We know it can be surprising (and even a little disheartening) to see your point count drop during a launch, especially when you’re rallying your community. But in the vast majority of cases, a dip in the numbers is actually a good sign, both for your launch and the integrity of our site.
Here’s why:
Product Hunt actively filters out inauthentic activity. This includes bot accounts, fake profiles, AI-generated actions, and any voting behavior that doesn’t match healthy, human community engagement. When our system detects something suspicious, it flags the activity for review, and our team steps in to manually confirm and remove anything that doesn’t meet our standards.
That means your launch isn’t being penalized – it’s being protected, along with all the other launches on our site.
If points are removed, it’s because they didn’t come from legitimate users. This ensures the leaderboard reflects real enthusiasm from real people, not artificial inflation.
We don’t disclose exactly how the system works (to prevent it from being gamed), but rest assured. If you’re seeing a drop, it means our systems are doing their job, and your post is getting the kind of authentic attention that actually matters.
For more tips on how to keep your launch healthy and engaging, check out our Community Guidelines, Commenting Guidelines, or Launch Guide.