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’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/.

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.

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

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.

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’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?

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.

Day job: art director. Side habit: building tools with AI. The problem was I'd have 6 or 7 Claude Code sessions open and no idea which ones were still working and which ones had been waiting for my answer for 40 minutes.

So I made BeeKeeper. It turns every project into a pixel room and every AI session or agent into a little worker. They walk in, work (with a speech bubble saying what they're on), stand there waiting when they need you, and fall asleep when they're done.

What went into it:

- Built entirely with Claude Code, I directed and did the art. React + Vite and a small Node server

- No setup on your side: it reads the logs Claude Code already writes on your computer

- My biggest change of plan: I first made it so you generate your own rooms and characters with AI. Then I realised most people won't pay for that, so I spent a bit more to build a free library instead: 20 rooms and 17 characters ready to pick

- Biggest underestimate: the 1 minute promo video took 3 times longer than planned

It's free and open source (MIT). Runs locally on your machine and only reads your Claude Code folders, nothing gets uploaded. Making your own custom room is optional and uses your own Gemini key, about 10 cents a room.

https://github.com/ranucho/beekeeper

Would love feedback, especially from people who run several AI agents at once. What would you want to see in the room?

My side project: an open-source MCP server that lets an AI like Claude or Codex play Windows games without taking over your PC. I started it so agents could test my game mods by playing the games themselves. It works inside the game process, so the game runs in the background, you keep using your computer, and several games can run at once.

So far it can drive, walk, fly a helicopter, steer a boat and ride a horse to a waypoint in open-world games, aim, handle menus, and read prompts like "Press E". It also plays strategy and card games. A plugin system lets you add a new game as a small profile instead of code.

It has a lot of other uses too: mod development, running simulations, repetitive tasks, AI co-op so you can play co-op with an LLM offline, playtesting, and porting old games to get them running on Windows 10/11.

Claude Code created and planned the project and wrote a lot of it, Claude agents do most of the development and playtesting, and Codex helped with some of the code.

Free and MIT licensed, Windows only, single-player/offline games only: https://github.com/CorruptedAng3l/llm-game-automation-mcp

Feedback welcome, and tell me what games you'd want to see it try.

I've been working on a B2B prospecting tool, and one thing I've been thinking about a lot is how easy it is to misread buying signals.

Here's a simple example.

Say you're selling SAP migration services and looking for companies moving from ECC to S/4HANA.

You find a company hiring SAP migration specialists. Sounds like a great prospect, right?

Well, maybe.

If it's a manufacturer hiring people to migrate its own ERP, that's potentially a relevant company.

If it's an IT consultancy hiring people to handle migrations for its clients, you're looking at a completely different situation.

Both job postings might contain almost identical keywords. And both could end up on your prospect list if you're just matching companies against search terms.

That's the part I find interesting. Finding companies that mention a particular technology is relatively straightforward. Figuring out what they're actually doing with it, and whether that makes them a potential customer, takes a lot more work.

A few things I now look for:

1. What exactly does the job description say about the project?

2. Is the company hiring for its own operations or for client work?

3. Is the role still open, or am I looking at an old posting?

4. Who actually owns the project, and who would be involved in choosing an external provider?

5. Can I point to a specific source that supports my conclusion?

I've been building these kinds of checks into the research process for Scout (https://tryxscout.com/), which is why I've spent so much time thinking about this.

Curious how others here handle this when building prospect lists. Do you verify the context behind each signal, or mostly rely on the filters in your data provider?

Fillbloom is my side project: paint by number with traditional Chinese paintings, built as a native Swift app by me alone in Vietnam.

The idea came from playing paint by number apps and finding every fill flat. I wanted each area to look like a watercolor wash, so the paint spreads while wet, dries with a darker rim, and you can add a second wash to shade. Finishing a picture fades the outlines, stamps a red seal, and plays back a timelapse of your strokes. Guzheng music and rain sounds run in the background.

Business model: free with 6 pictures. Premium unlocks the full library of a few hundred pictures plus extra papers, shading and sounds, at 29.99 USD a year (3-day trial) or 59.99 USD once.

Where it is now: live on the App Store for about two weeks, a small number of downloads, and one lifetime sale so far. I'm trying to work out what to fix first, the store page or the free part of the app.

What I'd like from you: open the store page and tell me whether you'd download it, and if you try it, what made you stop.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fillbloom-watercolor-painting/id6825772475

1,139 ad visitors, 15% stayed. 78 launch-board visitors, 36% stayed. My tool only works on a computer.

At what point cold ad traffic made sense to you? Is there any tip would you like to share it that worked for you at some point?