cubb.in Share & Reveal

Birth Year: 2013, Lifespan: 12, Story by: @mirat

Project Description

cubb.in was an experimental sharing platform where users could upload a photo and set a target number of visitors. When the photo was published, it appeared heavily blurred with a message: "This image will be revealed after XXX people visit." Each new visitor slightly reduced the blur, and once the visitor goal was reached, the image became fully visible.

The system encouraged sharing through curiosity and social interaction. It wasn’t built to make money—it was simply a fun idea meant to explore viral mechanics and user behavior.

Where the idea came from?

The idea came out of nowhere. It wasn't inspired by an existing product or trend just a novel concept the I wanted to build and see in action.

What was the tech & stack?

Django, HTML, CSS, NumPy, Self-hosted (resource-limited)

What went right?

The site had a strong viral mechanic: curiosity drove real traffic. People genuinely wanted to see what was behind the blur and even more, they were motivated to share the link so others would visit and help unlock the image. That social loop worked. Engagement was high, especially at launch.

Why did it fail? What went wrong?

Too complex to explain quickly: The concept was unusual and took time to understand, which made onboarding harder for casual users.
Content moderation failed: A troll group spammed the platform with offensive and explicit images. Without moderation tools or safeguards, this quickly became unmanageable.
Heavy server loaD: The system re-processed the image on every page load to update the blur level. This was CPU-intensive and not optimized for scale leading to performance issues.

Key lessons & advice

Clarity is everything: If users can't understand your product in one sentence, you’ll lose them. YOUR PROJECT SHOULD BE EXPLAINABLE IN ONE SENTENCE.
Expect abuse: If you allow uploads, have a moderation plan from day one even for fun projects.
Avoid CPU-heavy processing on the server whenever possible: Either offload to the client side, or redesign the mechanic to be computationally light. For example, use pixelation instead of real-time blurring for progressive image reveals.
Fun projects still deserve structure: Even if a project isn't meant to earn money, a bit of planning for growth and limits can go a long way.