[henryrobbins00]

Earnest question: any recommendation to not come off this way in forums?

I created this tool for my own research and have found it really helpful to benchmark different automated theorem provers (my experience so far has been that Claude Code + Codex still out-perform Leanstral). My genuine aim is to share that usefulness with others, not self promote!

[IanCal]

Self promotion is fine here typically, I’d say the main thing here is it sounds like a tv ad. Try X! And not in response to a question or stated problem.

Here’s a tip, imagine how you’d comment if this wasn’t your library but just one that you knew and used. Would you have commented at all? Would you explain why you’d use it, how, the direct and clear relevance to the article?

Take that and add in that it’s your library.

If you wouldn’t comment otherwise, you’re just advertising a thing where people are. If you would, you’re contributing to a conversation with something you built.

Oh and there’s lots of open source products that have most useful features paid saas or licensed, or it’s an oss library that only talks to a paid saas thing.

Edit - the other thing you can do is just call out the comment at the start as self promotion or a plug, I think your work is more directly relevant here and doesn’t need that but it’s another approach when it’s a bit more tangential. That’s better here than other communities.

[zuzululu]

I don't know why but sometime ago, HN started resembling reddit, and there seems to be just widespread fear/jealousy/cynicism towards anybody advertising their work or services even, I don't think there was anything wrong with your post, it was informative.

Probably the most annoying part about Reddit and HN and X (although it let you mute people) is the abundance of "expert" opinions from people who aren't experts at all. You just end up with a bunch of false signals that you shouldn't even be listening to.

all in all I say invest in spreading the words via other channels, maybe even X is better and even the right time zone (besides US working hours, I find European time the worst statistically for sharing your work).

[lioeters]

You know, I was going to reply to the person who called out your comment as an "ad", because I visited the site and it's actually relevant to the topic under discussion (Leanstral). And not even selling anything.

My thought was: Good job, this is tasteful personable marketing for a product with genuine value. I wish more marketing were done this way. So I think it's totally fine to be talking about the cool thing you're working on. I for one found it interesting and added to the discussion.

[nl]

I like this format:

"I love Lean because <abc>. I found it failed in <xyz> case because <123>. I created a thing <blah> which handles that like this: <ahhh>.

I'd love feedback! It's open source here: "

[morningsam]

This is how it's often done, but personally, I'd prefer if the information "With this comment I want to promote something I made" came first, so that people who aren't interested can skip it.

[dannyw]

Your comment is helpful, useful, and relevant. Please keep going.

Just my 2c, but maybe your original post could’ve been written in a less promotional / less excited way. It looked a little like spam at _first_ glance.