true when I've posted something like that. It's meaning is "here's a useful resource that was just created". Sure I get pleasure from knowing I helped people with something but I'm not trying to promote myself, I'm trying to promote the library/post/info.

"Show HN: I made an LLM Library in rust" to me is self promotional. It might be useful to others but it's intent was clearly self promotion given the subject is "I", not the library/post/product.

[Thorrez]

>Show HN is for sharing your personal work and has special rules.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html

[madacol]

Interestingly, the special rules are more in favor of the more "self-promotionals" variants

> On topic: things people can run on their computers or hold in their hands. For hardware, you can post a video or detailed article. For books, a sample chapter is ok.

> Off topic: blog posts, sign-up pages, newsletters, lists, and other reading material. Those can't be tried out, so can't be Show HNs. Make a regular submission instead.

https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html

[satvikpendem]

Show HN is defined in the rules (as the sibling comment quotes) as something someone made to be shared, ie self promotion, regardless of whether they used "I" in the title. Your definition seems more arbitrary than what Hacker News itself intends.

[wodenokoto]

All show HN has to be created by the author, so I’m not sure what is self promoting about making the implicit explicit.

They are all “look, I made something cool, what do you think?”

[amitlevy49]

This is talked about a lot in Einstein's Walter Isaacson biography, so people have been observing this trend for a long time (e.g the Germans accusing Einstein of doing self promotion, the US having celebrity culture in contrast), maybe it's cyclical