Unofficial guide to Indiehackers.com
Saw a recent IH post from a new member asking for advice about what they should know as a new member of Indie Hackers. The thread was useful so I took some of the good ideas and my own and wrote them up.
Provide value
Think 'how can I be useful to others?'. Dumping your link to your project is not super useful. Sharing your results of your marketing strategy with numbers and results about your project is much more useful. If you think something looks good, give specifics why. If you feel something could improve, give specifics.
Help others
Help others! Answer questions, provide advice/feedback. Community is shared experience. Jump into conversations when you think you have something to add.
Be Kind. Play nice
Most people are trying their best. We want to be honest, but positive. We don't want this community to turn into HackerNews 😉
Always include a link
This is the internet. We link things because that allows others to more easily find it, learn more, contribute. Talking about a book? Link it. A website? Link it. (See next point about mentions)
Use tags/mentions
If you are talking about someone's product or how awesome someone is, tag them. If there's someone specific you would like feedback/advice from, tag them in your post so they can see it. But don't expect them to reply.
Tell us what you already tried
If you don't want everyone to give ideas and recommendations that you have already tried, make it clear what you have done, what research you have done, what you tried.
Don't worry about someone 'stealing' your idea.
The benefits you get from talking openly and actively about your ideas almost always (99.999% of the time) outweighs the tiny risks that someone is going 'take' your idea. Everyone has ideas. Everyone thinks their own ideas is awesome. If you idea is so simple that someone else could take it and execute it at the same level you can, without your insights or preparation means you shouldn't be talking about your idea, you should be doing it. Don't require others to sign an NDA before you will talk to them.
The better the question, the better the answers.
Try and be very specific with your question. Asking for feedback is great but questions like "what do you think of my page", "would you buy this, etc" are not as useful. Provide context, and who is your market. Asking small business owners who have to schedule employees time off what they think of your page is much more valuable to you and the community than being general.
Use the search function.
A lot of questions have been asked already and repetition fatigue is a real problem on IH. Don't just use the site search, also just Google it. If you hope someone takes time to read and answer, take time to google it.
Remember to Vote
If you come across a good question, but do not know the answer yourself, remember to click vote. Voting helps ensure posts are seen by more people and can likely lead to a great response.
Official FAQ
https://www.indiehackers.com/about
Ideas for contribution
Document Indiehackers features. Similar to https://github.com/minimaxir/hacker-news-undocumented