@rrhoover Hi Ryan! Yea you could say that, the algorithm that allots XP to users based on their travels, which we call 'Montu', takes into account about 20 variables on each data point. The trophies are very much like swarm for travel, but the purpose of them is more of a scavenger hunt dynamic while traveling, as well as a fun way to show off some of the cooler places you've been upfront on your profile.
Its the name we have been working with since we started thinking about the project a few years ago and the founders had a hard time letting go of it, I guess life has many Journy's ;)
@maximiliaan_van_kuyk@rrhoover LOL — Max we should do a partnership to make this evennnn moreeee confusingggg. We're actually re-branding because the SEO for "Journy" is so incredibly bad. We've had so many travelers try to tell their friends about us and their friends can't find us online. Google auto-corrects it to "Journey", there's Journeys the shoe company that takes out paid ads against it, and then of course there's Journey the band. Damn near impossible to get our site to show up without clicking "Search instead for Journy", which most people don't do. We've also been attached to the name, but I definitely regret not pulling the band-aid off sooner and switching to something more search friendly.
@susan_ho@rrhoover haha, oh boy. Yea we are acutely aware of this... Def keep us posted on your rebranding so we can make sure not to double up again! When are you planning on executing the rebrand? We are bootstrapped at the moment and this is just our MVP so its something we will be needing to discuss as a team in the next 6 months. Thanks for the heads up though! Also, I can definitely think of a few ways we can collaborate. We should get in touch and float some ideas :)
@maximiliaan_van_kuyk We need to do it in the next month, but may end up dragging our feet a bit longer... let me know how things go! I'm susan at gojourny.com
This is fun! I always compete with my friends/colleagues who have traveled the most. Should have followed your strategy @gillianim to tag more photos to get rankings :)
Interested to see what are the functions that you are building that will help people travel more?
@dariarebenok Hi Daria! Glad you like it. You can go back and tag more of your past and then get Journy to rescore you. Some info is on our FAQ www.playjourny.com/faq.
As far as the functions we are working on the one coming out soonest will be a function that will allow you to see which of your friends are traveling where at the moment so you can connect friends to each other if they happen to be in the same city or so you can know who of your friends might be in a city you are traveling through and get in touch with them to meet up. We want to bring a bunch of social tools to travel to help you meet up with with more people while traveling wether they be your direct friends or friends or friends.
Later down the road we will then be helping you actually figure out where you should go and how you should do it based on where you and your friends have been in the past.
I'm excited to relive the travel I've done in the way I love playing video games - where the off the beaten path places I've visited bc achievement reminders of why I've got to get out there and do it again. Excited for the social features. Great job max.
Hi everyone! Max here, Co-Founder of Journy! We started on Journy about a year ago to create a digital profile of ourselves as travelers. We figured a game was one of the best ways to go about it!
We wanted to capture a single, easy to digest, indicator that gave some sort of an illustration of what kind of a traveler we were, which is why we landed on experience and levels. We also wanted to provide some richer information in the form of trophies that show some of the highlights of your travels and give you something to chase after while you are traveling. But we aren’t going to stop there, thats just the start. We are working on building out social functions that will help you travel more and with more people which will in turn increase your experience and level on Journy. Think a form of social discovery for travel, but based on where your friends are now, where they have been in the past, and where their friends are. We want to help people connect friends to each other while they travel since we believe part of the travel experience is who you meet up with along the way.
Currently we are using social media to get information on you as a traveler to minimize friction for our users, which we understand for many of you may not be ideal as you are not all avid social media fanatics. However we found that if there was ever a time to post its while traveling. In the future we hope to solve this problem and make it so even if you don’t like to post your travels to social media you will still be able to claim your deserved level on Journy.
We would love to hear your thoughts and ideas for future features as we are bootstrapped and very much building this out based off of user feedback! Thanks for the up votes! <3
Not ashamed: I spent 2+ hours the first time this came out going back an re-tagging early Facebook photos with location to help me get a boost in the rankings. I know this has been in the works a long time, good to see it come out!
@gillianim Thanks for the love and support! Doesn't hurt that you are probably one of the most prolific travelers I know haha #killinit
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Super cool idea that Max & Co is working on - I think it's really refreshing to see a product that doesn't want to constantly vie for your attention, and put a lot of thought into how to quantify someone's travel experiences so that someone who travels for business frequently isn't rewarded more than someone who takes the occasional adventure to a new place. I love the idea of being able to find out where my friends have been or who'll be around when I travel somewhere, without the app trying to get me to use it all day, every day.
Disclaimer - I'm Max's friend & roommate! Even so, I knew this was a great idea when I first saw it. :P
@blakehcaldwell Thanks Blake! Appreciate the support. There is also a bunch of useful information about how it works on our FAQ www.playjourny.com/faq
Let me know if you have any questions!
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