I am not that interested in learning about alpha / vaporware projects. I find it in particularly annoying and time wasting when I have to spend significant time to figure out what the maturing is.

I think do think a lot of HN readers are, and there are good reasons for it like getting involved early, contributing, etc.

I think overall it is a positive to have these posts.

I think it would be helpful if headlines for projects / products included a convention to communicate the maturity of the projects / products they link to.

I am not a UX guy so I dont think I can come up with the best way of doing it.

(V/A/B/P/M)? Vaporware: (plans for something) Alpha: (Features have started to solidify, some code has been created) Beta: (Most features are implemented and seems to work) Production: (The product is now in production use, adopted and used by 3rd parties) Mature: (The product has been on the market for a couple or more years in production).

That is a code centric view. It should apply to physical projects as well.

A laptop product that consists of sketches and ideas. .. .. You can buy order one. Product has been on the market for couple or more years and is surviving

I may be the only user interested in such meta information, but I wanted to post this and see if there is broader interest.