ShowGuard – pre-flight and appeal helper for Show HN

Helps indie devs avoid common Show HN flags and gives a clear appeal path when flagged

Problem

A developer posted a Show HN, hit 16 points within an hour, then got flagged with no explanation and had to ask the community how to fix it. Such posts recur on HN, showing that posters lack a tool to check titles, links, account history, and rule fit before submitting, and have no clear post-flag playbook.

Solution

Before posting, enter your title, URL, blurb, and account history; the tool scores flag risk against HN rules and historical cases and suggests edits. After a flag, generate an appeal note and timeline from a checklist, plus recommend better channels such as relevant subreddits, V2EX, or Product Hunt.

Users

Indie developers preparing Show HN, open-source authors, Product Hunt launchers

MVP

Rule base covering title format, self-promotion, URL domain, account age, and karma; output risk level and 3-5 actionable edits; appeal template for flagged posts; record each launch outcome to improve rules; no crawling, users paste info manually.

Revenue

Free basic checks; premium per-use or subscription unlocks appeal templates and channel recommendations; batch API billing for accelerators and incubators.

Why now

Show HN is one of the most important launch channels for indie devs, but rules are opaque and flags are costly; a rule engine plus light LLM work is enough, and indie devs are the target users themselves.