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Show HN: Spiral – A Reddit-inspired local message board app

getspiralapp.com

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Re: Show HN: Spiral – A Reddit-inspired local message board app

#2

Post by dingdingdang »

Is this really first/only app to make efficient use of geo-data or..? Looks sleek/fine to me, but of course the uptake is going to be the defining factor with this stuff.. FB & co. could kill it in an instant by enabling a similar feature in already existing networks..

Re: Show HN: Spiral – A Reddit-inspired local message board app

#3

Post by m1chael3ma »

dingdingdang wrote: post #2

Is this really first/only app to make efficient use of geo-data or..? Looks sleek/fine to me, but of course the uptake is going to be the defining factor with this stuff.. FB & co. could kill it in an instant by enabling a similar feature in already existing networks..

dingdingdang, it's not the first app to use geo-data and we agree the uptake is going to be super important (especially uptake in one geographical area). I do think FB and other companies at it's core care mostly about your social graph vs. we're more concerned about what strangers or friends around you are doing. Facebook has "nearby friends" for example but doesn't give you any info on people who have similar interests around you.

Re: Show HN: Spiral – A Reddit-inspired local message board app

#4

Post by danielsht »

m1chael3ma wrote: post #3
dingdingdang wrote: post #2

Is this really first/only app to make efficient use of geo-data or..? Looks sleek/fine to me, but of course the uptake is going to be the defining factor with this stuff.. FB & co. could kill it in an instant by enabling a similar feature in already existing networks..

dingdingdang, it's not the first app to use geo-data and we agree the uptake is going to be super important (especially uptake in one geographical area). I do think FB and other companies at it's core care mostly about your social graph vs. we're more concerned about what strangers or friends around you are doing. Facebook has "nearby friends" for example but doesn't give you any info on people who have similar inter…

Also Twitter has Tweets near me... but its really hard to have a conversation on Twitter. I can retweet or tweet back at someone, but more than 3 people is hard

Re: Show HN: Spiral – A Reddit-inspired local message board app

#7

Post by danielsht »

josephschmoe wrote: post #5

What tools\libraries did you make this with? The UI is very responsive. Edit: I mean the Android version.

We are using the Java Play framework for the REST API, MongoDB as our DB. MongoDB has geospatial index support that makes geo queries pretty efficient. For iOS, pretty standard Cocoa libraries... glad you think its responsive :) On Android, also pretty standard libraries.

We designed the client to be very light and do as much processing on the server and also are very careful to do as much asynchronous work as possible (networking a must)

Re: Show HN: Spiral – A Reddit-inspired local message board app

#9

Post by 27182818284 »

"Login with Facebook"

That's too bad. I was looking forward to trying it, but re-creating a Facebook account deleted years ago and then dealing with new friend emails, etc, isn't worth it to me.

* I'm happy you also have an Android version

* I'm sad that it requires Facebook. Note that Reddit even apologizes for using a captcha during registration, and does not require an email address to this day.

Re: Show HN: Spiral – A Reddit-inspired local message board app

#10

Post by m1chael3ma »

eglover wrote: post #6

Not only is is app only, but facebook only. Why??

Definitely a point we’re constantly evaluating and feedback is appreciated.

We think that by bringing some identity into the app there can be more useful interactions and bad behavior self-policed. We’re working off an assumption that people are, on the whole, pretty awesome, and we shouldn’t fall back on anonymous as the only way to engage seriously in the public sphere. What do you think? Would you add other social logins? Twitter?

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