Gnomee
Gnomee is a social network where you react to any URL with emojis, giving others a quick sense of the content. It is currently available for testing in beta mode.
Express Yourself Beyond Thumbs Up or Down.
Use the full range of emojis on Gnomee to share how content makes you feel and give others a better sense of what they’ll find.
In Gnomee, you can express your reactions to content in a more meaningful way. For example, if you come across a great Wikipedia article, you can react with 👏 to show your appreciation. If you read a sad article about forest devastation, you might choose a 😥 to reflect how it made you feel. The choice is yours! The goal is to give other users a sense of the content through a wide range of emojis. Why limit yourself to just a 👍 or 👎 when you can use the full spectrum of emojis to express your opinion more accurately?
Our mantra is:
You get what you give.
In Gnomee, each user’s profile showcases all the reactions they have given, displaying only the total counts of each emoji used, without revealing the associated URLs. This feature is designed to promote accountability, ensuring that users stand by their actions. By focusing on transparent, constructive engagement, we aim to foster a positive, non-toxic environment within the Gnomee community.
Gnomee is a side project developed by a solo developer.
How Gnomee was bornThe idea to create Gnomee came when I was following a tutorial curated by Google on how to create Chrome Extensions. If you’ve ever followed one of those tutorials (like this one), you’ll know they can be hit or miss. Unfortunately for me, the tutorial was outdated, and I couldn’t follow it properly. I spent hours scouring the web for a solution and trying to fix the issues.When I finally resolved the problem, I flagged the outdated code to Google using a link at the bottom of the tutorial page. However, the outdated content remained unchanged for days and weeks. That’s when I had an idea: the solution I found could have been easily shared—if the content on that page wasn’t solely managed by Google.I imagined a platform where anyone could add information or context to a URL they came across on the web. Think about it—not all websites have a comment section where users can discuss the content. And even when they do, what if we could do more? What if we could rate a page to share our opinions more effectively with others?Platforms like YouTube are silencing our voices when it comes to expressing negative opinions, which is a problem. While I enjoy liking videos with great content, I also believe it’s fair to dislike clickbait videos or content spreading misinformation. But rather than sticking to simple, polarised “like” or “dislike” buttons, we could use emojis—thousands of them—to convey nuanced reactions. Emojis can express ideas across different contexts, making them far more versatile.That’s what Gnomee is all about: rating URLs using emojis.At the moment, Gnomee is available for beta testing on iOS (you can get it here). Soon, a Chrome Extension will be launched, allowing users to view page ratings directly in their browser.Of course, “with great power comes great responsibility.” That’s why Gnomee follows a mantra encouraging users to express their opinions thoughtfully: “You get what you give.” Your profile reflects every reaction you’ve made, and while profiles are public, not all user activity is. This transparency is meant to give users a sense of accountability for how they distribute their emoji reactions.Gnomee is a side project I’ve been working on for a few months. As a father of two little boys, I work on it during the evenings after they go to bed. Although my time for the project is limited, it’s by far the one I’m most excited to work on.Pretty soon, users will also be able to leave comments, create polls, and host stack-style forums for discussions around each URL added to Gnomee. Imagine being able to ask questions directly on a Wikipedia article—how cool would that be?