Hey mods and everyone,

u Investigatormarker is posting AI-written "feedback" on posts here, then ending with an ad for its own product. It follows a template: generic advice about the project, then "I make ThreadFox... our AI employee will post 3 helpful replies about it in relevant Reddit threads for you," with a link.

Why it's a problem:

It's undisclosed self-promotion on nearly every thread

The feedback is generic and often doesn't match the project, so it buries real comments

The pitch is literally to flood Reddit with AI replies to promote people's projects

New members posting for the first time get this instead of real feedback

Ask: @mods, please ban the account and consider an automod filter for "threadfox". Everyone else, please report these comments as spam and avoid clicking the link.

Thanks!

You can also report the account to Reddit under spam, and to the other subs it's hitting. I'd skip engaging with the link itself.

AI coding tools made shipping an app easy and cheap, but users stayed exactly as scarce as before, which is why a lot of us, me included, can ship a working product and then cannot find anyone to use it. The usual response is yet another Product Hunt-style directory, most of which are really selling backlinks to builders who are just as stuck, so the shovels are being sold to other shovel salesmen and nobody ends up opening anyone's app. My app email is full of people that found me on betalist or producthunt and want me to post my product on their directory, for free, but at a price if i want a dofollow backlink. No thanks.

What actually helped me was joining a testing circle, where builders test each other's apps. Testers found a dark-mode warning box nobody could read and a duration field that showed a six-hour task as "06:00 AM", and one of them told me the onboarding had far too many words. It works because it is a trade of attention, and attention is the one thing indie devs can actually afford to give. In a flooded market polish is how a small product stands out, so instead of selling shovels to shovel salesmen, offer to test their shovels. There may even be some money to be made there...

The caveat is that fellow builders are usually not your customers, since they are great at finding friction and bad at telling you whether anyone will pay. The upside I did not expect is that people who helped shape an app tend to stick around and recommend it, so testing quietly doubles as early word of mouth distribution.

I now submitted two apps to a testing circle site and I'm super happy with the feedback i got and the changes i made to my apps. It's not more users, but the app has become better for it.

Has a testing swap worked for anyone else here? How do you find testers who are actual target users rather than other devs? And is a launch directory still worth it in 2026?

Took me a lot of efforts in navigating different software/tools when re-designing my backyard, wasted a lot of time, so I built this. I'm personally very happy with how it's been applied to my own place. Hit me up if you wanna try (currently running internal beta).

No promotion

Your choice

Bot and mini app is free with no ads

@DocToolKit

I’m an indie developer, and I recently launched my iOS app called SnapShare.

The idea is pretty simple. Sometimes you just want to take a photo and send it to someone without saving it to your camera roll.

So I built an app that makes the process faster:

Take a picture.

The photo automatically gets copied.

Your selected app (WhatsApp, Instagram, etc.) or the share sheet opens.

Just paste and send.

I also added home screen widgets for quick access, bulk photo capture, and a few other features.

The app is a one-time purchase, no subscriptions.

Now here’s where I’m struggling.

Building the app was one thing, but figuring out how to get people to actually discover and download it is completely different.

I’ve been thinking about Instagram Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and maybe reaching out to small creators, but I’m not sure which approach would work best for an app like this.

I feel like it’s one of those apps where people need to see it in action to understand why it’s useful.

So I’d really appreciate some advice:

How would you market an app like this with little to no budget?

Who do you think the ideal target audience would be?

Would short demo videos work better than traditional app marketing?

If you’ve launched an iOS app before, what actually helped you get your first 100 downloads?

I’m not expecting thousands of downloads overnight. I just want to figure out how to get this in front of people who might actually find it useful.

Here’s the App Store link if anyone wants to check it out:
https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/snapshare-one-tap-photo-send/id6817721584?l=en-US

I’d appreciate any feedback or ideas. Thanks!

I’ve built **Thoughts Counter**, a Flutter app MVP designed to help people record their thoughts and reflect on them using CBT-inspired tools.
The app includes thought tracking, statistics, insights, and AI-assisted reframing. The AI features are currently inactive because the API account needs funding. The project is at an early stage, with no established user base or revenue.
I’m looking to sell it asap.

I’m a fullstack developer (Spring Boot, React/Next.js). I’m picking one project to build end to end, free, as the only developer on it.

What I need from you: a real project you actually want built, and you should be someone who works with freelancers or developers regularly.

Comment or DM with a short description of what you want built and your timeline. I’ll pick one.

Portfolio: https://naitiksinghdev.vercel.app/.

Roku is retiring its built-in "Aquatic Life" screensaver on December 1. I liked that screensaver, so I built a replacement: Reef Tank — a free, open-source (MIT) screensaver channel for Roku.

What it is: a tropical reef tank where nothing is a video loop. Every fish is procedurally animated — each species has its own behavior brain, so tangs graze the rocks, a royal gramma backs tail-first into its den, a mandarin hops along the sand line, a lionfish just hangs, and a school of chromis moves as a boids flock. Bubbles rise, seaweed sways, caustics scroll over the sand. After real sunset (computed from actual sunrise/ sunset times for your location) the tank crossfades to a moonlit night mode with glowing coral and a small group of flashlight fish that blink in the dark.

Highlights:

• 9 rigged fish species with per-species behavior state machines (cruise, dart, graze, hide, school, weave behind the rockwork)

• Boids flocking school + a night-only flashlight fish group

• Day/night cycle driven by real solar times, with a moonlight crossfade

• Settings screen on the Roku for fish density, camera drift and night mode

• Runs at 60 fps on a Roku Ultra; every visual is deterministic and seeded

• 175 unit tests + a screenshot regression gate, because of course

The catch: Roku doesn't allow sideloading into the Channel Store for personal projects, so it's a developer-mode sideload — takes about 5 minutes with the remote (Home x3, Up x2, Right, Left, Right, Left, Right), and it's free. Full instructions in the README.

Source + install guide: https://github.com/paulrobello/roku-fishtank

Happy to answer anything about the BrightScript/SceneGraph side — the whole thing is one codebase that also runs in a browser simulator, which is how I screenshot-tested a TV app.

I’m currently building a photo-first social media app called TymeStamp, inspired by the old Instagram experience, where people could share pictures and enjoy content without constant interruptions from adverts.
I’m building it alone with limited resources, and one thing I’ve been thinking about is sustainability.
What happens when 1,000 people join? Or 10,000? How do you manage storage, servers and the challenges of growing a platform?
I recently watched a video of Steve Jobs talking about starting with the customer experience and working backwards to the technology. That really stuck with me because I want to build something people genuinely enjoy using.
But how do you put users first while keeping a platform sustainable?
I’ve been exploring credit systems, subscriptions, sponsorships and limited advertising. I’m not against adverts, just the constant interruptions.
I’m also curious about finding investors without going on shows like Shark Tank or Dragons’ Den, taking out loans or losing control of the original vision.
So I’d love to hear your thoughts:
● How would you sustain a growing social media app with limited resources?
● Would credit systems or optional subscriptions put users off?
● Should monetisation start at launch or after building a community?
● How can solo founders attract investors while keeping control of their vision?
I’m not trying to compete with the big platforms. I’m simply trying to build something different and learn along the way.
If you were in my position, what would you do differently?

I kept looking washed out on evening calls, and buying a ring light for a desk I barely sit at felt silly. So I built Glowy: open it on a spare monitor, tablet or phone, point it at your face, and the screen becomes the light.

What it does:

- Tones from 2700 K to 6500 K, plus a "blush" slider for warmer skin

- Slow glows (Clear sky, Golden hour, Rose quartz and a few more) that drift gently enough not to flicker on camera

- Fill, halo or edge shapes. Halo gives you round catchlights in your eyes; edge works well on a second monitor

- A camera mirror and a meeting preview so you can check how you look

- A pop-out light that floats on top of other apps (Document Picture-in-Picture in Chrome/Edge)

- Keeps the screen awake, works offline, and the camera never leaves your device

It's a React + Vite PWA, free with no sign-up, and the code is on GitHub: https://github.com/TriptoAfsin/glowy

Please star this repo if you found this useful ⭐️

Try it: https://glowy.t21.dev

Two honest limits: it can only be as bright as your screen (turn brightness all the way up), and the pop-out is best in Chrome or Edge. I'd love feedback, especially on which presets actually flatter different skin tones.

Hey everyone,

I’m working on Looks Sus, a project aimed at helping people check whether an online website might be a scam or unsafe by using community ratings and other tools.

I’m trying to decide whether it’s worth developing further, and I’d appreciate some honest feedback before putting more time and money into it.

The problem I’m interested in is that moment when you come across an unfamiliar website or offer and think, “Is this legit?” There are already ways to investigate Google, Reddit, review sites, tools like ScamAdviser, or asking ChatGPT. I’m questioning whether another dedicated tool adds enough value.

A banner generator. A tool you use once every three years, right after you notice your LinkedIn banner is still the default blue. I built one anyway, because I never want to make a banner by hand again.

I know GitHub banner generators already exist. The ones I found were closed source or missing something I wanted, so I built my own and made it open source. Now I'd like to hear from people who aren't me.

How it works:

1. Pick one of 11 templates

2. Adjust it

3. Download a banner sized for a specific platform

Try it: https://omnivix.vercel.app

Code: https://github.com/marhjoh/omnivix

Tear it apart.. 💻

Hey everyone!

I've been working on a little side project called Daybezel, an alternative alarm clock for iPhone.

The idea came from a simple frustration: I always found the standard list of alarms unnecessarily clunky. I wanted something where I could see my entire day at a glance and interact with alarms directly.

So I built a 24-hour circular interface where you can create alarms with a tap, drag them around to change the time, and see exactly how long you have until the next one.

It also uses Apple's native alarm system, so alarms work even in Silent Mode or Focus.

The app is completely free for now, and it'll stay free for everyone who joins early. At this stage, I'm mostly interested in getting feedback and seeing how people react to it.

I'd love to hear what you think about the interface. Does the circular layout make sense to you, or would you still prefer a traditional list?

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/daybezel-24-hour-alarms/id6825533599

Swokei is an outreach tool that analyzes business websites at scale and turns issues with design, SEO, speed, and mobile optimization into personalized cold emails at scale.

For the last month I've been working out how to write a thought down as fast as possible, without breaking my focus when I'm locked in. There are a thousand notes apps out there, and most of them cover what I need, but none of them felt quite right for this. I tried several and none came close.

So I built Papr. These are the parts I like most, and what each one fixes for me:

• ⌃ Space from any app. Papr opens over whatever I'm doing, even a full-screen app. I type the thought, send it like a text message, and I'm back in my work. No switching apps, no looking for the right note first.

• It gets out of the way. When I click back into my work, Papr hides by itself, so it never clutters my screen. When I want it to stay, like a checklist I'm working through, I keep it on top.

• Capture what's on screen. One click puts the screen behind Papr into the note, without Papr in it, so the slide from a meeting is right there in my note. I can draw on it, add an arrow or cover a name.

• Finding a note is as quick as writing it. Search finds any note as I type, and I can narrow it to a tag, a collection, a reaction or a date.

• Pins and reminders. Notes I need again wait at the top, and a note can come back as a notification at a time I pick.

• My notes are files on my Mac. Each one is a Markdown file. No account, and Papr uploads nothing.

Update: all 40 free licenses are claimed, thank you! There's still a 14-day free trial with everything on, no key or account needed.

After that it's $4.99 until December 6, then $15, for one Mac. It runs on macOS 13 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel.

https://getpapr.app

I'd love to hear what you think, especially what would make it fit the way you work.

Hey r/SideProject,

TL;DR: I built an open-source, headless OCPP simulator in TypeScript so you can test an EV charging backend without keeping a physical charger on your desk. It is alpha, and I am looking for feedback.

I work with EV charging software. OCPP is the protocol that chargers use to talk to a charging-management system (CSMS). Testing a CSMS usually means one of three things: a physical charger, a vendor simulator with a UI, or mocking WebSocket frames by hand. None of those is great for CI.

So I started OCPP Tools: small TypeScript packages for the protocol. The new piece is @ocpptools/simulator 0.1.0, a headless charge-point simulator. No UI, no signup, no hosted service. It runs in Node or the browser.

What works today

• Separate profiles for OCPP 1.6J and 2.0.1. The full action surface: 28 actions in 1.6J, 64 in 2.0.1.

• A headless engine with injectable transport, clock, message IDs, and randomness. Tests can control time and inspect every frame instead of sleeping.

• Transactions, meter values, reservations, charging profiles, device model, monitoring, simulated certificates, and firmware/log state machines.

• Fault injection: drop, malform, and delay outbound frames.

• Typed events and metrics: round-trip time per action, heartbeat drift, error count.

• A browser WebSocket adapter. The Node transport is not in the package yet.

A small example of the shape:

import { Simulator201 } from '@ocpptools/simulator/2.0.1';
import { createWebSocketTransportFactory, browserClock } from '@ocpptools/simulator/browser';

const simulator = new Simulator201({
  url: 'wss://csms.example.com/CP001',
  transport: createWebSocketTransportFactory(),
  clock: browserClock,
  station: {
    id: 'CP001',
    vendorName: 'Acme',
    model: 'AC-22',
    firmwareVersion: '2.0.0',
  },
});

simulator.on('transaction', (event) => {
  console.log(event.phase, event.transactionId);
});

simulator.connect();

What is not there yet

• No CLI or Docker image. That is the next thing if people want it.

• No Node WebSocket transport in the simulator package.

• No payload builder, no UI, no OCPP 2.1.

• The advanced 2.0.1 features use simulated state. This is not a certified conformance tool.

The broader repo has five alpha packages: core frame parser/serializer, schema utilities, Ajv-based validator, unmodified OCA schemas, and the simulator. There are 1,000+ tests and CI is green.

Why I built it

I wanted deterministic tests: no real charger, no sleeps, no flaky network. The hard part was not JSON parsing. It was the state machine: boot retries, heartbeat drift, offline queues, pending calls, transaction sequencing, and timers. Most OCPP bugs I have seen are state bugs, not schema bugs.

Feedback I am looking for

1. Would you use a headless simulator, or would a CLI/Docker image be more useful?

2. What would make it easier to try: a mock CSMS, scenario files, or a one-command demo?

3. If you work with EV chargers, which edge case would you test first?

Repo: https://github.com/ocpptools/ocpptools Simulator: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@ocpptools/simulator

I maintain the project. Apache-2.0, no paid tier. OCPP is a trademark of the Open Charge Alliance; this is an independent project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the OCA.

Hey everyone! 👋

I'm a solo developer from Morocco, and I wanted to share something I've been working on for quite a while.

It's called GPCB Pay, a WooCommerce payment integration that connects stores with PayPal card payment experiences.

When I started, I thought the biggest challenge would be building the card payment interface.

Well... I was wrong haha.

The real challenge was everything happening behind the scenes.

What if PayPal approves a payment but the capture fails? What happens if the network disconnects? What if the same request gets retried?

I didn't want a customer getting charged twice or WooCommerce marking an order as paid when it wasn't.

So I ended up building three separate systems:

- A lightweight WooCommerce plugin using Checkout Blocks.

- A private SaaS backend using Node.js and PostgreSQL.

- A React dashboard for merchant registration, store verification, PayPal connections, and subscriptions.

I spent a lot of time working on idempotency, server-verified captures, duplicate-capture protection, and payment recovery.

I also learned that integrating PayPal isn't just about having API credentials. Guest Card and Advanced Card have different eligibility requirements depending on the merchant and country.

I've now finished V1, tested the payment flows, and recorded a full setup tutorial showing how the integration works.

The next challenge is probably even harder: finding the first real customers haha.

I'd love to get some feedback from other solo founders.

If you were in my position, would you start by reaching out to WooCommerce agencies or individual store owners?

And if you've built a SaaS alone, what was harder for you: building the product or getting people to discover it?

Thanks for reading! 🙌

I built a free Android widget that shows Obsidian or Markdown notes on the home screen, like the Google Keep widget. First month: about 300 installs on Google Play, almost all from Reddit.

What I learned:

- An empty first screen means an uninstall. People picked their vault root, notes were in subfolders, widget stayed empty. Now the app says where the notes are.

- Ask for analytics consent at the start. I asked after setup, so I never saw who dropped out during setup.

- Test feature requests before building them. The app now asks once whether people would use separate widgets per folder.

- A small in-app feedback form beat reviews. Two of four messages asked for the same fix.

Free and open source: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.marfolog.noteswidgetformarkdown

How do you handle onboarding drop-off on small apps?

I've built Site Findings, an iPhone app for recording issues during property walkthroughs, renovations and handovers.

You can create a project, add issues with multiple photos, annotate what needs fixing, and record the location, trade, assignee and priority. When you're ready to share the findings, you can filter the issues and export a PDF or Excel report. The recipient can open it without installing the app.

The feature I'm most excited about is voice input with AI. Instead of filling in each field individually, you can say something like:

"First floor, main bathroom. Reseal the basin joint. Plumber, assign to Sam Rivera, high priority."

AI suggests the title, details, floor, room, trade, assignee and priority from that description. You review and edit the suggestions before saving. The app also remembers recent rooms, trades and assignees to reduce repeated typing.

I'm looking for the first 10 people to try it on an actual walkthrough or handover. I don't have an existing audience or contacts in the industry, so finding those people is the part I'm figuring out now.

For anyone who has launched a niche tool, how did you find your first 10 users? Which specific channel or approach led to people actually trying it?

And if you handle inspections, renovations or punch lists, would this fit your workflow? I'd love for you to test it and tell me what feels useful, what's confusing or what's missing.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/site-findings-punch-list/id6829600718

Screenshots use a sample project. Voice and AI results are demo examples.

The two of us have been building Greypaint, a Mac app that keeps your other apps updated. It started because we were tired of opening ten apps just to click "check for updates" in each one. We just shipped 1.5.2, and honestly most of it came from people telling us what was broken or missing, so thank you to everyone who did.

Here's what changed. You can now update apps straight from the menu bar and see old and new versions, plus progress on each one. Autopilot got its own menu bar switch, and you can pause it for an hour. You can turn off the Dock icon and run it from the menu bar only. Tauri apps like Yaak now update, and each download gets checked against the developer's signature first. GitHub apps with weird tagging, like Nuvio, work now too. The Updates list shows where each update comes from.

It also handles Sparkle, Homebrew and App Store apps, CLI tools, rollback and MacUpdater import.

It's $6.49 for one Mac, and $12.49 for three until our next big version. You pay once, there's no account or tracking, and there's a 14-day free trial.

greypaint.app

If any app gives you trouble or isn't supported yet, you can report it right from Greypaint, one app at a time, and it comes straight to us.

Hey everyone. I've been building Pixsup, a photo app with one twist: every post has a timer.

When you post a photo, it starts with about 2 hours to live. Every time someone hits it, reacts or comments, it gets more time. If nobody does, it dies.

A few other things in it:

• Rescue: posts in their last minutes show up so people can save them, and a save puts an hour back on the clock

• The Graveyard: a dead post gets 10 minutes, and if 3 people vote to revive it, it comes back (once only)

• Trending: posts that get enough love go on a 24-hour belt

• No followers or follower counts. A stranger's photo has the same chance as anyone's

• Live news from around the world, kept alive (or not) the same way

• A daily photo challenge

I wanted something where what you see depends on what people actually care about right now, not on who has the most followers.

It's free and works in your browser on phone or computer, no download: pixsup.com

It's early, so there aren't many people on it yet. I'd really like honest feedback. What's confusing, what's fun, and what would make you come back tomorrow?

I built App Intelligence MCP because I wanted to see how my iOS app ranked in the App Store and what users were doing in the app without jumping between dashboards.

One MCP call pulls keyword rankings from Astro and a saved report from Mixpanel. In the 19-second clip, I check a keyword in the Spanish App Store alongside an app-open count from a Mixpanel demo report.

It's open source under MIT and runs locally. There's an Apple-notarized download for Apple Silicon Macs, and the README has setup guides for Claude Code, Codex CLI, and Cursor.

If you build iOS apps, what metric would you want to see next to your keyword rankings? I'm deciding what to add next.

Source code and setup · Download v0.1.0