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What I should've said from the beginning: I respect your opinion and (mostly) disagree, although I'll add my linkedIn link to the site to address anonymity concerns. I appreciate you taking the time to comment and hope you have a great day!

You can disagree (with what though?) but that doesn't really change anything: You have that website, but no one is gonna use it because there are thousands of better, more populated alternatives. HN is not the right place to jumpstart this, no one here is interested in an empty website. You'd have to put some big bucks into marketing, like all your competitors do.

I'm not just being a dick here; mostly a dick, but also realistic.

> You have that website, but no one is gonna use it because there are thousands of better, more populated alternatives

Might be true, don't know until we test, get feedback, iterate, etc.

> mostly a dick

On that I'll agree ;) realistic part is relative - you're also just guessing what 'people' want and assume everyone is like you. Based on the above assertion I hope not. Time may prove you right or wrong - no harm in testing an idea.

Hi elpocko, appreciate the feedback!

> If I wanted to find people to work with, I'd go where those people are: one of the many more or less specialized social networks

Curious about this - do you have an example? If I want to build a site related to music and am looking for someone to build with on the technical side, are you saying you'd find a developer on a music forum? I think it depends on goals here.

> I wouldn't sign up to some empty website with one active user, which is the site's anonymous owner, who also happens to be a self-promoter on HN

Wait - isn't this the point of Show HN? You sound upset but I'm not even selling anything, just sharing what I built since as you said this is currently an "empty website" :) didn't realize anonymity was an issue..I'll have to see if this is a general concern.

Please refer to the Show HN guidance when commenting:

"Be respectful. Anyone sharing work is making a contribution, however modest.

Ask questions out of curiosity. Don't cross-examine.

Instead of "you're doing it wrong", suggest alternatives. When someone is learning, help them learn more.

When something isn't good, you needn't pretend that it is, but don't be gratuitously negative."

This is a free site I'm building in my free time so be gentle :)

You've posted nothing but self-promotion so far. You don't get to throw the rulebook at me.

>If I want to build a site related to music and am looking for someone to build with on the technical side, are you saying you'd find a developer on a music forum?

I'm gonna find a developer on an actual active social network where you can find developers, not on an empty site with no users. You don't have to take this personally, it's just the reality of things. You're up against reddit, LinkedIn, X, and countless other social networks. No one is gonna use yours unless you have something unique to offer that no one else has.

> You're up against reddit, LinkedIn, X, and countless other social networks. No one is gonna use yours unless you have something unique to offer that no one else has.

Thanks, that's useful feedback. My thought here is that it'd be easier to find partners on a purpose-driven site dedicated to side projects than posting "who wants to work on X" on linkedIn or similar where contacts may not be devs or people interested in side projects. I see your point too - I think the best way to see is to do a little more promotion, see if it's useful to people, and throw it away if not (or keep it as a keepsake for myself). Let me know if you have any other thoughts here though.

> You've posted nothing but self-promotion so far

I'm so confused. Tbh this is my first Show HN post so if I broke some rule, by all means let me know. But isn't the point of Show HN to show what you built? Lol what am I doing wrong?

> not on an empty site with no users

I know my site is empty, it's an MVP I just brought to a state where I feel comfortable sharing. If the feedback here is to "get more users so your site isn't empty", I totally agree. Hence the post.

You made 4 submissions, all of them are self-promotion. Read the rules that you quoted from.

You made this post not because you wanted to share something interesting; you made it because you want users. But your forum website has no value proposition, so you won't get any users. Anyone could create and host that kind of site now, for any topic and they could do it for free. No one does though for obvious reasons. I'm sorry if that offends you.

It doesn't offend me, I'm just not sure if you're trolling me or not haha. This is one of the more bizarre threads I've seen. I don't have a forum website. It's a site to post projects. You're right, I do want users. That's why I posted. Please reread the above. This is a free site. I'm paying for it out of pocket. I'm working on it in my own time on the side. I want users AND I think it's interesting. If people find it interesting they'll use it, if not they won't. No tricking, but you have to make users aware of your site to validate or invalidate the idea.

> Anyone could create and host that kind of site now, for any topic and they could do it for free. No one does though for obvious reasons.

You're implying that any site that could be created and isn't, is because they're all bad ideas. I disagree. It might be in this case, but the idea that you shouldn't test ideas is wrong.

It's bizarre because you didn't expect to receive pushback for your self-promotion?

Show HN is for interesting things. "I made this forum about 'projects' and now I want users." is not interesting. There is nothing to discuss here. Post something that isn't about you for a change.