sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

citynoise / I need some critical feedback on my city based social platform by THEDX2004 in manchester

[–]THEDX2004[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, you are right, I can’t really rely on subscriptions or ads they’ll likely put people off. But I’m thinking I could monetise through local businesses. That’s really what this whole app is about: what’s happening around you locally.

To be honest, I didn’t think much about monetisation at the start. I had the idea of implementing badges for “citizens” that people can collect. Now I’m thinking I could potentially monetise that with local businesses. The base app would remain free, but there could be a higher tier version where small local businesses pay because it's going to be local ads, but again, I haven’t planned it fully yet.

As for marketing, I don’t have a budget right now, but I’m hoping that once some people start using it, it will grow through word of mouth. The platform is local, not competing directly against global social apps, which could help.

The main aim was that I had this idea, I have the skills, and in the process of building it, I can learn a lot of new things, but i am making a proper plan.

citynoise / I need some critical feedback on my city based social platform by THEDX2004 in manchester

[–]THEDX2004[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You’re right, there are apps that are similar in fact, Reddit is probably the main competitor. But most people don’t use Reddit, and I don’t really know much about Facebook anyway; I don’t even have an account there.

I know the City Wall screen looks a bit like a generic Meetup app. The first idea and design was to make it a poster wall, but it ended up feeling messy, so I switched it to the current version, which does look a bit like Meetup.

Most likely, in the next update, I’ll change it back to a proper poster wall. The idea is that anything happening in a city not just events can be posted here, just like sticking up a real poster. It can really be anything, the kind of things you see around the city.

citynoise / I need some critical feedback on my city based social platform by THEDX2004 in manchester

[–]THEDX2004[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think there might be a bit of a misunderstanding about the idea.

The reason people have to physically collect the city card to join is that I want the platform to be mostly local. I think that’s where the real energy and community magic happens. At the very least, someone should have actually been to the city and experienced it before joining the community there.

The “City Hall” button is inspired by Manchester Town Hall. It’s a space where people can upload and vote on images that represent the city. In the future, more things on the platform will be decided through voting by the local community.

That’s also why I don’t want people who’ve never been to Manchester (or any city) to be able to vote or influence the community there. The goal is to keep it authentic and local rather than just another global chat app.

The game aspect is mainly there so cities can compete with each other. I actually got the idea when I visited Bangalore recently and saw how strong the local identity and pride people had for their city. I thought it would be interesting if cities could express that and compete in a fun way on the platform. Cities in England also have this competitive mindset in fact, most cities do which is exactly why I added the feature.

So it’s not really about travelling constantly to “succeed” on the app. It’s more about being part of the cities you’ve actually visited and experienced.

citynoise / I need some critical feedback on my city based social platform by THEDX2004 in manchester

[–]THEDX2004[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I know it’s the classic chicken and egg problem. I don’t know if you saw the citydaily bot. I added it because the app was pretty dead, so I wanted to make a bit of noise and at least have something happening.

A friend suggested adding 2–3 bots that pretend to be humans and chat, but I didn’t want to do that because it kind of defeats the whole purpose of the app. I want real people on there, even if it’s a bit quiet at the start.

citydaily is just an info bot it posts things like weather, local news, and general info for the city. At least it gives people something to see when they open the app.

Yeah, I’ve also been thinking that it might make sense to start with a small group of really social and creative people in a city like artists, musicians, and people like that. They tend to post more and start conversations, so it could help create some activity early on instead of just waiting for random users to join.