Show HN: Wildex – Pokémon Go for real wildlife(apps.apple.com) Dear HN, My wife and I both love nature and have always wanted a Pokémon go style app, to collect and learn about different species we find. All the usual species identifying apps were didn’t feel fun enough, so we designed and built one together! Would love for you guys to give it a try and share any thoughts you have. |
It's all porn. Sigh, I hate this world. I really do feel like 2020 was the timeline alternating enigma event and we can never go back
It doesn’t feel like you’re playing when you use it, it feels like you’re in biology class (no hate to them).
Wildex gives you cute fun facts and lets you build up points for rare species finds. It feels like a completely different experience.
That's a feature, not a bug. Gamifying nature is a bad idea. It's tourism, but with the worst kind of tourists.
Otherwise looks fun!
Unfortunately inference costs means we needed something (ads) to keep the servers online.
Out of curiosity what would you say is a fair price for this?
Seek is free and good so if I’m paying for the fun aspect I would probably cap out around $20
Edit: might even be able to pull off like $10/yr but I’m increasingly tired of those as well
I don't know about that. We are with so many people now and there is so little nature left. The Pokemon 'Go' craze showed what happens when you set gamification and outdoors on the same track. It just doesn't scale in the same way that virtual things do.
Some wildlife parks have ‘daily sightings’ maps at rest stops and lodges, but those are monitored by park officials who remove the most at-risk animals and are cleared at least daily.
Aside from that, apps like this encourage bad behaviour from visitors in parks that allow self-driving, as dozens of people rush to the next leopard, lion, etc sighting. That not only creates its own risks but ruins the experience for everyone else.
In short, don’t do this.
Good luck with that.
Developing and using apps like this is a choice, there’s no inherent force propelling them into existence other than people thinking it’s a good idea. I’m explaining why it’s not a good idea.
Replace it with a leaderboard amongst phone contacts/friended users
Inaturalist uses second opinions what's your solution?
Edit: cool idea for the app btw, I always call inaturalist my Pokémon deck already so I think it's a nice new angle :)
Either obeying silent mode or having an option to disable the, admittedly pleasant, sounds would be very welcome.
People like it, but I also don't see why you'd need two Seek apps. You don't really need one, without an actual method of identifying the organisms.
Around a dozen turtle species globally can breathe through their cloacas (rear openings), with roughly half living in Australian rivers. The main species that have truly mastered this ability include the Fitzroy River turtle, Mary River turtle, and white-throated snapping turtle. Additionally, some freshwater turtles like Blanding's turtle use a more limited form of cloacal respiration during hibernation when trapped under ice for extended periods. The Fitzroy River turtle is particularly impressive, obtaining up to 70% of its oxygen needs through cloacal respiration and staying submerged for up to 21 days. The white-throated snapping turtle can get nearly 70% of its oxygen this way as well. These turtles have specialized structures called cloacal bursae—sac-like organs with densely packed papillae (small blood vessel-rich structures)—that allow oxygen from water to diffuse directly into their bloodstream.
As per apple guidelines you can request us not to track and the app of course respects that.
The location data is used only for helping us narrow down the collection species!
I could easily see someone be foolish enough to go up to predators
Even though we warn users in the onboarding to take care in the wild, TikTok and similar platforms have shown people acting foolishly is not something you can fully control
I wasn't incentivized enough to actually make it into a proper native app or submit to either store, but it's cool to see something taken to the next step.
Russulas, for instance: in my country, there are no poisonous ones, but there are at least 90 varieties and experts will often need DNA analysis to place them confidently. The procedure for determining edibility recommended by the foraging association is, once you're certain it's a Russula, to taste a small piece and spit it out. If it has a burning sharp taste, it's not food.
The app has been very good at predicting whether I'll experience that burning sensation, and all from signs that are invisible to systematic description (I won't rule out that an expert can also spot subtle differences between a sharp green russula and an edible green russula, but they probably wouldn't be able to describe it).
iNaturalist or Seek by iNaturalist? I didn't think iNaturalist had an identification method other than "wait for an expert to come along and tag your photo".
Seek, on the other hand, is happy to make up identifications itself.
I have not tried Seek, but also just know to double check any iNat recommendations when I get home if I’m not 100%.
2) I should get extra points if I discover a new species
Leave wildlife alone.
Here's a list of medieval instruments of torture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Medieval_instruments_...
So hopefully people will get the memo immediately!
What that leaves you as options is pretty limited.