I built a link aggregator that ranks content by how people found it valuable, not just upvote count. Instant listings, no wait. Would love your honest feedback.

I spent a lot of time browsing Product Hunt, Hacker News, Reddit, LinkedIn, and newer launch platforms, and I kept noticing the same thing:

Most places are really good at measuring popularity, but not very good at measuring why something was valuable.

A link gets 100 upvotes.

Okay... but was it useful? Was it genuinely interesting? Did people actually love it? Or was it just posted at the right time to the right audience?

That got me thinking about a different kind of link aggregator.

Instead of a single upvote, what if people reacted to links the way they react to posts on LinkedIn?

Useful. Interesting. Love. Meh.

Each reaction contributes differently to a link's score, so rankings aren't based on a single number alone. I also show click counts because I've always felt there's a difference between "people upvoted this" and "people actually clicked this."

That idea eventually turned into Spotlitely.

Along the way, I borrowed a few concepts I always liked from other communities:

• Hacker News inspired the Hot / New / Show structure.
• LinkedIn inspired the reaction system.
• Product Hunt inspired the idea that people should be able to discover new products, tools, and projects quickly.

But I also wanted to fix a few things that bothered me.

When you submit to Spotlitely, your listing is live immediately. No approval queue. No waiting for someone to decide whether you're allowed to launch today.

Posts are intentionally short (500 characters max) because I wanted people sharing links, not writing mini landing pages.

Categories are limited to things like AI Tools, Business, Dev Tools, Design, Writing, and Indie so the feed stays focused.

I also made what is probably the most controversial decision:

There are no public comments.

Instead, readers can contact posters directly through a private message channel on each listing.

My reasoning was that comment sections often become their own conversation. Competitors promote themselves. Discussions drift off-topic. People argue with each other instead of talking to the creator.

I wondered what would happen if all feedback became direct feedback.

Maybe that's a terrible idea. Maybe it's better. I honestly don't know yet.

There's also a contributor leaderboard because I think people who consistently surface valuable links deserve recognition, not just people who submit products.

One unexpected side effect: every listing also gives you a direct backlink.

I'm not posting this to say I've solved discovery.

I'm posting because I'm still figuring out whether these assumptions are right.

If you use Product Hunt, Hacker News, Reddit, or similar platforms:

• Would weighted reactions tell you more than an upvote count?
• Would removing public comments make the experience better or worse?
• What would make you use a platform like this instead of the alternatives?

I'd appreciate brutal feedback.

The site is spotlitely.com. It's still early, and every piece of feedback is shaping what gets built next.