{
  "id": 57,
  "slug": "claude-brief-10a-venues",
  "kind": "research",
  "name": "brief-10a-venues",
  "summary": null,
  "body_md": "# Build-in-public venues 2026: is anyone actually reading?\n\nResearch brief, 6 September 2026. Hypothesis under test: **\"people try to build in public, but nobody reads.\"**\n\nMethod: 51 web searches; direct scrapes of Indie Hackers front page, WIP.co feed (plus 56 individual todo comment endpoints), Reddit RSS for r/buildinpublic, r/SideProject and r/indiehackers (100 newest posts each, plus per-post comment RSS for 29 posts), and the Hacker News Algolia API for every Show HN in Aug 5–Sep 4 of 2025 and 2026. Reddit's HTML/JSON and X pages are blocked from this environment, so subscriber counts come from third-party trackers (GummySearch, Reddiscope) and post samples from Reddit's RSS. \"Estimate\" is flagged wherever a number is mine or a third party's model rather than a platform-reported figure. Numbers older than 2025 are marked with the year.\n\n---\n\n## 1. Venue map\n\n| Venue | URL | Type | Runs it | Founded | Size / activity (with source) | Trend 2025→2026 | Price |\n|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|\n| Indie Hackers | https://www.indiehackers.com | Forum + interviews + newsletter | Courtland & Channing Allen; independent again after Stripe (acquired 2017, spun out 2023 \"from $0 MRR\") ([Changelog](https://changelog.com/news/indie-hackers-is-indie-again-Qpro), [TechCrunch 2017](https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/11/stripe-acquires-indie-hackers-a-knowledge-sharing-community-for-entrepreneurs)) | 2016 | Front page 6 Sep 2026 (my scrape): 30 listed posts, community posts run 2–35 upvotes / 0–65 comments; staff interview posts 33–142 upvotes / 17–94 comments. Third-party claims: \"140K registered, 165K+ newsletter subs\" ([Vibe Content Creation, 2026](https://www.vibecontentcreation.com/blog/indie-hacker-communities-where-solo-founders-hang-out)); \"~300K monthly\" ([Firsto, unverified](https://firsto.co/blog/indie-hackers-alternatives-2026)). No official figures found. | Flat-to-declining as a forum (\"daily activity has thinned since Stripe spun it out in 2023\" — [Profitable Founder](https://www.profitablefounder.xyz/blog/indie-hackers-alternatives)); still \"the largest dedicated indie hacker community\" ([same source](https://www.profitablefounder.xyz/blog/best-indie-hacker-communities)). Community itself flagged AI-generated comments in Jan 2026 (26 likes/46 comments) ([IH post](https://www.indiehackers.com/post/whats-the-point-of-ai-generated-comments-6d92489cd9)). | Free; IH+ paid tier (price not found) |\n| WIP.co | https://wip.co | Feed (todos/streaks) + forum | Marc Köhlbrugge | 2017 (est.) | Homepage counter: **3,765 makers** (scraped 6 Sep 2026) — the identical figure the founder quoted in Sep 2022 ([WIP post](https://wip.co/posts/wip-is-now-invite-only-and-free-c9wkua)), so the counter appears static. Founder-disclosed: ~$2,000 MRR and 3 signups/month (Sep 2022); ~$1,000 MRR (Aug 2024) ([WIP post](https://wip.co/posts/discontinuing-free-plans-for-new-wip-members-tbahrf)). My scrape: 20 feed items in ~11 h ≈ **40–80 todos/day (estimate)**; **0 of 56 sampled todos had any reply**. Forum posts: 1–6 replies each. | Flat/declining. Pricing has flip-flopped: paid → free invite-only (2022) → paid-only for new members (2024). A Dec 2024 review: \"everyone is shouting into the void\" ([ilikekillnerds](https://ilikekillnerds.com/2024/12/15/my-experience-with-wip-co-a-maker-community-thats-missing-the-community/)). | $29/mo or $199/yr, 1-month trial; invite-only |\n| buildinpublic.so | https://www.buildinpublic.so | Tooling + SEO blog, not a community | \"@shiploud\" (individual; no company info) | c. 2025–26 | No member/traffic numbers published. Site sells Dev Cards (commits→posts), an AI ghostwriter, campaign planner ([2026 guide](https://www.buildinpublic.so/blog/build-in-public)). | New; not a venue with readers | Not found |\n| Foundra | https://www.foundra.ai | Startup-validation SaaS, not a community | Not disclosed | c. 2025–26 | No feed, no member counts. Has a \"Launch Radar\" page and SEO content on VCs/accelerators. | Newcomer; not a BIP venue | $39/mo |\n| build-in-public.net | https://build-in-public.net | Feed/directory (projects, updates, leaderboard) | Not disclosed | Not found | No member or post counts shown ([site](https://build-in-public.net/)). | Newcomer; size not found | Free |\n| r/buildinpublic | https://www.reddit.com/r/buildinpublic | Subreddit | Volunteer mods | 2020 (est.) | **115K members**, +94K in 12 months (+441% YoY) ([GummySearch, 27 Aug 2026](https://gummysearch.com/r/buildinpublic/)); avg **3 upvotes / 3 comments per post**, 73% self-promo, health 61/100 ([Reddiscope](https://reddiscope.com/r/buildinpublic)). My RSS scrape: 100 newest posts in 34.3 h ≈ **70 posts/day (estimate)**. Sep 2024 third-party figure was ~30K ([Vibe Content Creation](https://www.vibecontentcreation.com/blog/indie-hacker-communities-where-solo-founders-hang-out)). | Growing fast in members; engagement per post very low | Free |\n| r/SideProject | https://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject | Subreddit | Volunteer mods | 2013 | **829K members**, +346K in 12 months (+72% YoY) ([GummySearch, 4 Sep 2026](https://gummysearch.com/r/SideProject/)); avg **6 comments / 18 interactions per post**, 89% self-promo, health 84/100 ([Reddiscope](https://reddiscope.com/r/SideProject)). My RSS scrape: 100 newest posts in 7.9 h ≈ **300 posts/day (estimate)**. | Growing (628K → 829K in roughly a year per two trackers) | Free |\n| r/indiehackers | https://www.reddit.com/r/indiehackers | Subreddit | Volunteer mods | 2016 (est.) | **191K members**, +82K (+75% YoY) ([GummySearch, 2 Sep 2026](https://gummysearch.com/r/indiehackers/)); avg **79 comments / 21 upvotes per post**, 76% self-promo ([Reddiscope](https://reddiscope.com/r/indiehackers)). My RSS scrape: only 100 posts between 17 Jul and 6 Sep 2026 ≈ **2 posts/day (estimate)** — consistent with heavy moderation/approval; each post gets 18–126 comments (see §2). 2024 third-party figure: ~20K ([laike9m, 2024](https://laike9m.com/blog/no-one-builds-in-public,160/)). | Growing members; low volume, high depth | Free |\n| #buildinpublic on X | https://x.com/hashtag/buildinpublic | Hashtag | X | 2019–20 (popularised by KP) | No independent volume data found. One vendor claims \"500K+ posts per month\" (AutoTweet, Mar 2026, promotional, unverified) ([AutoTweet](https://www.autotweet.io/blog/build-in-public-on-x-twitter-2026)). Follower reach on X: \"Tweets don't get no reach no more… fickle af\" ([Jason Leow, Jun 2024](https://jasonleow.substack.com/p/building-in-public-is-dead-and-its)); 1–2 hashtags ≈ +21% engagement, 3+ costs ~17% ([Graham Mann, 2026](https://grahammann.net/blog/how-to-grow-on-x-twitter-2026)). | Volume: not found. Reach per post: widely reported as down. | Free (X Premium for reach) |\n| X Communities: \"Build in Public\" | https://x.com/i/communities/1493446837214187523 | X Community | Community mods (creator not verified; X blocks fetch) | 2022 | **~255K members** (search-result title, Sep 2026); was 33.3K in Sep 2024 ([laike9m](https://laike9m.com/blog/no-one-builds-in-public,160/)). Sibling communities: \"build in public\" 22.3K, \"Build in Public 3.0\" 7.2K, \"Build In Public – SaaS\" 392, \"Build in Public – INDIA\" 469, \"Build In Public Fund\" 71 ([x.com search titles](https://x.com/i/communities/2025393333086916724)). | Growing ~7x in two years; reply/read data not found | Free |\n| Bluesky BIP | https://blueskystarterpack.com/indie-hackers | Starter packs + feeds | Users | 2024 | \"68+ Indie Hackers starter packs\" ([blueskystarterpack, Sep 2026](https://blueskystarterpack.com/indie-hackers)). One 7-day A/B: Bluesky 10 new followers / 15 post interactions vs X 6 / 11 ([IH post](https://www.indiehackers.com/post/bluesky-vs-x-my-7-day-experiment-eef3bc5fba)). | Small, flat | Free |\n| Threads BIP | https://www.threads.net | Hashtag/topic | Meta | 2023 | No BIP-specific numbers found. | Not found | Free |\n| LinkedIn BIP | https://www.linkedin.com | Feed | Microsoft | — | No BIP-specific volume. Platform-wide: follower-first reach fell \"from 40–60% pre-2025 to 10–20%\" — most impressions now come from non-followers; personal profiles get 2.75x impressions vs company pages ([GrowedIn, Apr 2026](https://www.growedin.com/blog/spring26)). 70-founder dataset: \"LinkedIn and X produced almost nothing while one small, extremely targeted subreddit produced all the traction\" ([Lead-Scorer, 2026](https://lead-scorer.com/blog/how-founders-get-first-customers-2026)). | Reach reshuffled to strangers (good for BIP readers, bad for followers) | Free |\n| Hacker News – Show HN | https://news.ycombinator.com/show | Feed | Y Combinator | 2007 (Show HN ~2013) | **My Algolia pull, Aug 5–Sep 4 2026: 3,659 Show HN posts = 122/day** (vs 2,485 = 83/day same window 2025). Median 2 points, **median 0 comments; 63.9% get zero comments**; 4.5% get ≥10 comments; 2.6% reach ≥50 points ([Algolia API](https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search_by_date?tags=show_hn)). | Volume +47% YoY; share reaching ≥10 comments fell 5.6% → 4.5% | Free |\n| Product Hunt (launches + Forums) | https://www.producthunt.com/forums | Launch board + forums | Product Hunt (CEO Rajiv Ayyangar; 60% layoffs Oct 2023 — [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2023/10/19/product-hunt-cleans-house-with-layoffs-impacting-60-of-staff/)) | 2013 (forums 2024) | Forums, 6 Sep 2026: ~3–4 threads/day, 1–34 replies, 2–62 upvotes (my fetch of [/forums](https://www.producthunt.com/forums)). A \"How would I approach PH in 2026\" thread: 459 views, 37 upvotes, 22 comments ([PH](https://www.producthunt.com/p/producthunt/how-would-i-approach-product-hunt-in-2026)). Third-party: \"no longer a distribution channel… 24–48h spike, then near-zero\" ([Vibe Content Creation](https://www.vibecontentcreation.com/blog/indie-hacker-communities-where-solo-founders-hang-out)). | Flat; ranking \"increasingly rewards comments over raw upvotes\" ([LaunchList](https://getlaunchlist.com/blog/how-to-launch-on-product-hunt-2026)) | Free |\n| Peerlist Launchpad | https://peerlist.io/launchpad | Weekly launch board + profiles | Peerlist (Akash Bhadange), VC-backed | 2021 (Launchpad 2023) | Week 36 2026 page showed \"Become the first project to launch this week!\" on Sunday, i.e. zero launches yet ([Peerlist](https://peerlist.io/launchpad/2026/week/36)); leaderboard page rendered without totals. Reviews decline to quote traffic: \"will not automatically generate thousands of users\" ([Noonlaunch, Jul 2026](https://noonlaunch.com/blog/peerlist-review)). | Alive; size not found | Free (ads custom) |\n| Polywork | https://www.polywork.com | Professional network (BIP-adjacent) | Peter Johnston | 2020 | Raised $13M (2022); **shut down 31 Jan 2025**; \"couldn't achieve critical mass\" ([Substack postmortem](https://promptledproduct.substack.com/p/what-happened-to-polywork-an-eye), [founder tweet](https://x.com/multiplay3r/status/1873859669065978327)). Domain now unreachable (my check: connection refused). | **Dead** | — |\n| Makerlog | https://getmakerlog.com | Feed (task log, Sergio Mattei) | — | 2018 | getmakerlog.com now redirects to ambitiousfounder.com, Josh Manders' personal blog (my check, 6 Sep 2026). No shutdown post found; last listings are stale ([Hive Index](https://thehiveindex.com/communities/makerlog/)). | **Dead** (domain repurposed) | — |\n| Buildspace | https://buildspace.so | Cohort program + Discord | Farza Majeed; $10M from a16z | 2020 | Site now reads \"hi. this was buildspace… ty for the memories\" ([buildspace.so](https://buildspace.so/)). Closed Aug 24 2024; 30K+ joined N&W, 3,000+ shipped, $100M valuation ([The Runway](https://www.therunway.ventures/p/buildspace)). Discord fate: not found. | **Dead** | — |\n| Launch House | https://launchhouse.com | Residency + Discord → now \"Launch House Ventures\" | Brett Goldstein, Michael Houck, Jacob Peters | 2020 | Misconduct allegations Sep–Oct 2022 ([TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/24/launch-house-splits-with-law-firm-conducting-its-harassment-investigation/)); Goldstein: \"just about 1 year ago, I shut down launch house in LA\" (Apr 2024 tweet) ([X](https://x.com/thatguybg/status/1779536731722641517)). Domain now a VC-fund page. | **Dead as a community** | — |\n| Indie Hackers Discord | https://discord.com/invite/d3R5ynFMgr | Discord | Community-run (creator \"lscpu01\"), **not official** ([top.gg](https://top.gg/discord/servers/761884876944441344)) | ~2020 | Member count: not found (listing pages hide it). | Not found | Free |\n| Indie Worldwide | https://indieworldwide.com | Paid Slack club + events | Anthony Castrio → sold Apr 2024 to Ramen Club (Charlie Ward) for ~1x annual revenue, \"5-figure\" ([Castrio Substack](https://anthonycastrio.substack.com/p/i-sold-two-startups-in-two-weeks)) | 2019 | Peak ~3,000 members (2022, [Wizen Guides](https://wizenguides.com/how-to-build-an-online-community/case-study-anthony-castrio-built-indie-worldwide-to-3-000-members-in-3-years.)). Domain now 302s to ramenclub.com (my check). Ramen Club: **400+ founders**, £25/mo or £170 lifetime ([ramenclub.com](https://ramenclub.com/)). | **Absorbed** | £25/mo (Ramen Club) |\n| Small Bets | https://dvassallo.gumroad.com/l/small-bets | Paid Discord club | Daniel Vassallo; **sold to Gumroad Apr 2025 for $3.6M** ([Vassallo tweet](https://x.com/dvassallo/status/1912506861552869409)) | Nov 2021 | 4,500+ members, ~$400K/yr (2024, [Community Inc](https://community.inc/article/small-bets)); 7,727 members (2026, [Profitable Founder](https://www.profitablefounder.xyz/blog/indie-hackers-alternatives)). | Growing; price raised $99 → **$450 lifetime** (Oct 2025) ([Vassallo tweet](https://x.com/dvassallo/status/1973030892307407167)) | $450 lifetime |\n| MegaMaker Club | https://megamaker.co | Paid Slack | Justin Jackson | 2013 | **833 members**, \"800+ lifetime members\" ([megamaker.co](https://megamaker.co/)). | Flat (small, stable) | Pay-once lifetime (price not on page) |\n| Hampton | https://joinhampton.com | Paid vetted founder network | Sam Parr | 2022 | **1,000+ members, 13 cities**; requires ~$3M revenue/funding or $10M exit ([Inc., Jan 2026](https://www.inc.com/cara-cannella/inside-hampton-sam-parrs-bootstrapped-solution-to-the-founder-loneliness-epidemic/91284896)). Not a BIP venue — explicitly private. | Growing | $15,000/yr |\n| MicroConf Connect | https://microconf.com/connect | Paid Slack | Rob Walling / MicroConf | 2020 | \"thousands\" (no number) ([Vibe Content Creation](https://www.vibecontentcreation.com/blog/indie-hacker-communities-where-solo-founders-hang-out)) | Not found | $49/mo or $499/yr ([Profitable Founder](https://www.profitablefounder.xyz/blog/indie-hackers-alternatives)) |\n| ShipFast Discord | https://shipfa.st | Paid product Discord | Marc Lou | 2023 | \"6,000+ product launches\" claimed ([Vibe Content Creation](https://www.vibecontentcreation.com/blog/indie-hacker-communities-where-solo-founders-hang-out)) | Alive | $199 (with product) |\n| 2025–26 newcomers | r/vibecoding; vibers.so; Buildlist; Firsto; Claude Developers Discord | Subreddit / feeds / launch boards | Various | 2025–26 | r/vibecoding \"growing rapidly\"; Claude Developers Discord 61.8K ([Vibe Content Creation](https://www.vibecontentcreation.com/blog/indie-hacker-communities-where-solo-founders-hang-out)); vibers.so \"100+ members in 3 weeks\" (WIP post, Sep 2026, [wip.co/posts](https://wip.co/posts)); Buildlist $19/$49 one-time ([buildlist.io](https://buildlist.io/compare/peerlist-alternative)). | The energy has moved to AI/vibe-coding-branded spaces | Mostly free |\n\nNot found anywhere: official MAU for Indie Hackers, WIP, Peerlist; official #buildinpublic post volume; Indie Hackers Discord size; Threads BIP volume.\n\n---\n\n## 2. Reader evidence for the five living venues\n\nSampling rule: newest posts old enough to have had ~a day to collect replies; counts are replies (comments), distinct non-OP commenters where I could compute it, and upvotes where the platform exposes them. All samples were taken 6 Sep 2026.\n\n### 2a. r/SideProject (829K members, ~300 posts/day est.)\nTen posts aged 5–8 hours, via post RSS:\n\n| Post | Comments | Distinct non-OP commenters |\n|---|---|---|\n| \"I wanna try your SaaS and become a paid user\" | 10 | 9 |\n| \"I built a workout tracker for the few friends…\" | 3 | 2 |\n| \"I built Turing AI OS…\" | 3 | 2 |\n| \"120 Yes/No gut-check dilemmas\" | 2 | 1 |\n| \"Music and Radio Player…\" | 1 | 0 |\n| \"I just open source my project that has ~50k downloads\" | 1 | 1 |\n| \"What if social media was actually built with its users?\" | 1 | 0 |\n| \"[Showcase] MesaOS…\" | 0 | 0 |\n| \"Made something for couples…\" | 0 | 0 |\n| (one fetch failed) | — | — |\n\nMedian 1.5 comments at ~6 h; tracker 30-day average 6 comments / 18 interactions per post ([Reddiscope](https://reddiscope.com/r/SideProject)). Readers vs posters: 89.3% of posts are self-promotion ([same](https://reddiscope.com/r/SideProject)), and the post that drew the most replies was itself a \"let me try your SaaS\" offer — i.e. posters replying to posters. Posters-vs-readers ratio: 300 posts/day against 829K subscribers means **≈0.04% of members post on a given day (estimate)**; the other 99.96% are, at most, readers. The upside case exists: one founder reports 47,000 visitors in 24 h from a single r/InternetIsBeautiful post vs 2,000 from r/Entrepreneur — general-interest subs out-deliver founder subs ~23:1 ([Draper, Jun 2026](https://draper.chat/blog/solo-founders-first-100-customers-2026)).\n\n### 2b. r/indiehackers (191K members, ~2 approved posts/day est.)\nNine posts aged 3–10 days:\n\n| Post | Comments | Distinct non-OP commenters |\n|---|---|---|\n| \"are we really moving fast with AI coding or sacrificing on the quality?\" | 126 | 64 |\n| \"Two weeks ago I asked for feedback on Scinta…\" | 114 | 49 |\n| \"4 months in: 43 paying users, $1,247 MRR\" | 95 | 51 |\n| \"16 conversations with indie AI builders later…\" | 91 | 39 |\n| \"Most startup directories are useless for traffic\" | 37 | 25 |\n| \"I built an AI-powered social listening tool…\" | 30 | 18 |\n| \"Need 12 Android testers…\" | 24 | 13 |\n| \"Marketing with creators shouldn't be this annoying\" | 18 | 15 |\n| (two fetches failed) | — | — |\n\nMedian ~64 comments, ~32 distinct commenters. This matches the tracker's 79 comments/post ([Reddiscope](https://reddiscope.com/r/indiehackers)). The mechanism is scarcity: the sub lets through only ~2 posts/day (the \"hot\" RSS of 100 spans Dec 2025–Sep 2026), so each one gets the whole sub's attention. Caveat: a May 2026 piece says \"r/SaaS, r/micro_saas, and r/sideproject are almost entirely consumed by AI comments\" ([MentionKit](https://mentionkit.com/articles/ai-slop-reddit)) — the 49–64 distinct commenters cannot be verified as human from RSS.\n\n### 2c. r/buildinpublic (115K members, ~70 posts/day est.)\nNine posts aged 20–29 hours:\n\n| Post | Comments | Distinct non-OP |\n|---|---|---|\n| \"I am building a global experiment !!!\" | 18 | 6 |\n| \"First reddit post\" | 16 | 8 |\n| \"Got 700+ visitors in one day but made $0, what am I doing wrong?\" | 5 | 5 |\n| \"someone actually paid for the dumbest idea…\" | 2 | 1 |\n| \"I made 3 SiteDuel matches free every day…\" | 0 | 0 |\n| \"How I pick the next listen in under 10 minutes\" | 0 | 0 |\n| \"The hardest part of building an offline plant ID app\" | 0 | 0 |\n| \"Nexora is officially in review…\" | 0 | 0 |\n| \"Building a managed human ops layer…\" | 0 | 0 |\n\n**Median 0 comments; 5 of 9 posts had none after a full day.** Tracker average 3 comments / 3 upvotes ([Reddiscope](https://reddiscope.com/r/buildinpublic)). The sub quadrupled in members in a year while per-post engagement stayed near zero — the clearest \"void\" in the dataset.\n\n### 2d. Indie Hackers (indiehackers.com)\nFront page, 6 Sep 2026 (my scrape of 30 entries). Community-authored posts:\n\n| Post | Upvotes | Comments |\n|---|---|---|\n| \"I built an AI fitness app solo, got banned from Reddit, flopped on PH…\" | 29 | 65 |\n| \"How do you know whether low traction is a product problem or a distribution problem?\" | 23 | 63 |\n| \"80+ people used a feature I never announced\" | 35 | 50 |\n| \"I'm building a runtime governance layer for AI agents\" | 6 | 27 |\n| \"Built an AI cofounder that remembers my startup's context\" | 24 | 15 |\n| \"I'm an AI CEO running a company to $1M MRR. Day 3, revenue: $0\" | 3 | 15 |\n| \"B2B SaaS OS: I kept rebuilding the same…\" | 3 | 13 |\n| \"I built my first app and discovered that getting people to see it might be harder than building it\" | 9 | 12 |\n| \"Flouie: Please roast my landing page\" | 22 | 9 |\n| \"When should an AI product show disagreement?\" | 4 | 7 |\n| \"Launch Nest LN: Get Your Product Featured — Top 5 Spots FREE\" | 31 | 0 |\n\nStaff interviews (author \"IndieJames\") do 33–142 upvotes and 17–94 comments. Comments-per-upvote is unusually high (often >2:1), which is the pattern the community itself flagged in January: \"many comments followed an identical formula: compliment + summary of lessons\" — 26 likes, 46 comments on that complaint ([IH](https://www.indiehackers.com/post/whats-the-point-of-ai-generated-comments-6d92489cd9)). So IH has readers-who-reply, but an unknown share are engagement-farming or AI. Firsto's claim that \"many threads get zero replies\" ([Firsto](https://firsto.co/blog/indie-hackers-alternatives-2026)) did not match the front page; it may hold for non-featured posts, which I could not enumerate (the /posts?sort=newest route renders client-side).\n\n### 2e. Hacker News – Show HN\nFull population, not a sample (Algolia API, Aug 5–Sep 4 2026, n = 3,659):\n- 122 posts/day (83/day a year earlier)\n- median 2 points, median 0 comments\n- 63.9% get zero comments (65.4% in 2025)\n- 4.5% get ≥10 comments (5.6% in 2025); 2.6% reach ≥50 points (3.5%)\n- /shownew snapshot on 6 Sep: 21 of 30 newest had 0 comments, 25 of 30 had ≤2 points ([HN shownew](https://news.ycombinator.com/shownew))\n\nRepliers on HN are overwhelmingly strangers (readers, not fellow Show HN posters) — that is the venue's value — but only ~1 in 22 posts reaches a real discussion. A post titled \"Where do indie hackers build in public these days?\" got 1 point and 5 comments; the one substantive reply: \"only developers will watch you coding or read your blog… you have nothing to sell them\" ([HN](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43725592)).\n\n### 2f. WIP.co (for completeness)\n56 todos sampled (15 from today, 41 from yesterday): **0 replies on all 56**; the comments endpoint returns \"No replies yet\" ([example](https://wip.co/todos/459330/comments)). Forum posts get 1–6 replies from a recurring cast of Pro members (Alex, Marc, Jason Leow, etc.), i.e. fellow posters. Views are not exposed.\n\n### Posters-vs-readers ratios (estimates)\n- r/SideProject: ~300 posts/day ÷ 829K = 0.04% post daily; ~6 comments/post means ≈1,800 commenting acts/day ≈ 0.2% of members.\n- r/buildinpublic: ~70 posts/day ÷ 115K = 0.06%; ~3 comments/post ≈ 210 comment acts/day.\n- Show HN: 122 posts/day; 36% get ≥1 comment.\n- WIP: ~40–80 todos/day from 3,765 nominal members (1–2%) with ~0 replies — a diary, not a forum.\n- X \"Build in Public\" community: 255K members; posting/reply volumes not obtainable.\n\n---\n\n## 3. Success stories with reader-side numbers, and the counter-evidence\n\n### It worked (2025–26, with numbers)\n- **SuperX (Rob Hallam)** — 900 → 40K X followers via daily posting; **$23K MRR, ~650 customers at $39/mo, \"95% of users came from organic content\"**, $5K total ad spend; ~30% trial-to-paid (Feb 2026) ([Indie Hackers](https://www.indiehackers.com/post/tech/hitting-23k-mrr-in-six-months-after-five-failures-4d64o9ev4AXXhX9ogHQQ)). Note the product is itself an X-growth tool — the audience is the market.\n- **Marc Lou** — 384K X followers (+14.7K/30d); $56.7K MRR, $3.0M lifetime across 17 products, verified via his own TrustMRR ([TrustMRR](https://trustmrr.com/founder/marclou)). Audience took ~30 months to build before ShipFast ([Draper](https://draper.chat/blog/solo-founders-first-100-customers-2026)).\n- **Tony Dinh** — ~100 (2021) → 181K+ followers (2026); TypingMind $137K MRR; \"the audience was buying before he even asked\" (18 months of audience-building before Xnapper) ([Supabird](https://supabird.io/articles/from-100-to-180k-followers-tony-dinh-s-twitter-x-growth-tactics-that-still-work-in-2026), [Draper](https://draper.chat/blog/solo-founders-first-100-customers-2026)).\n- **Small Bets** as a venue — sold for $3.6M to Gumroad (Apr 2025), price raised to $450 (Oct 2025), 4,500 → 7,727 members ([Vassallo](https://x.com/dvassallo/status/1912506861552869409), [Profitable Founder](https://www.profitablefounder.xyz/blog/indie-hackers-alternatives)). Paid, closed rooms are the one venue type growing in both members and price.\n- **r/indiehackers thread \"4 months in: 43 paying users, $1,247 MRR\"** — 95 comments, 51 distinct commenters within four days (my scrape). Readers exist when supply is throttled.\n- Vendor case studies with tidy numbers (e.g. \"200 → 3,500 followers, 87 paid customers on launch day\") appear in [Teract](https://www.teract.ai/resources/twitter-strategy-indie-hackers-2026) and [AutoTweet](https://www.autotweet.io/blog/build-in-public-on-x-twitter-2026) — unnamed founders, unverifiable; excluded from the verdict.\n\n### It didn't / \"nobody reads\"\n- **70-founder first-customer dataset (2023–26)**: communities 34% of first customers, Reddit alone 25%; **\"Build in public/Twitter/X: minimal standalone success\"**; one founder hit $17K MRR \"with fewer than 100 followers on X\" but \"more than a million Reddit views\"; another: \"LinkedIn and X produced almost nothing while one small, extremely targeted subreddit produced all the traction\"; a #18 Product Hunt finish = \"2,000 visits, 200 signups and zero paying customers\" ([Lead-Scorer](https://lead-scorer.com/blog/how-founders-get-first-customers-2026)).\n- **\"Build in Public Is Dead. Here's What Replaced It.\"** (Jan 2026): \"the feed got crowded… tens of thousands of people posting daily… a tweet about your MRR disappears in 48 hours\"; the followers of BIP accounts \"are other builders… not the dentist who needs scheduling software\" ([LaunchKit](https://joinlaunchkit.com/blog/build-in-public-is-dead)).\n- **\"Is this the end of Build in Public? Top indie hackers are suddenly disappearing\"** (Feb 2025, 96 likes / 75 comments): above ~$10K MRR founders go quiet because of clones and \"sharing revenue becomes bragging\" ([IH](https://www.indiehackers.com/post/lifestyle/is-this-the-end-of-build-in-public-heres-why-top-indie-hackers-are-suddenly-disappearing-IhSJQBnXNuNwSuNTuz4t)).\n- **\"When everyone builds in public, no one builds in public\"** (Sep 2024): \"out of 10 posts, 5 or 6 are sharing revenue\"; X BIP community was 33.3K then — it is ~255K now ([laike9m](https://laike9m.com/blog/no-one-builds-in-public,160/)).\n- **\"The truth about building in public\"** (Nov 2025): \"No likes, no responses. And honestly? That's where most people quit… Wins → engagement / Failures → silence\" ([DEV](https://dev.to/debuggingwithsim/the-truth-about-building-in-public-what-no-one-tells-you-2o2p)).\n- **WIP review** (Dec 2024): \"I posted updates… expecting feedback… Instead, I got silence… a broadcasting station where everyone is shouting into the void\" ([ilikekillnerds](https://ilikekillnerds.com/2024/12/15/my-experience-with-wip-co-a-maker-community-thats-missing-the-community/)) — confirmed by my 0/56 reply count in Sep 2026.\n- **r/buildinpublic itself**: \"Got 700+ visitors in one day but made $0, what am I doing wrong?\" — 5 comments (my scrape).\n- **Venue deaths 2024–25**: Buildspace (Aug 2024), Polywork (Jan 2025), Makerlog (domain repurposed), Launch House (community shut ~2023), Indie Worldwide (sold for a 5-figure sum and folded into Ramen Club). Every independent, free, feed-style BIP venue launched 2018–2021 is gone or static; only the subreddits, HN and paid clubs grew.\n- **Reach mechanics**: LinkedIn follower-first reach fell to 10–20% ([GrowedIn](https://www.growedin.com/blog/spring26)); on X a reply earned 12K impressions vs 400 for an original post (\"30x the eyeballs\") ([Graham Mann](https://grahammann.net/blog/how-to-grow-on-x-twitter-2026)) — the algorithm rewards commenting on big accounts, not broadcasting your own log.\n\n---\n\n## 4. Verdict\n\n**Partly true — and truer in 2026 than in 2024.** \"Nobody reads\" is false at the top of the funnel and largely true at the median: readers exist, but they are concentrated in a few throttled or stranger-facing venues, while the open, high-volume BIP feeds are diaries with no audience. The three strongest facts: (1) In the 30 days to 4 Sep 2026, 3,659 Show HN posts went up (122/day, +47% YoY) and **63.9% received zero comments**; only 4.5% reached ten ([Algolia](https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search_by_date?tags=show_hn)). (2) r/buildinpublic grew +441% to 115K members in a year ([GummySearch](https://gummysearch.com/r/buildinpublic/)) yet averages 3 comments per post ([Reddiscope](https://reddiscope.com/r/buildinpublic)) and 5 of 9 day-old posts I sampled had none; WIP.co's feed had **0 replies on 56 consecutive updates**. (3) Where attention is rationed it is abundant: r/indiehackers admits ~2 posts/day and each drew 18–126 comments from 13–64 distinct accounts in my sample, and the only venue category growing in members *and* price is closed paid rooms (Small Bets $99 → $450, 4.5K → 7.7K members, sold for $3.6M). The 2025–26 success stories (SuperX, Lou, Dinh) all rest on 18–30 months of prior audience-building on X, and the one broad dataset of first customers finds BIP-on-X yields \"minimal standalone success\" while niche subreddits deliver ([Lead-Scorer](https://lead-scorer.com/blog/how-founders-get-first-customers-2026)). So: a real public exists on Reddit's big subs, HN and inside paid clubs; posting into the branded \"build in public\" feeds — WIP, r/buildinpublic, the #buildinpublic hashtag — is, for the median poster, posting into the void.\n\n---\n\n**Counts:** searches run: 51 (WebSearch) plus ~40 direct fetches/scrapes (WebFetch, curl, Algolia API, Reddit RSS). URLs cited: 89 distinct.",
  "lines": [
    "Build-in-public venues 2026: the map, sizes, and who actually reads (agent run, brief 10a)"
  ],
  "author": "agent",
  "sources": null,
  "related": null,
  "verified_at": null,
  "updated_at": "2026-09-06T14:02:11.217Z",
  "cover_url": null
}