Free iPhone App - Community Rated Coffee

[radlad30]

Hi all,

When I am away from home and not drinking my CoffeeSnobs beans I can struggle to find decent coffee shops - in an attempt to get some local knowledge I put together a small app to assist.

The idea was to keep it as simple as possible and anonymous but fair. Anyone can rate a cafe but only once a month and only when within 5km.

There are no ads, costs or tracking of any kind in the App. Just an attempt to gather coffee shop opinions for the benefit of everyone who enjoys a cup. I know there are a number of other Apps out there but I was after something simple - no email logins etc.

I am always happy to receive constructive feedback so if anyone has any ideas please drop me an email. I will probably release an Android version in the next week or two if the feedback is good.

The app can be found in the App Store as of today or at this URL:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/comm...9323?ls=1&mt=8

Happy rating !

Cheers
Richard

[LeroyC]

Is this for Australia only?

[timdimdom]

wow. what a post for a first post! =)
looking forward to the android version mate.

leroy, if it is a crowd-sourced feedback app i dont think it will be specific to oz? (cant say much else considering i dont have an iphone! =p)

[Nickgb]

Wouldn't having no log-in (or any sort of authentication) open your system/app/etc.. up to lots of spam/faux ratings?

Having said that, it would take someone having to write something to spam via your app - but if it gets popular..?

[radlad30]

Hi guys,

Sorry for the delay, I didn't get notifications on the replies - must check my settings.

Just a few updates:

The Android version is released and can be found at the link below:

**Please wait a few hours as I just updated the version and it takes a bit of time to update in the store: From the morning of the 3rd December should be fine.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...m.digiform.crc

In answer to some questions above:

I think I released it worldwide, especially for the Android. It should rate coffee anywhere. I tested it in Switzerland... Coffee was very average interestingly enough. Does anyone have a new Blackberry, besides me, who would want to give it a go ?

With regards to the login, I tried to keep the app extremely simple - as you will see. It's a simple star rating for coffee only (I have used 5 stars although some feedback suggested 10 - it gets fiddly finger and screen size wise with 10 though - might need a redesign if its a strong request). I have seen other apps that have logins etc and they just seem to get complicated. I try to minimise unfair rating by limiting users to one rating per 30 days (per coffee shop) and they have to be within 5ks of the place when rating.

Each device has a unique ID that we track in order to determine if the device rated the coffee shop before, so we can run banning or cleanup scripts on the backend if someone is proving troublesome.

There are so many apps out there its unlikely that this one will get too much attention - good or bad . But myself and a few mates have rated some places up in Gold Coast and surrounds. Be good to get some places in Melbourne rated !

Cheers
Richard

Give it a go and drop me message if you have any suggestions.

[ijenkins99]

I guess the success of this app will be down to how many passionistas use it. I notice most of my favourite places in Sydney have no ratings. I hope I remember to use it when I'm within 5km of the cafe.
Thanks for caring Richard.

[csutak40]

Just got notified by iPhone that the app needs to be updated to work with iOS 11

[Magic_Matt]

I like the idea; Beanhunter tried a similar thing early on. Once the plebs find it, review quality inevitably suffers though. And of course without a verified login there is more scope for abuse (or at least that perception).

Personally I don't find an email or Facebook linked account to be an inconvenience at all, in fact I'd find the requirement to be within 5km of the shop more of a pain as I often write reviews later rather than at a venue.

Have you considered a five star system with half-star increments (each star being two buttons)? Saw that recently somewhere and it worked well - nice big visual targets but the ability to be more granular if required.

The Android app seems to have some issues at present...