Show HN: Spotsy – iPhone app to discover the world through Instagram • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Spotsy – iPhone app to discover the world through Instagram

#31

Post by bitsweet » Fri, Apr 25, 2014, 4:48 PM UTC

wlindner wrote: post #4

bitsweet wrote: post #2

Nice work. I've always wondered why Instagram has made it so difficult to find photos by location. Update: why do you require my Instagram username/pwd when they support OAuth? Not a fan

RE not using OAuth: I did that because users had a lot of trouble using the oauth login, so I basically just pass the users credentials to the oauth page. If you prefer oauth just press "Forgot Password" in the login popup and press the go back link, it will bring you to the standard Instagram login and will work the same.

that worked. I'd probably feel comfortable if there was just a disclaimer that said you don't store credentials on the login page. I'm probably too trusting but I like it when product designers are thoughtful enough to explain what is done with credentials/data.

Re: Show HN: Spotsy – iPhone app to discover the world through Instagram

#32

Post by BenjaminN » Fri, Apr 25, 2014, 5:07 PM UTC

resu wrote: post #10

I don't have an iphone and can't try the app. Is it similar to http://smwh.re and http://www.travyde.com/explore ?

Hey man, thanks for linking Somewhere. Funny how Travyde totally stole my design! I'm glad their whole website is awful.

Re: Show HN: Spotsy – iPhone app to discover the world through Instagram

#33

Post by ahmadss » Fri, Apr 25, 2014, 5:34 PM UTC

sixQuarks wrote: post #17

Not really useful when so many geolocated images are so random. I don't necessarily want to see people's selfies or food pictures if I'm trying to see pics from a certain location.

please do provide some feedback / insight on what you'd like to see. thanks!

Re: Show HN: Spotsy – iPhone app to discover the world through Instagram

#34

Post by ahmadss » Fri, Apr 25, 2014, 5:35 PM UTC

pixelcort wrote: post #9

In Tokyo it's just pictures of food. I wonder if there was a way to detect pictures of food automatically so it could be filtered out.

as mentioned in an earlier post, mind sharing what else you'd like to see instead of food? how else would you like to use spotsy?

Re: Show HN: Spotsy – iPhone app to discover the world through Instagram

#35

Post by sixQuarks » Fri, Apr 25, 2014, 5:46 PM UTC

ahmadss wrote: post #33

sixQuarks wrote: post #17

Not really useful when so many geolocated images are so random. I don't necessarily want to see people's selfies or food pictures if I'm trying to see pics from a certain location.

please do provide some feedback / insight on what you'd like to see. thanks!

Well, if I'm just wanting to check out photos, I want to see actual photos of the places. Not people taking selfies, close-up shots of food, or photos that are not relevant.

The value of spotsy, however, is that you get to see which local spots have the most instagram photos associated with it, which provides value in a different sort of way.

I can see the usefulness of the app in that regard, but not as a photo browsing app.

Re: Show HN: Spotsy – iPhone app to discover the world through Instagram

#36

Post by wlindner » Fri, Apr 25, 2014, 5:57 PM UTC

lalos wrote: post #30

A good lesson people can learn from your app is that you offer a good chunk of functionality and what to expect before logging in and that motivates the end user to login and keep on browsing. Awesome work!

Yeah, that was an important feature for onboarding new users. I wish people didn't have to log in, but Instagram (understandably) has API limits that require logging in once you have a lot of activity.

Re: Show HN: Spotsy – iPhone app to discover the world through Instagram

#37

Post by greggman » Fri, Apr 25, 2014, 5:58 PM UTC

maxerickson wrote: post #22

danso wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that social norms need to become better (i.e., people need to be better and more decent), but you have to consider why publicizing this info (not in this particular case, but for any given person and any given content) is not considered illegal in the United States, currently: such a law would almost certainly be used to squash freedom of expression. This has been the case long before Instagram and the Intern…

Sure. I suppose part of the problem is that we talk about privacy, when really it's publicity that has changed. The situation where basically every individual can create recordings and publish them to the entire world is actually somewhat novel. We reach for analogies about privacy, but really we need to think about what sort of rights people have to their own publicity.

What about the idea that maybe our ideas of privacy / publicity are shaped by what we're used to rather than any universal laws. In other words, if we were to grow up in a society that didn't experience much privacy maybe we'd just accept it as the norm.

I'm not making a judgement which is better. The old way or some other way. Only trying to point out the fact that we had more privacy in the past isn't in and of itself better. It just is.

Re: Show HN: Spotsy – iPhone app to discover the world through Instagram

#38

Post by hpriebe » Fri, Apr 25, 2014, 5:59 PM UTC

danso wrote: post #7

Instagram's search-by-geo-coordinates endpoint is one feature that makes the API so valuable and interesting...Other services have it, of course, but Instagram's version has higher value because geolocation is turned on by default...I read somewhere that maybe 2-5% of Tweets have geodata, whereas Instagram content is at 30 to 50%. The investigative newsroom ProPublica (disclosure: my former employer) had a fun use-ca…

Really interesting to hear that ProPublica used this sort of feature in a news context.

What other methods did you guys use to investigate "unpublicized" events/occurrences? What barriers did you face to finding that info in general?

Re: Show HN: Spotsy – iPhone app to discover the world through Instagram

#39

Post by maxerickson » Fri, Apr 25, 2014, 6:30 PM UTC

greggman wrote: post #37

maxerickson wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. I suppose part of the problem is that we talk about privacy, when really it's publicity that has changed. The situation where basically every individual can create recordings and publish them to the entire world is actually somewhat novel. We reach for analogies about privacy, but really we need to think about what sort of rights people have to their own publicity.

What about the idea that maybe our ideas of privacy / publicity are shaped by what we're used to rather than any universal laws. In other words, if we were to grow up in a society that didn't experience much privacy maybe we'd just accept it as the norm. I'm not making a judgement which is better. The old way or some other way. Only trying to point out the fact that we had more privacy in the past isn't in and of its…

I only expressed it implicitly above, but I am making a judgement about what is better. I would absolutely prefer it if people did not casually direct the internet ray-beam at people that are not interested in its attention. At the same time, I would like those other people to be able to use the internet without paying intense attention to the consequences of each action they take.

If that makes me some sort of stodgy conservative that has been shaped by the past, so be it.

Re: Show HN: Spotsy – iPhone app to discover the world through Instagram

#40

Post by danso » Fri, Apr 25, 2014, 7:14 PM UTC

hpriebe wrote: post #38

danso wrote: post #7

Instagram's search-by-geo-coordinates endpoint is one feature that makes the API so valuable and interesting...Other services have it, of course, but Instagram's version has higher value because geolocation is turned on by default...I read somewhere that maybe 2-5% of Tweets have geodata, whereas Instagram content is at 30 to 50%. The investigative newsroom ProPublica (disclosure: my former employer) had a fun use-ca…

Really interesting to hear that ProPublica used this sort of feature in a news context. What other methods did you guys use to investigate "unpublicized" events/occurrences? What barriers did you face to finding that info in general?

I'm no longer at PP so I can't speak for them (also didn't work on the aforementioned lobbyist story, but I admired the clever use of known data)...but I think invariably, every investigative story starts from traditional ways: a tip from a source on your beat or just plain research and knowledge of the domain. These newer techniques are just more domain-knowledge...lobbyist registration and activities can be found, in part, at House.gov. From that data, and records of Congressional travel, and patience to comb through PDFs, you can get more leads. If you mean engineering methods, such as machine-learning...I think the use of that is limited...not that people haven't tried (both in academia and in the news business) but because the datasets aren't organized or large enough to justify it.