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RankPic (https://www.rankpic.info https://www.rankpic.info) is an app to help users crowdsource their best photo. I've been building over the past 3 years & ju

RankPic (https://www.rankpic.info https://www.rankpic.info) is an app to help users crowdsource their best photo. I've been building over the past 3 years & just recently monetized and crossed the $500/m mark through a Pro subscription. It's grown into a lovely community of people who help each other pick their best pictures for dating apps, professional photos etc. I've seen some pretty fun novel use cases, such as (multiple!) people using it to pick out glasses, wedding invites & so on -- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rankpic-photo-ranking/id1602991264 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rankpic-photo-ranking/id160299... (ios) -- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.rankpic.rankpic https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.rankpic.ra... (android)

mettamage 2y ago
Out of curiosity, why did you start this? I've always used photofeeler.
- bengold14 2y ago
  Thanks for asking! I also used photofeeler and found the way it rated me 1-10 fairly harmful to my mental health. RankPic has users rank your photos best to worst, so it's just against yourself. Additionally it allows users to get more mileage out of each test, when you can do 2-6 photos instead of just one at a time. Anecdotally I've also heard it is a more fun experience for the rankers.
  - themdonuts 2y ago
    Very smart the best to worst ranking. Well done!
    - bengold14 2y ago
      Thank you! The ranking queue was a fun thing to implement.
  - mettamage 2y ago
    That answer is very inspiring, thanks :) Are you up for a digital coffee? If so, my email is in my profile. While I haven't been an entrepreneur, I did some side projects. Would be fun to chat about it.
    - bengold14 2y ago
      Thanks! Emailed :)
Nashooo 2y ago
Without any offense to you, the creator of this app. It's obvious a lot of care went into it and you wanted to create a better product than what is out there. Even considering the mental impact such ranking could have. However, I genuinely feel that the need for this app is what's wrong with society.
- bengold14 2y ago
  No offense taken, I also have many qualms about the role looks and photos play in our society. The destruction & gamification of social interaction by tech is a genuine harm. Unfortunately it's what we're dealing with right now, and people need feedback to be able to play the game.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- apt-apt-apt-apt 2y ago
  What's wrong with this? Seems like a more independent alternative to asking a friend which picture looks better.
- quacksilver 2y ago
  I personally would prefer a randomly selected load of strangers to vote on, say, my best corporate headshot to display to the general public rather than my friends who are a small and biased group. I guess the people that self-select to go on a photo ranking site may not be representative of the general public, though are probably better than the (all male) 10ish engineers and 3 accountants that I socialize with on a regular basis.
windowshopping 2y ago
How did you design and build your homepage? I find that building the landing page and making it look like a professional, beautiful design is one of my biggest hurdles. I'm an experienced web developer but without a design to work off of - and especially accounting for mobile and dynamic sizing - I really struggle with this part of the work so I'm wondering what other people's workflows are for it.
- bengold14 2y ago
  I used fiverr to make assets, and then either use fiverr to make a design that I can easily build with one of the website building tools (wix, etc.) or I try to build it myself. The easiest way is to find a landing page you think looks good and use it as inspiration with your own colors, assets, etc.
- monadile 2y ago
  In case you're looking for a designer, I can help you with the design especially mobile as I have worked on mobile apps that are live on app store and play store. feel free to check out my work : https://monadile.framer.website/ https://monadile.framer.website/ You can also reach out via email : monadile.design(at)gmail.com
  - windowshopping 2y ago
    Thank you, but I probably will do this myself. For what it's worth - and I'm saying this constructively, not to offend - your website is illegible due to contrast issues. White titles and light grey text against a light blue background. I was sure it must be some kind of error but I turned off all my extensions and loaded it incognito in chrome and nothing changed, so, I don't know what conclusion to draw there. It just doesn't make a very good impression for a designer.
jd24 2y ago
How does an app like this work in the beginning when you have no/few users? Were you ranking images yourself or hire people to it?
- bengold14 2y ago
  I got all my friends to go on it and spent lots of time ranking people myself. I also started things off with "fake" tests so that people had other people to rank at the beginning, otherwise folks would just see a dead app and drop off. It was a really big moment 9 months in when someone's test completed entirely without me ranking. It was a lot of work & I'm really glad to be at a point now where I get to watch people rank each other without me.
KomoD 2y ago
I think "raters" should be able to skip because some categories are strange. Like I just got "Category: Monster girls" with 2 pictures of anime. I also got "Category: Dating" with 4 family pictures of kids (I reported this one)

mettamage 2y ago

Out of curiosity, why did you start this? I've always used photofeeler.

bengold14 2y ago
Thanks for asking! I also used photofeeler and found the way it rated me 1-10 fairly harmful to my mental health. RankPic has users rank your photos best to worst, so it's just against yourself. Additionally it allows users to get more mileage out of each test, when you can do 2-6 photos instead of just one at a time. Anecdotally I've also heard it is a more fun experience for the rankers.
- themdonuts 2y ago
  Very smart the best to worst ranking. Well done!
  - bengold14 2y ago
    Thank you! The ranking queue was a fun thing to implement.
- mettamage 2y ago
  That answer is very inspiring, thanks :) Are you up for a digital coffee? If so, my email is in my profile. While I haven't been an entrepreneur, I did some side projects. Would be fun to chat about it.
  - bengold14 2y ago
    Thanks! Emailed :)

Nashooo 2y ago

Without any offense to you, the creator of this app. It's obvious a lot of care went into it and you wanted to create a better product than what is out there. Even considering the mental impact such ranking could have. However, I genuinely feel that the need for this app is what's wrong with society.

bengold14 2y ago
No offense taken, I also have many qualms about the role looks and photos play in our society. The destruction & gamification of social interaction by tech is a genuine harm. Unfortunately it's what we're dealing with right now, and people need feedback to be able to play the game.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
apt-apt-apt-apt 2y ago
What's wrong with this? Seems like a more independent alternative to asking a friend which picture looks better.
quacksilver 2y ago
I personally would prefer a randomly selected load of strangers to vote on, say, my best corporate headshot to display to the general public rather than my friends who are a small and biased group. I guess the people that self-select to go on a photo ranking site may not be representative of the general public, though are probably better than the (all male) 10ish engineers and 3 accountants that I socialize with on a regular basis.

windowshopping 2y ago

How did you design and build your homepage? I find that building the landing page and making it look like a professional, beautiful design is one of my biggest hurdles. I'm an experienced web developer but without a design to work off of - and especially accounting for mobile and dynamic sizing - I really struggle with this part of the work so I'm wondering what other people's workflows are for it.

bengold14 2y ago
I used fiverr to make assets, and then either use fiverr to make a design that I can easily build with one of the website building tools (wix, etc.) or I try to build it myself. The easiest way is to find a landing page you think looks good and use it as inspiration with your own colors, assets, etc.
monadile 2y ago
In case you're looking for a designer, I can help you with the design especially mobile as I have worked on mobile apps that are live on app store and play store. feel free to check out my work : https://monadile.framer.website/ https://monadile.framer.website/ You can also reach out via email : monadile.design(at)gmail.com
- windowshopping 2y ago
  Thank you, but I probably will do this myself. For what it's worth - and I'm saying this constructively, not to offend - your website is illegible due to contrast issues. White titles and light grey text against a light blue background. I was sure it must be some kind of error but I turned off all my extensions and loaded it incognito in chrome and nothing changed, so, I don't know what conclusion to draw there. It just doesn't make a very good impression for a designer.

jd24 2y ago

How does an app like this work in the beginning when you have no/few users? Were you ranking images yourself or hire people to it?

bengold14 2y ago
I got all my friends to go on it and spent lots of time ranking people myself. I also started things off with "fake" tests so that people had other people to rank at the beginning, otherwise folks would just see a dead app and drop off. It was a really big moment 9 months in when someone's test completed entirely without me ranking. It was a lot of work & I'm really glad to be at a point now where I get to watch people rank each other without me.

KomoD 2y ago

I think "raters" should be able to skip because some categories are strange. Like I just got "Category: Monster girls" with 2 pictures of anime. I also got "Category: Dating" with 4 family pictures of kids (I reported this one)