

Ask HN: Review my startup, Snapherd.com - endtwist

So I've just launched Snapherd, a mobile photo game. Basically, every 48 hours a new catchword or catchphrase is given, and the goal is to take a picture of what you think best represents the subject matter.<p>The idea is simple, but I'd love to hear what the Hacker News community thinks!
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petervandijck
I like it too. Nice design. Nice concept. I think you need to convince 10
friends to snap lots of pictures to get things rolling, because right now it
looks pretty empty, and nobody likes an empty community site.

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endtwist
It should start filling up quite a bit more today...the word had just rolled
over last night (from "debate" to "absurd") and my friends have not submitted
new images quite yet. I do very much appreciate the input, though!

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wensing
<http://www.snapherd.com>

For convenience.

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calambrac
Why 48 hours? Would cycling catchwords in shorter increments do a better job
of keeping people engaged with the site? What's the smallest period of time
you can find that still yields decent photos?

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kenver
Really good idea and I like the site. You probably know, but when I tried to
find it with a search engine there was nothing there. You should probably do
something about that

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pxlpshr
We tried to do this last year when the "Safari SDK" was released, but the side
project died... I still think it's a great idea and you've executed it nicely.
There's another iPhone application that does something similar called Scavenge
built by the hosting company A Small Orange, however they currently do not
have the website component as far as I can tell.

<http://www.apptism.com/apps/scavenge>

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vaksel
did I see a sign for your site during last night's debate? Or was that
something else?

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endtwist
That was my sign during last night's pre- and post-debate, on MSNBC. It got me
a few new users, but not quite as many as I'd have hoped.

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walesmd
I like it - design is nice. What is the incentive for winning (other than
community)? I think this is a prime opportunity to purchase (or get one
donated) an iPhone or the T-Mobile G1 and give one away.

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tomsaffell
nice idea.

maybe you could try to tie the word of the day to current affairs in some way?

as for building traffic, maybe you could find a way for people to vote (or
even submit) w/o needing to login. you might need to bring the login back
ultimately, once it's popular - but do you need it now?

final thought - the home page runs off the bottom of the screen (at 1280 x
1024) by a good few hundred pixels. And the bottom is where all the real
content is. Maybe reshuffle and/or shrink?

cheers

tom saffell

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migpwr
I wish I didn't have to register to vote for a picture... i was about to vote
for deep fried candy bars on "absurd"

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mattjung
Simple, but appealing idea, nicely done. I'll keep an eye on it. How many
users do you have already?

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jsmcgd
I enjoyed the HL reference. I reckon all it needs now is some users and some
content. Well done.

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Tapthat
where.com did this a couple years back... It got some response but you
definitely need to find a way to get buzzzz

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joshu
Today's word is "mesothelioma"

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jcapote
openid support would be nice, but I love the idea.

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mwinters58
business model? grow traffic and sell ads?

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kenver
Offer prizes/incentives to people who manage to incorporate a second "sponsor"
type word.

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alaskamiller
cute design. kind of an addicting concept. should make this into an iphone
app. need to seed more, i only see two pics/words.

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tialys
Wow... and iPhone (or Android) app could be great for this! Start the app,
snap a pic and send it in with details about location and everything. It would
certainly put the site in front of a lot more people as well.

