Show HN: I made a web app that tells you if your food is spicy | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: I made a web app that tells you if your food is spicy

dieornot.com

9 pointspomdevv43 comments

Hi HN ! I made a web app to check if an item on the menu is potentially spicy ?

Problem: I recently arrived in Korea, and I quickly realized that if my girlfriend is not with me, I don't know what would try to kill my tastebuds.

I could ask, but I'm shy and my broken korean wouldn't help much.

And trying to find an answer online is time consuming, navigating between 10 paragraphs blogs.

Solution: So i made this simple gpt wrapper that takes in a dish name in any language, and gives you a clear answer right away.

Keep in mind that this is my first app and an mvp, to validate the idea.

But I'm welcoming any feedback, especially if it can improve my next projects.

Thanks for your time guys :)

Open articleView on HN

I might be interested in trying this if you didn't make me create an account to do so.

I realize now that it causes too much friction. How can i limit free uses without people creating accounts ?

Put each request in a queue, process N requests a second and tell people how many people are in front of them/how long it will be. Adjust the N requests per second based on how much you want to spend max

Maybe something like this: save prior responses and let anyone see those, only requiring an account to ask for new ones.

Oh interesting one I keep note

Rate limit it by ip address (and/or combination of other request/header data), and be transparent about the limits. Have a blurb asking users not to abuse it by keeping requests to a minimum. Captcha every nth request. I could go on.

Why do you want to limit free uses? Is it because it costs you money, or because you think there's a product worth paying for here?

I note all those ideas. It costs me money to use the API

You need more strategic thinking: if you get so many people trying to use this thing that you can't afford you bills you have an excellent problem with a million solutions

My first thought was this must be a joke if you expect me to login to use it

All the feedbacks are so useful. I'll repost with the changes ;)

With IP addresses or cookies.

OAuth could make the signup process simpler.

Oooh I see. Thank you

I can't try it without an account, but generally, I wouldn't trust it. I know people who think Dentyne gum (the normal "classic" variety) is uncomfortably 'spicy'. Everyone is sensitive to spices at a different level and I wouldn't trust an AI to know.

A tool like this isn't a bad idea but it seems like it would require some calibration on an individual basis (which is a good excuse for requiring an account honestly) and each user would probably need to tell the app what they consider 'spicy' before it could try to recommend against things with a higher level of spiciness. An AI might give you an idea about how most people feel, when it wasn't outright lying, but comparing a food against what other users with a similar threshold thought would be better.

Oooh so making it more tailored to the user spice sensitivity : great idea ! You're right, at the moment it answers more based on general knowledge, and hasn't such nuances

Isn't the Scoville scale already the objective way to say how spicy things are?

What does it say about sriracha? I know people who find it difficult to tolerate and some who find it sweet!

Says it's spicy

Kinda useless at times. I eat hot sauces and hot chilis but can't stand normal green pepper in cream sauce :P (I like it, but it feels as spicy to me as habaneros).

Also what about Wasabi and horseradish? Scoville is good for chilis and hot sauce products with a rating.

I dont think most spicy dishes or processed foods have been evaluated on the scoville scale. Really only peppers.

And, even then, I’ve found the same sort of pepper varies wildly in how spicy it tastes: I’ve had jalapeños that were barely spicier than a bell pepper and jalapeños that were eye-watering (and I can take quite a bit spice-wise).

I could include it in the answer. What do you think ?

Sorry, will not create an account for this.

Don’t worry about over usage. It will die off soon unless it hits off the park..

Actually I think it’s a pseudo-rule (guideline) that Show HN posts should have an account-free demo.

> Please make it easy for users to try your thing out, ideally without barriers such as signups or emails. You'll get more feedback that way.

Is the exact quote.

The source for that quote is the "Show HN Guidelines", which can be found here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html

Lesson learned :)

Haha ok, no problem

Same, friend. You need to get rid of the login barrier. It's going to cause the vast majority of people to bounce.

If you have this instrumented with analytics, I'd wager 90+% of people are leaving. (Posting the retro might make for an interesting HN follow-up.)

88 ^^' . You're right, I'll remove the login barrier, and repost with the follow up. Hope to see you there :)

Update the page to have some sort of free demo or example and then repost :)

Requiring a login (or god forbid a credit card) to is a huge amount of friction that gets in the way of people playing with your product and getting excited about it.

Yeah hard realization ^^ Will change it

I think it would be neat if you could take a picture of a restaurant menu or food item, and then tell me if that's spicy. As other comments mention, maybe you can't read Korean or whatever, and this would kind of combine Google Translate and the spiciness detector.

That's exactly the next feature in line. I actually started this idea with this functionality in mind, but it was a little complex for me to start with. But I will definitely implement this if people want it

I wish the name "hot or not" wasn't already taken - that would be perfect for this!

This comment made me think of the Not Hotdog app from Silicone Valley!

Not hor ot.. Sounds korean too a little bit.. hor ot not.. hoot.

... Will it burn?

Hahahaha

Exactly !

Consider adding allergens, too.

Btw. I'm not sure if someone has already noticed, but.. It wants an account.

Ooooh awesome idea

Why the question mark at the end of the title? Did you or did you not make that app?

Hehe oops

Just ask chatgpt

But you have to type so many words :'(

Does it work with hot dogs?

^^ yeah

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