@orliesaurus Do you remember the name of the startup?

@yuejn @craigcaruso @orliesaurus Yes, but that's specific for scavenger hunts. dropdrop is much more than a scavenger hunt. Although it could be used the same way as geocaching, it's not intended to solely be used for finding nearby waypoints.

@orliesaurus @craigcaruso That Hello Lamp Post project is pretty cool. I can see how this reminds you of it. That whole sense of discovery and surprise is really what we're after.

@craigphares "dropdrop is much more than a scavenger hunt" -- yes, it looks like it is trying to be everything at once and nothing in particular. From my point of view it is a swiss knife for a bunch of non-existing problems.

@gubarev lol I can say that your point of view is like a swiss knife without a blade that misses its handle.

@bulleitandcoke Great question. Having stamps to unlock special features in the app is part of our strategy to keep the content mostly personal and timely. Stamps are not only available for purchase, but are awarded for your activity within the app, so if you're using the app, you may never actually have to pay for any stamps. We use stamps to force certain activities to be special, and not so commonplace. Anonymous drops and comments are a good example. We want most communication to be open with a face behind the message. For those rare occasions where someone wants to contribute anonymously, we require stamps. Long drop lifespans are another scenario where we want to keep people from leaving messages that may grow stale, so stamps will be used for anything over a month in duration. Future features on our roadmap will also sometimes require stamps to unlock, and we hope this keeps the experience interesting and rewards those who really contribute to the dropdrop world.

@mariuslian Very good argument, and using the word "travel" in our tag line may lead people to assume that's its only intended use. In the short time we spent developing this platform, it has already evolved over and over again. I'm so glad you mentioned coupons, because our long term vision is to tap into the retail space, but for it to be valuable for retailers, we would already need the consumer presence. So we're focusing on the fun, friend-oriented, travel part for now, and if we gain critical mass, we will start incorporating some of these broader reaching applications.

@leftearpod Great questions. Drop Messages is only photos, and it's cluttered with Instagram posts that aren't really meant for that platform. We want our content to be specific to our platform, and we've provided much more control over the duration, audience, and size of the messages you post. And no drops last forever, so the content will constantly be current and relevant. It's yet to be determined as to the frequency of use, and travelers are only one segment of our users. We expect people in neighborhoods will use dropdrop to talk exclusively with each other, even if they're not connected by anything other than proximity. Also, the flexibility in drop duration leads to very different types of communication.

@david770 Thanks so much! We put a lot of thought into how to make everything as intuitive as possible. Currently, we're seeing the most activity in the United States, specifically in NJ, NY, CA, and IL. We're also seeing lots of activity in China, France, and the UK.

@drawby that is exactly the type of fun and surprising experience we are hoping for!

@pratikg_ I can definitely see this used on trails and outdoor exploration. Within cities, it could be very personal, with private messages left at frequented locations, or more broad, leaving graffiti around a city. We really aren't promoting any single use case over another. We can't wait to see how you use this for hiking!

@vincentbir Tellio has an interesting approach, by forcing you to pick a category before you post. They also associate your location, not with your actual physical place in the world, but with businesses or landmarks around you. We tried to deal directly with your personal space, the location in real world coordinates, and a radius that you determine.

@ykguler AR would be super-cool. We will definitely consider that as we expand on this!

@1greigcranfield Thanks for the kind words! We can't wait to see what you do with it!

@tribaling Great question! As with any platform that relies on user-generated content, you need critical mass for it to be useful. We've tried to make the on-boarding process as easy as possible. We're using Facebook to tap into users' existing social network. Although there are very special cases, there are a lot of different very special cases, so there is the potential to have content generated for a wide variety of reasons.

@zacharydewitt I see how you might think that dropdrop and Drop Messages are similar, but it's only on the surface, and definitely unintentional. Drop Messages is another location app, but dropdrop is different in many ways. Drop Messages uses photos only, heavily populates its content with Instagram, doesn't have the ability to limit the audience, the size of the post, make posts anonymous, or use the exact physical location of the user. Drop Messages has no comment feature, and there are no notifications when traveling in proximity to drops. Unlike Drop Messenger, dropdrop is a messaging app, with location at its core. I hope you get a chance to really use it to see how unique and fun dropdrop can be.

@themelamini I love the excitement! dropdrop is not like a traditional chat messaging app like WeChat or Facebook Messenger, although it does have a direct chat feature. Think Twitter, crossed with SnapChat, limited by location. When you first login to dropdrop, you'll see a split-screen view of a map and a list. The map will have "drops" in proximity to your current location, and the list will have a news feed of those same drops. Everything you see was created at that specific location, and will last between 24 hours and 2 months. Drops can be as small as a room, as big as a city, or somewhere in-between. If your current location falls within the boundary of a drop, you'll see it in the app. Move outside that boundary, and the drop disappears from your view. You can follow other people on dropdrop, and find your friends on the app through Facebook or your address book. You can place a new drop at your current location and specify who of your friends can see it (or let everyone see it), how long it should last, how big to make it, and if you want to leave it with your public profile or anonymously. When you leave a drop for a friend, they receive a notification that you left them a drop, and they'll see it on a map. But they can't actually view the drop itself until they physically enter within its boundary. Also, as you explore the world around you, if you stumble upon a drop from someone you follow, you'll get a notification on your phone that a drop is nearby from that person. It's sort of like leaving a physical note for someone - all within the virtual space of the app. So far, we've seen a lot of people leaving messages for anyone in their neighborhood to view - talking about things only locals would know. We've also seen some messages left in places where the creator knew their friend would find it. And we're seeing lots of check-in style reviews of businesses. Also, based on the feedback we've received so far, we're seeing many more use cases for the geocaching aspect of this, so we're working on adding some more features that will make it even easier to use it in this way. I hope you get a chance to try out dropdrop, and I can't wait to hear how you end up using it!

@sarthakgrover That's definitely the feeling we are shooting for. We want people to be surprised and get a sense of discovery when using the app.

@usman__khalid thank you! We're so glad this concept is resonating with others.

@mmcspiritt Yik Yak is great, but it basically splits up the world into segments. We wanted people to be in control of who can see their messages. When you create a drop, it's centered on your exact location, you choose its radius, its duration, and if you want to limit which of your friends can see it. Instead of dumping a pre-set region of people into an arbitrary boundary, the messages are bounded by the user creating it.

@_vineetshukla thanks! We are really excited to see what creative ways people dream up to use it.

@stefan_kojouharov thanks! Have fun with it! We've got some cool features on the horizon.

@passingnotes Thanks so much for the feedback about the Facebook login. That was a decision we made early on so that we could bring this app to market quickly. If we find that dropdrop appears to have a reasonable market fit, we will be adding email or possibly phone as an option. Which signup option do you prefer? For flagging, we have the ability to block users, and to report drops and their users. We're very aware of the potential for abuse, and made sure to have the tools in place to prevent that. Currently, you have to physicially be in range of drops to view them in the app. However, we have a feature on our road map to allow users to virtually "travel" to different places and view/leave drops there.

@craigphares I fully support the idea of virtually traveling to view drops, but I pause on the idea of leaving virtual drops. There is something in knowing a person was physically present at the drop location. Also, with virtual drops what's to stop an intern at Dicks Sports from taking an afternoon to spam the maps?

@outsidedan very good point, and we may nix that idea if we feel it could be abused. We do have stamps (in-app currency) which might limit abuse or at least discourage it if we require stamps for that feature.

@craigphares Excellent. I see some companies are already using the platform in an innovative, non-spammy way ;) http://sram.d.pr/1hE3k

@outsidedan That is so awesome to see!