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| 1 | +# readme2demo — grand release plan |
| 2 | + |
| 3 | +A sequenced, multi-channel launch. Companion to `LAUNCH_CHECKLIST.md` (the |
| 4 | +GitHub/settings work) and the drafts in `launch/`. Skips LinkedIn by choice. |
| 5 | + |
| 6 | +## The one thing to get right |
| 7 | + |
| 8 | +Developer audiences punish marketing and reward candor. Lead with the *proof*, |
| 9 | +not the pitch: **the tutorial ran, twice — once in a sandbox, once in a fresh |
| 10 | +clean-room container — before you saw it.** The demo GIF and the |
| 11 | +`✓ R2D_VERIFY_OK` moment are the whole story; show them first, everywhere. |
| 12 | + |
| 13 | +Anchor the launch on **two big-bang channels — Hacker News (Show HN) and |
| 14 | +Product Hunt** — and use everything else to amplify. Don't fire every channel |
| 15 | +in the same minute: you can only actively hold one comment thread at a time, |
| 16 | +and simultaneous blasting reads as spam. |
| 17 | + |
| 18 | +## Pre-flight gate (must be true before you launch) |
| 19 | + |
| 20 | +- [ ] Repo is **public**, docs site is **live** (`https://alphacrack.github.io/readme2demo/`), demo GIF renders on the README. |
| 21 | +- [ ] `v0.1.0` release cut; README, one-liner, and social preview are final. |
| 22 | +- [ ] Landing/demo is cached/CDN-backed — a front-page Show HN can send 5k–30k visitors in 24h. |
| 23 | +- [ ] You have a free 2–4 hour block to sit on the threads the moment they go live. |
| 24 | + |
| 25 | +## Timeline (relative — pick a Tue/Wed/Thu as T-0) |
| 26 | + |
| 27 | +**T-14 → T-7 — prep & seed** |
| 28 | +- Finalize all copy (see Asset checklist). Restore/refresh `launch/` drafts. |
| 29 | +- Stand up a Product Hunt **"Coming soon"** teaser page to collect notify-me's. |
| 30 | +- Submit to newsletters that need lead time (Console.dev, PyCoders, Python Weekly). |
| 31 | +- If your HN/Reddit accounts are new, spend two weeks genuinely commenting to build a little karma/history so you're not auto-filtered. |
| 32 | +- Line up ~10–20 people who'll *genuinely* try it and comment (never "please upvote"). |
| 33 | + |
| 34 | +**T-1 — stage** |
| 35 | +- Schedule the Product Hunt launch for **12:01 AM PT**. |
| 36 | +- Pre-write the Show HN title + your own first comment (the "why I built this" context). |
| 37 | +- Draft the dev.to article; queue Reddit posts (don't post yet). |
| 38 | + |
| 39 | +**T-0 — launch day (hour-by-hour, ET)** |
| 40 | +- **8:00–9:00 AM** — Post **Show HN**. First 60–90 min decide the front page; you need ~30–50 upvotes in the first hour from organic interest. Reply to every comment fast and candidly. |
| 41 | +- **12:01 AM PT (same calendar day)** — Product Hunt goes live; post your maker first-comment immediately, notify your "coming soon" list. |
| 42 | +- **Midday** — Publish the **dev.to article**; cross-post to Hashnode/Medium with a canonical link back. |
| 43 | +- **Spread across the day, not all at once** — 1–2 Reddit posts where you'll actually sit and reply. Save the rest for T+1/T+2. |
| 44 | + |
| 45 | +**T+1 → T+7 — amplify & sustain** |
| 46 | +- Post to the remaining subreddits (one or two per day, each in its own voice). |
| 47 | +- Submit to link-curated newsletters and aggregators (below). |
| 48 | +- Submit to the awesome-lists (see the earlier awesome-list picks). |
| 49 | +- Reply to every issue/PR/comment within hours — responsiveness at launch converts stars into contributors. |
| 50 | +- Write a short "what launch day looked like (numbers included)" follow-up — HN/Reddit love postmortems. |
| 51 | + |
| 52 | +## Channels |
| 53 | + |
| 54 | +### Tier 1 — anchors |
| 55 | + |
| 56 | +| Channel | Where | Notes | |
| 57 | +|---|---|---| |
| 58 | +| Hacker News | Submit as **Show HN** at news.ycombinator.com | Tue–Thu ~8–10 AM ET (Sunday eve is a quieter second option). Plain, specific title; no hype, no version number. Don't ask for upvotes — ring detection is real. | |
| 59 | +| Product Hunt | producthunt.com/launch | Launch 12:01 AM PT, Tue–Thu (dev tools also do fine on weekends with less competition). Coming-soon teaser beforehand; strong first comment; gallery = the demo GIF. | |
| 60 | + |
| 61 | +### Reddit (post natively, read each sub's self-promo rules first, engage in comments) |
| 62 | + |
| 63 | +| Subreddit | Fit | |
| 64 | +|---|---| |
| 65 | +| r/programming | Broadest dev reach; a good thread can beat a PH launch. Lead with the technical idea, not the product. | |
| 66 | +| r/opensource | MIT OSS tool — core audience. | |
| 67 | +| r/Python | It's a Python CLI; check their showcase/self-promo rules and flair. | |
| 68 | +| r/commandline | CLI-native crowd. | |
| 69 | +| r/coolgithubprojects | Purpose-built for sharing repos. | |
| 70 | +| r/devops | README-verification + Docker/CI angle. | |
| 71 | +| r/selfhosted | Self-hosted, runs-on-your-machine angle. | |
| 72 | +| r/LocalLLaMA (~266k) | AI-agent angle; very active, allergic to fluff — bring the technical detail. | |
| 73 | +| r/ClaudeAI | Claude Code is your default engine — directly relevant. | |
| 74 | +| r/artificial, r/machinelearningnews | AI-agent framing for a broader AI audience. | |
| 75 | +| r/SideProject, r/EntrepreneurRideAlong | Builder communities for the launch story. | |
| 76 | + |
| 77 | +Rule of thumb: **one subreddit at a time**, each with a title written for *that* community, and be present to answer. Blasting all of them in one hour gets you spam-filtered and mod-removed. |
| 78 | + |
| 79 | +### Written content (owned narrative + backlinks) |
| 80 | + |
| 81 | +- **dev.to** — primary launch article ("I made an AI that refuses to publish a tutorial it didn't run twice"). Dev-native, easy reach. |
| 82 | +- **Hashnode** and **Medium** (dev publications like *Level Up Coding*, *ITNEXT*; *Towards Data Science* for the AI angle) — cross-post with a `rel=canonical` back to dev.to or your docs so you don't split SEO. |
| 83 | +- **Your docs site** — a `/blog` or a "How it works" deep-dive doubles as the canonical, ranking-friendly version. |
| 84 | + |
| 85 | +### Newsletters & aggregators (curated — submit, then wait for their cadence) |
| 86 | + |
| 87 | +| Name | Why / link | |
| 88 | +|---|---| |
| 89 | +| Console.dev | Reviews 2–3 devtools weekly — squarely your fit. console.dev | |
| 90 | +| Changelog (+ Changelog Nightly) | Nightly auto-features trending new GitHub repos; the weekly covers OSS. changelog.com | |
| 91 | +| TLDR / TLDR AI | Huge dev + AI dailies. tldr.tech | |
| 92 | +| Pointer | Curated reading for devs. pointer.io | |
| 93 | +| PyCoder's Weekly | Python — submit at pycoders.com/submissions | |
| 94 | +| Python Weekly | Python tool/newsletter feature. | |
| 95 | +| Hacker Newsletter | Curates the week's best HN — a strong Show HN gets picked up. | |
| 96 | +| Ben's Bites / Latent Space | AI-builder audiences for the agent angle. | |
| 97 | +| jackbridger/developer-newsletters | A directory to find more niche devtool newsletters to pitch. | |
| 98 | + |
| 99 | +### Directories & discovery |
| 100 | + |
| 101 | +- **AlternativeTo**, **SaaSHub**, **StackShare** — list the project; steady long-tail discovery + backlinks. |
| 102 | +- **GitHub Trending** — not submittable, but a good launch-day spike (stars velocity) can land you there; it compounds. |
| 103 | +- **Lobsters** (lobste.rs) — high-signal HN alternative, but **invite-only**; only viable if a member invites you. Worth asking around for an invite pre-launch. |
| 104 | +- **Awesome-lists** — the picks from the earlier step (awesome-ai-agents, awesome-claude-code, awesome-readme-tools, awesome-docs, etc.). |
| 105 | + |
| 106 | +### Communities / chat |
| 107 | + |
| 108 | +- **Anthropic/Claude developer Discord** and **r/ClaudeAI** — you're built on Claude Code; share in the show-and-tell channels. |
| 109 | +- Relevant **Slack/Discord** dev communities you're already in (share where you're a real member, not cold). |
| 110 | +- _LinkedIn: intentionally skipped._ |
| 111 | + |
| 112 | +## Asset checklist (prepare before T-0) |
| 113 | + |
| 114 | +- [ ] **Show HN**: plain title + your first comment (origin story, the grounding invariant, honest limitations). Draft in `launch/SHOW_HN_DRAFT.md`. |
| 115 | +- [ ] **Product Hunt**: 60-char tagline, description, first maker comment, gallery (demo GIF + 2–3 shots), topics/tags, thumbnail. |
| 116 | +- [ ] **Article**: `launch/DEVTO_POST_DRAFT.md` — publish on dev.to, cross-post elsewhere. |
| 117 | +- [ ] **Reddit**: 3–4 per-community title/body variants (not one copy-paste). |
| 118 | +- [ ] **Visuals**: the verified demo GIF (done), `assets/social-preview.png` (done), one clean terminal screenshot of `✓ R2D_VERIFY_OK`. |
| 119 | +- [ ] **The "why"**: one crisp paragraph on the grounding invariant — it's your differentiator; repeat it verbatim everywhere. |
| 120 | + |
| 121 | +## Suggested hooks (tune per channel) |
| 122 | + |
| 123 | +- Show HN: `Show HN: readme2demo – runs your README in a sandbox, publishes only what re-runs` |
| 124 | +- Product Hunt tagline: `Verified tutorials & demo videos, generated from your README` |
| 125 | +- Reddit (r/Python): `I built a tool that runs your README in a Docker sandbox and only publishes the tutorial if a fresh-container replay passes` |
| 126 | +- Article: `The AI that refuses to publish a tutorial it didn't run twice` |
| 127 | + |
| 128 | +## What to measure |
| 129 | + |
| 130 | +GitHub stars/day and traffic sources (Insights → Traffic), Show HN rank + comment sentiment, Product Hunt rank/upvotes, docs-site visitors, and — the real signal — issues and PRs opened. Capture it for the T+7 "how the launch went" writeup. |
| 131 | + |
| 132 | +## Etiquette / risks (the stuff that sinks launches) |
| 133 | + |
| 134 | +- **Never** ask for upvotes on HN or PH; both detect vote rings and will penalize you. |
| 135 | +- **Don't** cross-post identical text to many subreddits at once — mods and spam filters remove it, and you can't engage everywhere. |
| 136 | +- **Read each community's self-promotion rules** before posting; some require a participation ratio or a specific thread. |
| 137 | +- **Be candid about limitations** (the API-key-in-sandbox tradeoff, experimental OpenHands engine). Admitting weaknesses earns more trust than hiding them. |
| 138 | +- **Lobsters is invite-only** — don't count on it unless you have an invite. |
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