UTC launch day playbook

MakerHunt’s clock is UTC, not your laptop’s timezone. The short version is in launch day UTC. This is the ops playbook for makers who ship on a day that may open while they sleep.

Go-live is about 09:00 UTC. Cron moves scheduled launches whose date is today (UTC) to ongoing, and closes past ongoing days to launched with PotD 1–3 when votes exist. Empty days still advance. Your calendar “Tuesday” only matters if it matches the UTC date stamped on the project.

The two moments that matter

1. Open (~09:00 UTC): today’s scheduled projects become ongoing. Home “Today,” trending?filter=today, and live chrome turn on for that cohort.
2. Close (same daily job, next cycle): yesterday’s ongoing becomes launched. Ranks freeze for that day. PotD embeds unlock for owners who placed (ranking guide, winners).

If you planned “launch Tuesday morning local” and the UTC date is still Monday, you will miss the mental model and blame the product. Check the date string, not the vibes.

Convert your city

US West Coast: the hunt day often starts while you sleep. Either schedule social ahead, hand off to a teammate in Europe, or accept a slow first hours and surge mid-window. Do not invent “we delayed go-live for Pacific.” We do not.

Decision tree: when to schedule

1. Can you be awake at open? Prefer a UTC date where 09:00 UTC is morning for you or a co-founder.
2. Most audience in EU? Classic 09:00 UTC open is friendly.
3. Most audience in US? Still open at 09:00 UTC; front-load drafts and DM the MakerHunt URL the evening before local.
4. Soft launch with no support coverage? Do not pick Free if crawl might fail overnight with nobody watching. Paid skip-crawl (pricing explained) reduces that failure mode.

Evening-before checklist (local)

Use this the night before the UTC date on the project, not “the night before my feelings.”

• Free: Featured-on badge still on homepage; crawl green (badge guide, legal/badges)
• Paid: Stripe settled; dashboard shows the right launch type
• First maker comment drafted (comments playbook)
• Three share posts queued: open, mid-window, late window
• Support inbox / Discord open for login, crawl, or payment issues
• Project URL bookmarked; you will not paste the homepage by mistake
• Know you cannot buy PotD; votes decide (votes and PotD)

Hour-of-open runbook

T-30 min (local relative to 09:00 UTC)

• Confirm trending?filter=today will be your dashboard for the day
• Post the maker comment as soon as the listing is ongoing
• Point traffic at the MakerHunt project URL, not only your marketing site

First 2 hours

• Reply to every serious comment within an hour when you can
• One clear upvote ask to warm users; no “upvote pls” spam threads
• Watch for auth or image bugs; fix or acknowledge publicly

Mid-window

• Second share post with a specific feedback ask (pricing, onboarding, naming)
• Skim competitors on Today so you do not duplicate pitch lines

Late window

• Third share post; thank early commenters by name if the thread is small
• Do not buy engagement. Empty honesty beats fake density (honest proof)

During the window: what to watch

Sponsor rails are unrelated to your launch day SKU. If you also bought sponsor, that is always-on chrome, not PotD fuel (sponsor vs Featured).

After close

• Grab PotD / Top N embeds if you placed (PotD ranking)
• Update your site with honest “launched on MakerHunt” copy; stay inside legal/badges
• Skim winners the next morning; learn who won and why their thread looked alive
• Dump feedback into a public changelog within 48 hours while context is fresh

Buyer and planner mistakes

• Scheduling social in local “Tuesday 9am” while the UTC date is wrong
• Sleeping through open with zero queued posts and blaming the feed
• Expecting Featured strip = automatic win
• Treating sponsor sidebar as a launch type
• Skipping FAQ when crawl or payment status confuses you mid-day

Honesty section

We do not claim invented traffic spikes from MakerHunt days. A good day is a concentrated attention window on a small indie network. Prep compounds more than SKU upgrades. If you need the money map, read pricing explained before you pay for “better timing.” Timing is UTC. Payment skips crawl or buys chrome. Neither moves the sun.

Next step

Run launch checklist, pick a date that matches UTC reality, then submit. Pricing questions: pricing. Edge cases: FAQ.