Fake App Becomes Real | Hacker News Reader

Fake App Becomes Real

techcrunch.com

133 pointsdavislover19 comments

I wonder if being uberly social about things will eventually lead to the anti-social revolution. Who's in for creating the next big wave, "deface book"?

Actually, that's not a bad idea, Defacebook will let you create mustaches on your friend's profile pictures. ;-)

The marketing of apps has switched from "we're making old styles of connecting easier" (i.e. Facebook being a re-hash of existing college facebooks) to "you would never have really wanted to do this in the first place, but now it's easy so you will."

Word of mouth is STILL the best way to spread ideas, which is why platforms such as Twitter and Facebook remain viable. They're capable of being used in all sorts of ways, but their core strength is that they're simply about connecting people and then letting people decide how they want to share information. The more app developers attempt to structure what information people are sharing, the less useful the tool becomes - especially when it's information that was never really shared in the pre-social web age.

I agree, this is the aspect which makes this joke app more appealing in some ways than the real ones. The lack of constraints, the ability to rate anything, could be quite empowering for users and allow them to shape the service to suit them. In the same way that Twitter now has @links and #tags as a real feature but originally it was just text. This is paving the cowpaths and seems like a really strong way to build something as hard to nail down as a social network.

When did this launch? I downloaded it 5 minutes ago, made a quick account and posted a photo of a candle... and since then there have been multiple other users "nearby" that have rated things. I'm impressed how many people are actually using this.

Here's the posting on Scott Hansen's blog about the making of the original Jotly video. Quite inspired, although I shudder to think what would happen if Jotly actually proves to be a success. I'm not ready for anti-marketing copycats.

http://blog.iso50.com/25994/jotly-share-everything-with-ever...

Incidentally, Scott Hansen is also the guy behind Tycho Music. I just love unexpected connections like that.

When I wrote that article, we were joking about making it real. Now we're joking about it becoming successful. Here's to hoping two jokes come true :)

Well, it's more fun than it has any right to be. I fear it's the kind of thing that could collapse under its own weight in that if it were to get too big, everyone would try to use it as advertizing for their products, making it boring.

Lesson: a working, usable idea + Techcrunch promo = adoption.

And adoption is all that social services really need to get going, even if they're a joke. Longevity is a totally different matter of course.

Example of a rating via web. Thankfully they build a web view for ratings...

Stain on Couch: "D-" http://www.jotly.co/jot/75025

I've no idea who you are, but it looks like I now know where you live

Would you find it creepy or amusing if someone knocked on your door asking to view the famous stain?

[Edit: just got home and re-read this. It sounds like I'm planning a visit :/ I'm not]

Refreshing. So many trendy apps these days behind an app store or log-in wall.

Jesus Christ. I Zillowed the house in which this stain occurs.

Even in Nashville houses are .5 Mil. WTF.

Where can one live any longer without requiring 200K salary?

most places.

I found the live feed of Jots fun to watch: http://www.jotly.co/jots (potentially NSFW of course).

Also, I rated my evening at the computer as a B- and the founder commented and suggested that I try to watch some TV. And that's just hilarious.

Isn't this pretty much Oink?

Isn't that pretty much the point?

...or Stamped http://stamped.com/

Sadly, there's not much difference between Jotly & Oink.

No http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/13/four-letter-words/

Reply on news.ycombinator.com