[alexeichemenda]

> But if you are promoting to people who are your friends or are already fans of your product per the original quote, they are not necessarily unbiased and are not necessarily voting on the merit of the product itself.

Their article states : "It is perfectly fine, however, to promote your Product Hunt page on your groups, forums, internal communications [...] community to the featuring on ProductHunt, but don’t encourage them to vote one way or another."

They are not including "friends" in there. And when it comes to people who are already fans of your product, no - they're not unbiased. But that's the thing : they tried the product, and loved it. Which is exactly how word of mouth works in real life. You try a product, you love it, and you tell you friends about it. And that's the whole point of PH : surfacing great products.