Kitty Points Leaderboard - Find interesting community members and see how you stack up
by•
Product Hunt is known for its lively and friendly community. To accentuate different ways you can be active in the community, we built a leaderboard for community members. Ranking highly will give you exposure as well as lend credibility to your content. We also want to showcase the various ways members of the community can participate and build stories around those participants.
Replies
Product Hunt
This update to Kitty Points comes with two big updates, one visible and one more backend.
The visible update is a brand new leaderboard! And it's not just an all time leaderboard. If you just discovered Product Hunt in the last year, month, or even week it could be a bit daunting to see some of the Kitty Point totals that long time members have accrued. At the same time, we want to give a huge shoutout to our community members who have been around and consistent for years and have contributed a ton of phenomenal content to the site. The answer to this is a leaderboard that shows the top users by Kitty Points per week, month, year, and all time. This means every week you have a new chance to climb the leaderboards and get higher visibility on your profile and what you're building or posting.
The less visible, but still exciting, part of this update is that we've re-worked how Kitty Points are calculated on the back-end. I'll say, this part of the project was the closest I've ever come to feeling like a game designer! We also want to be more upfront about what you can do to earn Kitty Points. You can't play the game if you don't know the rules! So, here are the all of the contributions that will earn you Kitty Points:
Being the Maker of a launch
Being the Hunter of a launch
Posting detailed reviews
Creating discussion threads
Leaving meaningful comments
For all of those, content and impact matter. Being the Maker of a featured product at the top of the leaderboard will obviously gain you a lot of Kitty Points. As Matt mentions in his comment, Product Hunt is launch forward, but there are a lot of other ways to contribute to the community as well. A large part of the backend changes we've made open the door for other types of contributions to gain you more Kitty Points than in the past. So even if you're not a Maker, you still have the chance to contribute to the community and climb the leaderboards. And if you're curious, you can check out our help center for more information around what kind of content aligns with Product Hunt's guidelines.
We've built this to elevate and show off the members of our community who are helping us create an incredible space to discover, evaluate, and discuss incredible products being created by excellent people in tech. I'm very excited to see who shows up on the leaderboards every week!
I also want to give a massive shoutout to @catt_marroll who did a tremendous amount of work taking the new Kitty Points formula and making it work on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis (something we've never had before!) and building a really awesome and fun leaderboard page around it.
@catt_marroll @jakecrump Hey, congratulations on the new leaderboard! I find it a really interesting idea! It definitely creates an incentive for both long-time and new users.
I’d really appreciate it if you could also share the formula used to award points. Judging by the results, it’s obviosly that being the maker of a featured product is about 10x more valuable than other activities, but having a bit more detail about the formula would be great.
Product Hunt
@catt_marroll @byalexai Thanks! Without just copy/pasting our code here lol I'll say that the formula base weights go essentially in the order I wrote them out:
Being the Maker of a launch
Being the Hunter of a launch
Posting detailed reviews
Creating discussion threads
Leaving meaningful comments
The caveat there is that being a Maker or Hunter has no base points connected and is fully determined by the amount of points the launch gets (with Hunters gets a percentage less than Makers).
For the other contribution types though their base points go in decreasing order from detailed reviews -> discussion threads -> comments. And then the points can increase from there based on replies and upvotes of those with replies giving higher points. So basically you could post a discussion thread (which has a base amount of points which is less than a detailed review, but more than a comment) and every reply or upvote of that discussion thread would earn you some additional Kitty Points.
The goal is to reward great content that meets our quality bar (i.e. being approved and potentially featured) with base points and then giving additional points based on the community's interaction with that content (upvotes and replies).
So yes, being a featured Maker can certainly get you a large amount of points. You also can't do that every day or week or even month. You could; however, write great detailed reviews, discussion threads, and comments every day. So it's definitely possible to land in the top of the leaderboard without launching.
We'll also continue to monitor and potentially update things if we notice anything being off. We definitely want everyone to be able to contribute and have a path to the top of the leaderboard regardless of what their main contribution type is.
@catt_marroll @jakecrump Thanks for the thorough answer! I had a feeling the structure was something like that, but this definitely cleared things up.
Are there any plans for rewards, like naming a Maker of the Month or even Maker of the Year? Some way to recognize and reward users who are consistently active in certain areas.
I’m following all the new updates with a lot of interest!
Product Hunt
@catt_marroll @byalexai Nothing concrete at the moment, but I imagine it'll likely be something more editorial, i.e. a forum post shouting out the top users on the weekly or monthly leaderboard. I think it might be cool to call out specifically per contribution type.
Any thoughts on what kind of awards or call outs you'd like to see from this?
FuseBase
@catt_marroll @jakecrump I feel motivated to be more active here, thanks for making the leaderboard more clear and motivating!
Flowtica Scribe
@catt_marroll @jakecrump One detail I really like: clicking the Kitty Coins for a specific attribute on the leaderboard links directly to that user's activity tab (Maker History, Hunted, Forums, etc.).
Such a practical solution for driving internal engagement. @catt_marroll and team clearly put a lot of thoughtful design into this build!
Product Hunt
@catt_marroll @zaczuo Thanks for the feedback Zac! Yeah, we really wanted to make it easy to find a user's contributions through the leaderboard. We think it's a great way to highlight users creating interesting content across the site, and we want to make it easy for people to follow those users and see what they're posting!
AdFox (formerly GoodsFox)
@catt_marroll @jakecrump The Kitty Points Leaderboard is a brilliant move to boost community engagement! By gamifying contributions through upvotes and streaks, it effectively turns passive browsing into an active, rewarding experience. It’s a great strategy for improving user retention and making the community feel more alive. Can't wait to see more perks tied to these points!
My Financé
Product Hunt is launch forward (we do not plan to change that!), but this isn't the only way to participate in our community. Leaving reviews, providing thoughtful comments, and building vibrant forum discourse also help boost the ecosystem. We want kitty points to reflect the different ways users "play the game" here on Product Hunt.
Additionally, like many online spaces, there is a value in being able to qualify who you are talking too here! Advice from Paul Graham is likely worth more than a remark from a sock puppet account created a few minutes ago. We hope to use this new leaderboard as a way to incentivize authentic participation, and qualify content around the site.
@catt_marroll @jakecrump and team, many congratulations on the latest update! :)
I love the design and how it clearly shows which spaces the Kitty Coins were earned from (Maker, Forums, Reviews, etc.). Been waiting for this since I first spotted it, great to see it officially launched.
Now it's not just streaks but actual contributions getting recognized on Product Hunt. Someone's an OG not for joining early, but for staying consistent with real value over time.
Streaks rewarded visit consistency; Kitty Coins + the leaderboard reward contribution consistency. That's a step toward making Product Hunt more meritocratic.
The leaderboard surfaces who's truly shaping the community, beyond just showing up. Time-based leaderboards (weekly, monthly, yearly, all time) keep it dynamic and merit-driven. Also, showing ranks on profiles will actually help identify how active a community member is. This will help community members shift focus from "staying active" to "adding meaningful value" every time.
I was fairly active member, but never bothered to check kitty coins. I was shocked to see myself hit #10 all-time and #1 weekly on leaderboard. 😄
Quick question: Other than recognition, what's the use case for Kitty Coins? Do high earners get more weight in engagements, mod approvals for forums/leaderboards/comments, etc.?
Feature suggestion: Add shareable leaderboard stat cards for social media so community members can quickly share their leaderboard rankings to their social feeds. Although they can even screenshot and share it now.
Thank you for making this space more meaningful, enjoyable and community-driven. ❤️
My Financé
@jakecrump @rohanrecommends great feature suggestion around a shareable or an embed. really like that idea!
in terms of their usage within the site, we haven't figured out all the ways we can use it yet! Generally, it can serve as a signal to other users that someone has credibility. Practically, we may choose to use that for sorting content in the future. Like all online spaces right now, we are trying to figure out the best ways to show authentic content and filter the deluge of slop. I think if kitty points can be a good bellwether for user quality, it's reasonable to imagine it having some role in terms of content assessment.
@catt_marroll congrats on the new kitty coins. How will Kitty Points weighting evolve based on feedback, and might we see multipliers for high-impact actions like sparking great forum threads?
My Financé
@swati_paliwal I think we would evolve the formula if someone found a meta that was 'broken', i.e keyword stuffing in SEO. really we want to incentivize high quality contributions. obviously high quality is loaded, but i think we know bad content when we see it. if kitty points pushes users to produce really interesting content, that would be a success.
the forums are incorporated in the scoring already as well, so starting great threads will get you points:
for example the first and second of the month earned large chunks from discussions.
minimalist phone: creating folders
I really like the idea around that, it wouldn't come to my mind that KittyPoints can have this use-case and we couldn't find out what they are for. Now, one of the top secrets of this platform is already unveiled!
Good job!
FuseBase
@busmark_w_nika you are a true champ! congrats! and keep it up - I love your threads and comments, so meaningful and insightful
@busmark_w_nika - Congrats on your last year's score - really impressive!
Oh, @catt_marroll, I think there might be a bug with how 'All Time' is calculated. My profile shows 1 KP for 'Last Week' but 0 for 'All Time', and Nika's has 28,750 for 'Last Year' but only 25,552 for 'All Time'. In both cases, I guess, 'All Time' should be the higher number. Just flagging it!
Product Hunt
@michal_kukul Good eye, we are looking into this.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@michal_kukul @kate_ramakaieva Thank you so much. 3+ years here and I still have somethingnew to learn thanks to upcoming makers :)
MindPal
Wow, I am at #44 all time. I also just launched @MindPal again today, so I guess that would earn me even more points 😎 Hope I will make it to top 10 this year. Question though: does earning a Maker of the Year award contribute to our Kitty Points?
Product Hunt
@sylviangth Great question! Maker of the Year is its own, independent award. So no additional kitty points.
Product Hunt
@sylviangth You're now #43!
Product Hunt
@curiouskitty Curious Kitty must be added as a maker!!! #JusticeForKitty
Raycast
@curiouskitty a better question is: are AI robots and pets eligible for being featured in the leaderboard?
I still see a lot of AI slop around here! 😽
Product Hunt
@curiouskitty How could we forget about you?? You are now a maker, good kitty! <3
Product Hunt
I'm slacking at #3 for all time
Velocity: AI User testing
My Financé
@kevin_mcdonagh1 yeah that is the goal. i think we will know it is successful if we can incentivize quality contributions. not just more, but high quality.
Lyzr
Whattttt? PH launching on PH?
My Financé
@mohammed_faraaz_ahmed :) meta
Liinks
love it!
Jo
Do KP's degrade over time or are cumulative? I'm seeing something strange - I seem to have more KP's last year than I do All time. Would love to understand how that works @jakecrump @catt_marroll
Product Hunt
@ragsontherocks Points do not degrade. We'll look into the odd behavior on your account. Thanks for flagging!