Steemhunt Progress and Posting Guidelines Update

Over the past two weeks, it was a busy time for @steemhunt. Since our new SMT-based HUNT Platform announcement, the average posting count and daily hunter rewards have increased more than 300% and 150% each.

Fast growth always encourages us to improve our product and community. We think that this is the right time to update our Posting Guidelines in order to link the Steemhunt ranking board with our core concept - a community-generated leaderboard for “Cool New Products.”

So, today we want to share our new Posting Guidelines and details of how we came up with these updates.

Problems

After three months of operations, we discovered that the following issues could limit the opportunity to scale up our platform:

1. Tech products and unique items should not be included in the same ranking competitions.
2. Some products are not suitable for a global audience.
3. The standard for products to be considered cool and new is higher than expected.
4. There are too many hunting posts coming up, which decreases the opportunity for good hunts to be observed.
5. There are too many “not new and cool” games pouring into Steemhunt.

Solution - #1. Stricter Product Link

1. We won't accept any e-commerce sites such as Amazon, Ali Express, Ebay, etc.
2. Only four product links are valid: Official product website, Major app store link (AppStore, PlayStore, etc), Crowdfunding sites (Kickstarter, Indiegogo, etc), and Github, Bitbucket repositories for open source proejcts
3. Hunters must put up the official website as the main priority. If the product only has an app store or Kickstarter link, it is fine.
4. The official website must be written in proper English, and use modern website standards like HTML5. Older standards (like HTML 4 or Adobe flash) will be checked and may be hidden by moderators.

Solution - #2. Delete Unique Items Section

Although there are some great non-tech items that are hunted on Steemhunt, we observed that it is difficult for hunters to evaluate them with tech products together in a ranking board. So, we decided to focus on ONLY tech products at this moment. Here are the products that we will accept from now on.

• Web services
• Mobile apps
• API, IT solutions, bots, open sources or other types of software
• Tech gadgets, hardware, IoT/connected/wearable devices.
• Games

Solution - #3. Stricter “New Product” Rules

It is difficult to define whether a product is newly launched because the set period of time is subjective. For example, some people may think less than three months is considered newly launched. However, our moderators will ask if the product is widely considered to be “new product” (or substantially updated).

Solution - #4. Stricter “Cool Product” Rules

In Steemhunt, the coolness is decided by hunter’s upvotes. If many people think that a product is really cool, then the ranking is likely to be higher than other products. However, all products that are hunted in the first place should be somewhat cooler than other products. When a hunter decides to introduce the product to our community, it must not be a generic product. It should have some killer features that make people say “wow.”

Solution - #5. Separate Rules for Games

There are countless games worldwide, and many of them have narrow target customers. If we accept all new games in Steemhunt, our ranking board may be dominated by games. So, Steemhunt will only accept games that are:

• downloadable/purchasable from major app stores or console game markets
• run on their own website
• a game platform itself, rather than a single game inside the platform.

These specific types of games will not be acceptable:

• A single arcade game
• A single flash / HTML game
• A generic gambling game

So, here are our newly updated posting guidelines!

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Steemhunt Posting Guidelines

(You can find this document here - https://github.com/Steemhunt/web/blob/master/POSTING_GUIDELINES.md)

Steemhunt is a ranking community run by early-adopters who hunt "effortlessly cool products." Please follow these guidelines when making a post. If your post fails to follow these guidelines, it may be excluded from the ranking by the moderators.

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1. Post a "Product," not a "Business."

A business is larger and more vague than a product. For example, you may post a new Samsung Galaxy S9 phone - this is a product. You can’t post "Samsung" itself - this is a business. Also, you can’t post a local product. Steemhunt is a global community, so you should bring something that everyone can enjoy.

2. Types of Products to Post

Steemhunt generally covers unique IT or hardware products, including:

• Web services
• Mobile apps
• API, IT solutions, bots, open sources or other types of software
• Tech gadgets, hardware, IoT/connected/wearable devices
• Games

3. Product Link

We only accept these four product links:

1. Official product website
2. Major app store link (AppStore, PlayStore, etc)
3. Crowdfunding sites (Kickstarter, Indiegogo, etc)
4. Github, Bitbucket repositories for open source proejcts

We do not accept any other product links including e-commerce sites ( e.g. Amazon, ebay, etc.), affiliate marketing sites (e.g. Canopy, Awesome Invention, etc.), newspaper or blog articles, and social media posts, etc.

Also, hunters must put the official product website as a main priority. If you’ve listed an app store or Kickstarter link when the product has an official website, moderators can ask you to change it.

Lastly, the product link website must be written in proper English, and use modern website standards like HTML5. Older standards (like HTML 4 or Adobe flash) will be checked and may be hidden by moderators.

4. Language - English Only

Steemhunt runs a single ranking board globally, so please post and comment in English. The product website should also be in English.

5. Plagiarism and Copyrights

Write a short description and hunter’s comment with your own words. Do not copy and paste from the product’s website or other sites. You can however quote some content from a site, but you must use quotation marks and cite the source properly.

6. Post "New" Products

Steemhunt is about cool "new" products. Please make sure that your hunt is something recently introduced. If the product is not new, there must be a strong reason to post. For example, the product must be substantially updated or upgraded in a way that has a positive effect on users. Even though the set period of time to define whether it is newly launched is subjective, the moderators may ask if the product is widely considered to be a “new product” (or substantially updated).

7. Post “Cool” Products

In Steemhunt, the coolness is decided by hunter’s upvotes. If many people think that a product is really cool, then the ranking is likely to be higher than other products. However, all products that are hunted in the first place should be somewhat cooler than other products. When a hunter decides to introduce the product to our community, it must not be a generic product. It should have some killer features that make people say “wow.” If your product is considered to be ordinary, the moderators may hide your hunt.

8. Quality of the Post

As a hunter, you need to post a cool product with well-structured comments and screenshots so that the users can see the benefit of the product quickly without needing to check the products website. Your post will be hidden if you:

• use non-related words/descriptions about the product.
• attach non-related screenshot images or videos.
• attach low quality product images.
• share any scams or highly suspicious cryptocurrency/fin-tech products.
• share porn or anything under the #nsfw category.
• share illegal products.

9. No Duplication Allowed

Steemhunt does not allow the same product to be posted twice. The website automatically checks the URL, but it is still your responsibility to check that the product has not been posted earlier.

10. Games

There are countless games worldwide, and many of them have narrow target customers. If we accept all new games in Steemhunt, our ranking board may be dominated by games. So, Steemhunt will only accept games that are:

• downloadable/purchasable from major app stores or console game markets
• run on their own website
• a game platform itself, rather than a single game inside the platform.

These specific types of games will not be acceptable:

• A single arcade game
• A single flash / HTML game
• A generic gambling game

These posting guidelines were updated on June 1, 2018, and are being continuously developed by our community. Feel free to suggest any opinions on how to make Steemhunt a cooler ranking community. You can join our Discord Chat and make suggestions.