Updated
For AI-tool buildersCustomer research for AI tools, from the people who'll judge your launch.
AI launches get read harder than anything else on Hacker News and Reddit. The threads tell you which use case people want, what they won't trust an agent to do, and when they stop reading. Threadpull pulls the whole thread so you can read it before you write your own.
How do you research reactions to an AI product before launching?
Pull launch and reaction threads about similar AI products on Hacker News and Reddit, and sort the comments into who it's for, what people won't trust it to do, and what makes them dismiss it. In a 194-comment Show HN for a tool that lets AI agents draw on your screen, about 17 comments named a person it would help, while about 10 dismissed it as AI-written. In a 67-comment r/OpenAI thread, about 35 comments argued about banking instead of the RAM remark that started it. Threadpull pulls every comment so you can count.
Six research jobs for an AI-tool team
Find the use case people want
Builders pitch the workflow; commenters name the person who needs it. Collect those people.
Show HN · r/LocalLLaMAMap the trust line
List what people will let an agent do alone, and where they want to approve each step.
Show HN · r/ChatGPTHear the "slop" test
See which phrases make readers decide a README or landing page was written by AI.
Show HN launchesKnow what you're compared to
Every "isn't this just…" names a competitor or a built-in feature. Count them.
Show HN · r/artificialPrice against cancellations
Read why people cancel AI subscriptions before you set yours.
r/ChatGPT · r/ClaudeAIRun a launch retro
Pull your own launch thread and sort the replies into fans, skeptics and the worried.
Your Show HNWhat the Hacker News thread showed
A live Show HN for a tool that lets AI agents draw arrows and boxes on your screen, read comment by comment.
Show HN: Let your AI agents paint big arrows, boxes and text on your screen
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50018817 ↗For your launch: lead with one concrete person (someone guiding an ageing parent, someone learning a complex app) and say plainly what the agent can and can't do.
Guiding non-technical users and learners
about 17 comments"I would pay good money for something like this on iPad. It wouldn't even need to be agent-driven"lbreakjai
"Valid points, but this sounds extremely useful for learning complicated GUI applications like 3d modeling or media editing apps."alanbernstein
Dismissed as AI-written slop
about 10 comments"I absolutely loathe this phrasing now. I don’t even know what part of it is good or notable."intended
"The project's README is pages upon pages of largely blank space."dr_kiszonka
Pointing is not informed consent
about 9 comments"An arrow on the screen solves “where do I click”; it doesn’t solve “should this happen”"tilemarch
"I think this makes a lot of sense for tutorials, but permission prompts need different treatment."LoneRanger1024
Simpler fixes already exist
about 8 comments"isn't the real fix here to just make the dialogue boxes themselves gain focus automatically?"satyanash
What the r/OpenAI thread showed
An r/OpenAI thread reacting to a remark from OpenAI's CEO that RAM is better used in data centers than for local AI, "from a global allocation perspective". Read comment by comment.
In Defense is Sam. He's completely right about DRAM
www.reddit.com/r/OpenAI/comments/1xl5v0a/in_defense_is_sam_hes_completely_right_about_dram/ ↗For your messaging: telling people their own hardware is waste invites the joke, not the debate. More than half the thread argued about something else, and only 3 comments engaged with what was actually said.
Arguing about banking and wealth instead
about 35 comments"The question isn't "Is the money being used" it is "how is the money being used"."Drukarshar
Turning his logic back on him
about 12 comments"A Civic would be a much more efficient and optimal mode of transport. It makes no sense from a global allocation perspective."shdgw
"Using his own reasoning, he should give everyone in the world shares to OAI and unlimited access to OAI compute."lil_nosh_X
Local hardware still matters
about 7 comments"My development workloads can consume virtually all available RAM, so having more memory remains extremely useful."Ithinkyouareabot
"Sure, it isn't as efficient for people to run local models, because we value things other than efficiency."MoonsterGoopter
He was quoted out of context
about 3 comments"he didn't say people shouldn't have ram in general."Grasle
The threads in numbers
"Show HN: Let your AI agents paint big arrows, boxes and text on your screen" had 194 comments from 141 people when we pulled it on 1 Nov 2026. 137 of them (71%) were replies to other comments, nested up to 8 levels deep, and the median comment was 27 words long. The theme raised most, guiding non-technical users and learners, came up in about 17 comments (9% of the thread).
"In Defense is Sam. He's completely right about DRAM" had 67 comments from 37 people when we pulled it on 1 Nov 2026. 47 of them (70%) were replies to other comments, nested up to 15 levels deep, and the median comment was 23 words long. The theme raised most, arguing about banking and wealth instead, came up in about 35 comments (52% of the thread).
How we did this research
- Pulled with Threadpull on 1 Nov 2026: every comment still live, at every reply level, from news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50018817.
- Pulled with Threadpull on 1 Nov 2026: every comment Reddit returned, at every reply level, from reddit.com/r/OpenAI/comments/1xl5v0a/in_defense_is_sam_hes_completely_right_about_dram/. Reddit's own count was 69; it also counts comments that were deleted or removed, which can't be pulled.
- Read and grouped into themes. A comment can raise more than one theme, so counts are approximate.
- Every quote on this page is checked word for word against the export, under its author, each time the page is built.
| Hacker News | r/OpenAI | |
|---|---|---|
| Score on the post | 421 | 390 |
| Comments | 194 | 67 |
| Top-level comments | 57 | 20 |
| Replies | 137 (71%) | 47 (70%) |
| People commenting | 141 | 37 |
| Comments by the original poster | 5 | 4 |
| Deepest reply level | 8 | 15 |
| Median comment length | 27 words | 23 words |
| Comments from the 5 most active people | 24 (12%) | 28 (42%) |
| Theme | Thread | Comments | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guiding non-technical users and learners | Hacker News | about 17 | 9% |
| Dismissed as AI-written slop | Hacker News | about 10 | 5% |
| Pointing is not informed consent | Hacker News | about 9 | 5% |
| Simpler fixes already exist | Hacker News | about 8 | 4% |
| Arguing about banking and wealth instead | r/OpenAI | about 35 | 52% |
| Turning his logic back on him | r/OpenAI | about 12 | 18% |
| Local hardware still matters | r/OpenAI | about 7 | 10% |
| He was quoted out of context | r/OpenAI | about 3 | 4% |
The words they used
How many comments used each word or named each product. Counted from the export each time the page is built; a comment counts once however often it repeats the word. Variants count together, so "self-host" includes "self-hosted" and "self hosting".
The Hacker News thread
| Word or phrase | Comments | Share |
|---|---|---|
| LLM | 11 | 6% |
| slop | 9 | 5% |
| tutorial | 8 | 4% |
| parent, mom or grandma | 7 | 4% |
| learn | 5 | 3% |
| consent or permission | 5 | 3% |
| trust | 4 | 2% |
| README | 4 | 2% |
| accessibility | 3 | 2% |
| Name | Comments | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Claude | 7 | 4% |
| Blender | 3 | 2% |
The r/OpenAI thread
| Word or phrase | Comments | Share |
|---|---|---|
| rich, wealth or billionaire | 15 | 22% |
| bank | 11 | 16% |
| cash | 9 | 13% |
| RAM or memory | 6 | 9% |
| global allocation | 4 | 6% |
| inflation | 4 | 6% |
| data center | 3 | 4% |
| local | 3 | 4% |
Where the conversation happened
Comments per reply level. The deep chains are often where people disagree, and a skim of the top-level comments misses them.
What AI launch threads teach
Who is an AI tool really for?
Builders tend to pitch a workflow; commenters name a person. In the Show HN above, people named ageing parents and anyone learning complex apps like 3D modelling or media editing. Collect those people across a few threads, then lead your page with the one that comes up most.
What will people let an AI agent do on its own?
Commenters were happy for an agent to show where to click, as in a tutorial, but wanted permission prompts treated differently: about 9 comments raised consent. Say plainly which actions your agent takes alone and which wait for a person.
What gets an AI launch dismissed as slop?
About 10 comments in the Show HN above dismissed the project as AI-written, and their complaints were about the README and launch copy, not the tool. Keep launch copy short and specific, and cut the stock phrases readers now associate with generated text.
Why do AI launches draw "isn't this just…" replies?
Readers check whether something simpler or built in already solves the problem. About 8 comments here suggested a simpler fix, such as making dialog boxes take focus themselves. List every comparison people make and answer each one in your launch post.
What happens when an AI company's claim lands badly?
The r/OpenAI thread above shows it. A remark that RAM is better used in data centers than for local AI drew about 12 comments turning the same logic back on its speaker, about 7 defending local hardware for development, gaming and music work, and only 3 putting the remark back in context.
Why do reaction threads drift off topic?
Big-name threads attract arguments that have little to do with the product. In the r/OpenAI thread above, about 35 of 67 comments, more than half, were an argument about banking and wealth. Pull the whole thread, then count only the comments about what you're researching.
Where AI products get discussed
Threads worth pulling, by what you're trying to learn.
- Show HNLaunch reactions from builders: trust, "slop", and what it replaces
- r/LocalLLaMAPeople who run models themselves: speed, cost, privacy
- r/ChatGPTEveryday users: what they use it for, why they cancel
- r/ClaudeAICoding and writing workflows, limits and pricing
- r/artificialGeneral reactions to AI products and news
- r/SaaSFounders adding AI features, and what customers paid for
How to find threads like these
Searches that turn up the threads worth pulling. Open one, then pull it with Threadpull.
| Search | Where | What it finds |
|---|---|---|
"Show HN" agent | hn.algolia.com | AI agent launches and the trust questions they draw |
"Ask HN" LLM | hn.algolia.com | How people actually use models, and where they stop trusting them |
site:reddit.com/r/ChatGPT "cancelled" | Why people cancel AI subscriptions | |
site:reddit.com/r/LocalLLaMA "why I switched" | Cost, speed and privacy reasons for moving to local models |
Threads worth pulling next
Comment counts as of 2 Nov 2026.
- Scoring Show HN submissions for AI design patternsWhat readers notice that makes a launch look AI-made.
- Show HN: Forge – Guardrails take an 8B model from 53% to 99% on agentic tasksReactions to a reliability claim for agents.
- Ask HN: How do you deal with people who trust LLMs?Where people draw the trust line, in their own words.
- Show HN: Apfel – The free AI already on your MacLocal AI and what people expect from it.
- Show HN: LocalGPT – A local-first AI assistant in Rust with persistent memoryPrivacy and memory questions about an AI assistant.
The prompt for AI-product threads
Pull a thread, choose Send to AI, and sort the reaction into what to build, what to explain and what to stop saying.
These are every comment from a thread about an AI product. 1. Group them into fans, skeptics and the worried, with counts. 2. List the specific people or jobs commenters say it's for. 3. List each trust or safety concern, with a count. 4. List the products or built-in features it's compared to. 5. Quote the phrases that made people call it AI-written, if any. 6. Suggest a headline and the first three lines of a launch post.
AI tools FAQ
Does it work on Hacker News and Reddit?
Yes. Reddit threads work without an account. Hacker News threads and Reddit profiles need a free account.
Can I send the comments to ChatGPT or Claude?
Yes. Send to AI opens ChatGPT or Claude with the comments and your prompt in the chat box. Nothing is sent until you press send.
How big a thread can it pull?
Whole threads, every nested reply. A 400-comment Hacker News thread takes about half a minute.