

Show HN: Create a portfolio of the mobile apps you've built - satjot
http://tapfame.com
Tapfame is the easiest way to create a portfolio of all the mobile apps you've worked on.  Once you create a portfolio you will start receiving freelance gigs that businesses and companies post.
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ken
I'm seeing a pattern here (and this is not a criticism of Tapfame, though I'd
love to hear their perspective).

There seems to be general agreement that a startup should build something
people want. The most common response here (and with similar apps, in recent
memory) is people saying they don't want to have to register with another
service like Facebook to use it. And yet, people keep building websites that
do just that, and indicate that they will not change this.

Is Facebook so big that startups can afford to blow off everyone who doesn't
use it? Is integrating with Facebook's identity system so much easier than
writing your own that it saves significant development time? Is there a
strategic plan to do something unique with Facebook later?

I'm not saying anyone should do product design by surveying users, and I admit
I'm not a great product designer, but when potential users all say "I'm not
going to use this product because it makes me jump through hoop X" (and X
isn't a fundamental component), my response would be to remove X.

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potatolicious
> _"And yet, people keep building websites that do just that, and indicate
> that they will not change this."_

IMO there are two salient points to this:

1 - The people who really, really dislike logging in with Facebook (to the
point where they will refuse to participate) are a small but vocal minority.
Even in the tech industry itself.

2 - The strong dislike for using Facebook login is many-fold. For most people
it comes down to abuse of the Facebook link (e.g., spamming things onto your
feed, messaging your friends, being in general awful), and that is a trust
issue that can be mitigated with the correct positioning and assurances. The
people who are against cross-network authentication on principle (as opposed
to some negative artifact of its current implementation) are an even smaller
camp, and they're the only ones you're really guaranteed to lose out on.

> _"but when potential users all say "I'm not going to use this product
> because it makes me jump through hoop X" (and X isn't a fundamental
> component), my response would be to remove X."_

1 - Beware of what your users say, it is not always what they want, or what
they would use. People are extraordinarily bad at guessing their own
motivations, if you took all feedback literally at face value, you might be
screwed. A complaint against X may be actually a complaint against sub-
component Y, or the interaction of X with unrelated bit Z.

2 - The benefit here _vastly_ outweighs the objections. The numbers have shown
this again, and again, and again, _and again_ , that when given the option to
do a one-click signin vs. filling out a form (and giving out your email
address, _again_ ), people will overwhelmingly choose the former.

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ja27
It looks like I have to manually enter each app's URL. I like how easy it was
to try Kickfolio - just enter app names. <http://kickfolio.com/>

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satjot
Do you know someone there? Would love to chat.

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danielamitay
They're just querying the app store search API:
[http://itunes.apple.com/search?entity=software&term=$APP...](http://itunes.apple.com/search?entity=software&term=$APP_NAME)

This is the same search API that Apple uses for the App Store, and returns the
same order and results as Kickfolio. The first result is usually correct, but
you could always double check with the developer.

Example:
[http://itunes.apple.com/search?entity=software&term=Shar...](http://itunes.apple.com/search?entity=software&term=ShareCal)

~~~
chrisnolet
Nice work! Daniel is pretty much spot on. We run the search term through a
regex to see if the user has entered an iTunes URL first (as we accept either
search terms or URLs), then we pass the search term to the search API listed
above. There is a little magic in sorting the results and a little magic in
combining results from the different international stores. We started with
that though and it gets great results. There are a couple of (fairly old)
Rails gems for it too.

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philippb
I like the idea. When I worked at appbackr we thought about something similar.

It would be cool when there is a little more data in the about the performance
of the app. I think of it like a dribble for app developers that keeps itself
up to date. As we're programmers we don't want to maintain it :)

You should talk to my friends from appmonsta. They have a lot of data around
apps. Maybe you can work something out.

~~~
satjot
Thanks for the feedback and suggestions. Can you shoot me an email satjot at
tapfame ?

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spaghetti
Please provide alternatives to fb login. What are other ways to vet someone's
identity or prevent outsourcing firms from creating profiles?

~~~
satjot
Linkedin maybe?

What if we let developers create portfolios without social identies. Then, if
they do want to be notified about freelance gigs they would need to connect
their Fb/Linkedin.

~~~
spaghetti
I definitely prefer Linkedin over Facebook.

The multi-stage approach could work. When a developer creates a nice profile
it will probably get interest from people seeking freelancers. You can then
entice developers to add social identities with something like "123 people
were interested in your profile. Verify your identity and contact them
today!".

I forget how eLance does the identity verification. iirc it was on the
thorough side. Perhaps more work than you want to invest now but perhaps worth
it later.

~~~
satjot
noted. thanks!

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gamzer
Interesting idea!

Not sure why but I have only read your main headline when I looked at the page
for the third time. My attention was completely drawn to anything below that
blue-black bar. It has almost camouflage-like properties.

In the featured portfolio all tooltip app names are "App Name".

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arank
sorry. fixed the "app name" thing.

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autotravis
Am I the only one seeing the "e" cut off of "you've" on the site? :
<https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1634015/photos/tapfame.png>

~~~
satjot
What browser are you using?

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chomchom
I'd like to stick Novoda on it but we are a company of developers rather than
an individual: http;//www.novoda.com but I can only sign up as an individual
on Facebook.

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vellum
You should put up a screenshot on the front page. Also, the demo link just
looks like regular text.

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verganileonardo
I dont have a Facebook account. :/

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dheedene
has a really nice light feel to it

