

Show HN: Pictorious - an app to participate in and create memes - albertchung
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pictorious/id501455832?ls=1&mt=8

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albertchung
Pictorious is a game where you and your friends participate in and create
memes. We're combining the fun game mechanics of social games (Draw Something,
Words with Friends) with the ubiquitous activity of photo-sharing. Would love
to hear the HN community's feedback on our little project!

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true_religion
I really like the concept of it, but I can't give feedback here on the app
because I don't have an iPhone.

I think initially people will be excited to play contests against one another,
but the issue I've dealt with in the past is: (a) someone starts winning
massively and the contest becomes stale or (b) there's too many contests, and
the community is spread out too thinly.

~~~
albertchung
Thanks for the feedback... will definitely watch out for those 2 things going
forward. Were the contests you were running for groups of friends or for the
broader public? (we're experimenting with both)

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mindhunter
Just tried to register. Pop up appeared:

"Password must be at least 6 characters long and can only contain numbers and
letters."

I'm fine with a length limitation, but limiting the character-set - WTF? Stop
this right now.

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albertchung
Hi mindhunter thanks for the feedback. I think we had put the same character
limitation on the pw as we had on the username. Agree with you that shouldn't
be the case and it will be changed in the next version. Welcome any other
feedback if you have any.

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jonny_eh
So it's like that episode of South Park?

<http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/411094/the-newest-meme>

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albertchung
Haha... this is great. I think I will use this in a presentation.

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peteysd
Neat idea. How do you plan to monetize?

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clarky07
Sell to facebook for a billion dollars?

Seriously, do you have any plans of how to make money? The server costs on
this could get really high if it actually becomes popular. Then you have a
hugely successful app that is actively losing you money.

~~~
albertchung
Yep, we have thought through a number of different monetization strategies
including sponsored challenges, private games / events, virtual goods and paid
/ ad-supported versions. The most important thing right now for us, though, is
building a product that people love. With that in mind, we'd love any feedback
you might have from that perspective.

~~~
clarky07
I'm not sure I'm your target market as I'm not much for photo sharing type
stuff. That being said I think the app looks great and was pretty interesting
for the brief time I browsed it.

I'm just a bit annoyed at all the, "We'll get a few million users and then
worry about how to make money." When I see a service I like that doesn't have
any way of making money I'm scared it will go away. Note this isn't how the
masses think, but it is how software devs think.

<http://blog.pinboard.in/2011/12/don_t_be_a_free_user/>

~~~
albertchung
I agree, I think it's unfortunate when services get shut down post
acquisition.

I also agree with you that all startups should have a clear path to
monetization. I would assume that institutional investors would require as
much before investing, but I think that would probably be assuming too much
these days.

However, I don't think that all startups should "turn on" the monetization
immediately. For those us trying to build two-sided platforms, we need to get
one side of the platform on first. Typically this will be the users as brands
and retailers are still very much focused on reach and are very slow to make
decisions.

~~~
clarky07
while i agree, in most cases I personally believe the monetization should
start at the beginning. If it's going to be ad supported, adding that later
will annoy users for example.

Some of the other things you mentioned I don't think would hinder growth at
all. i.e. maybe in app purchase for the private section or sponsored
challenges etc. It just seems to me too many good services get shut down
because people don't think about how it is going to be profitable.

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citroburst
hmm.. this is actually pretty fun

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kylecp
Awesome!

