[bengold14]

RankPic (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/id160299... (ios)

-- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.rankpic.ra... (android)

[jd24]

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]

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.

[windowshopping]

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]

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]

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/ You can also reach out via email : monadile.design(at)gmail.com

[mettamage]

Out of curiosity, why did you start this?

I've always used photofeeler.

[bengold14]

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.

[KomoD]

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)

[Nashooo]

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.

[apt-apt-apt-apt]

What's wrong with this? Seems like a more independent alternative to asking a friend which picture looks better.

[quacksilver]

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.

[bengold14]

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.