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Where and how should someone announce an open source application they would like the wider public to try?

Obviously they can post their code somewhere like Github. There used to be Freshmeat, which has been closed down and superseded, possibly because it wasn't popular?

So where is the best place?

Does Stack Exchange provide a relevant service?

gnat
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  • Who is your target audience? – Philipp Jun 16 '15 at 15:41
  • I was looking for the most generic option. In this case homepage owners, bloggers, writers. Also potentially server owners who provide services to their users. –  Jun 16 '15 at 15:45
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    @Fox I think there is no generic option, or at least no generic option which works well enough in general case. Viable options may vary between App Store/Google Play and manually collected list of emails. It really depends on what app you have. – scriptin Jun 16 '15 at 23:31
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    this question should be moved to [Stackexchange open-source](http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/82234/open-source) – k3b Jun 17 '15 at 12:33
  • @k3b [the site is live now](http://opensource.stackexchange.com/q/565/168), I'm not 100% sure it's a good fit, but we should definitely give it a try. I can send an invite if anyone wants to ask this question there, I will need your email though. – overactor Jun 28 '15 at 10:27
  • @overactor include me. How do I send you my email privately? –  Jun 28 '15 at 11:30
  • @Fox Join me in chat [here](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/25287/discussion-between-fox-and-overactor), I'll give you my email there. – overactor Jun 28 '15 at 12:04
  • @Fox, scratch that, you can apparently just join the private beta through [area51](http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/82234/open-source) – overactor Jun 29 '15 at 07:00

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Placing your software on Github makes it visible to other developers who would like to help. But when you are looking for users, you need to go where your users are. So unless your users are other developers, Github is not the right website to attract them.

Define your target audience, find out which websites they meet on, and announce your project there.

Philipp
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  • So no _dominant_ websites serving as software repositories? I know of alternativeto.net for example, but I hoped there might be better ones. –  Jun 16 '15 at 19:54
  • @Fox There are lots and lots of download websites for assorted gratis software. But usually people don't browse through these websites looking for software they could need. Usually people have a specific problem, google "how to solve problem X?", find some forum post where someone says "Maybe try using Fox Problem X Solver", then they google for "Fox Problem X Solver Download" and then they find the download site. But without the forum post they would never have found your software. – Philipp Jun 22 '15 at 09:22