New updates in a nutshell

So much trash talking, and yet I think I've seen only 2 or 3 legitimate suggestions for improvement.

Imgflip's homepage is moving in a new direction more focused on creation, because that's what 95% of Imgflip users do. The social component of Imgflip represents maybe 5% of the total users, maximum. It's a loud minority type of thing, since the minority are the ones who use the social and comment system.

We haven't deleted any of the main community functionality though, and we don't plan to (random flips were a relatively low-use feature, and they may come back in a different form in the future). We've just rearranged the navigation to make creation faster and easier.

We'd like suggestions about things to change and add to the new homepage. Memechat? Image sharing? Font or sticker uploading? Top 8 Followed Stream images at all times? Links to Followed Users (does anyone actually like that functionality?)

Put on your creative hats.

If legit 10% of the entire world of humans, every single country in the world, comes to Imgflip every so often to make memes and gifs of their ideas to share with other people, what would the best homescreen look like?

I know the lazy ones will still just say "bring the old one back", but hear this: the old homepage was tested with many feature iterations of the course of more than a decade, and has only resulted in a relatively tiny community. Despite some of you hating this particular iteration, there are actually some signals that this may improve the quality and size of the community. Stream follows are up 100% since the update, and the quality of views and votes is probably higher which may result in a better critical mass.

The stream follow stats are very interesting. This happens because the option to view all streams is much more visible now than previously. To further enhance these stats, Imgflip could sunset the fun stream and show Imgflip's top streams by default. Then, when new users pick their streams to follow, these streams appear in the 'Meme Streams' page. It would encourage Imgflip's decentralization and improve discoverability. Sunsetting the fun stream also means that you and other mods could focus more time on sitewide moderation than just moderating the fun stream.

I see that Imgflip is focusing its efforts into being an image hosting service, so I suggest these features:

1. Professional Image Maker: It would be like Photoshop, but cheaper, with similar features and would come with an image hosting service. Locking it behind Imgflip Pro would be an intelligent move, as professionals are actually willing to pay for it and have easy image hosting with no quota as well. Image Maker would have no watermark. The Meme Generator would be kept, but Imgflip's main focus would now be the professional Image Maker.

2. Professional Video Maker: It would have the same dynamic as the Image Maker. It would have more complex features than the GIF Maker. Users would be able to create animations from scratch inside of Imgflip's Video Maker using animation tools, or use it as a video editor and edit from existing videos.

3. Licensable templates: In an ever-changing business world, Imgflip should stand out as the go-to image hosting service for professionals. Licensable templates are a good way to do that. In a licensable template, you pay whatever the licensor defines. And no, the licensors would not be your random Imgflip user. They would be high-profile photographers and artists willing to use Imgflip as a licensing agency that would guarantee them with widespread template usage when paired with the Image Maker's abundance of features and unlimited image hosting, all in one place. User-made templates would be kept for the Meme Generator. Licensable templates are for the Image Maker.

4. Monthly filesize usage quota: Hosting memes and GIFs is very expensive. As such, for Imgflip to pay the bills, they must add a monthly filesize quota whenever users make their creations. If the same user exceeds the quota, they must wait for the next month or pay for Imgflip Pro for no quota.

5. One-time watermark removal fee: Under my vision, Imgflip Pro should actually live up to its name and be served to professionals. Locking watermarks for the Meme Generator and the GIF Maker would not be good branding for professionals that pay for Imgflip Pro. As such, watermark removal should be separated from Pro and become a standalone one-time fee. I suggest charging 50 cents per meme and 1 dollar per GIF.

good ideas

we certainly want to maintain all of the meme creation and templates imgflip is known for, but expanding into more quick creative tools sounds like a good project

Also, about Imgflip's social components, I have thought of two possibilities:

1. Remove it: Considering that my idea would visibly approach the business world, part of me thinks that the best option would be to entirely sunset the community aspect of Imgflip. Doing this could open up space to prioritize the professional userbase, which could make it easier for them and increase the professionals' willingness to use the creation tools and pay for Imgflip Pro.

2. Keep intact: At the same time, though, removing the social components would significantly damage traffic. Yes, social media users make up 5% of the userbase. But compared to meme creators and professionals, social media users come back the most often, which compensates its small size. In other words, the 'loud minority' should not be taken lightly. The other part of me advocates for keeping it intact, with some changes and expansions. For example, I told Ser Donald about my Sponsored Posts idea, which could bring more revenue and also end the fun stream to replace it entirely with community-made streams, increasing interactions. The current UI would be kept because in this case, it balances well between community and meme creators, as well as easier navigation. Implementing this idea could diversify Imgflip's userbase and cause better word-of-mouth spreading for Imgflip.

But I'd say that the former is better. Everything that I said is what could happen to Imgflip. They are ideas in paper. The former was not tested yet to see if it'll work or not. The latter, however, was put to test for more than a decade, and showed consistently unpromising results. One decade is more than enough to determine if that's a good idea or not. Also, the traffic drop could not matter in the long run, as Imgflip earns more revenue from professionals to sustain the website.

We've definitely thought about all these options many times. The most obvious thing is that new innovations and change are needed to the home and community aspects. The 5% is indeed more active, but there's also extremely low desire for social users to pay for things, and high expense and brand damage due to all the things that come with running a social network like moderation. According to users, our mods are simultaneously both leftists and rightists trying to silence people or whatever.

These are all very good points.

I just like making memes for others and sharing photos while being able to interact with people that I've met.
Also, I think I'm a pretty good moderator and I don't show any bias for the most part.

Basically, my ideas are to make Imgflip the go-to image hosting service for professionals. My ideas are business-oriented, and would antagonize the social component of Imgflip more than the UI change could ever do, as it would also completely change Imgflip's main identity from "funny meme site" to a professional image hosting service. Imgflip should still no doubt target non-professionals who use the Meme Generator and the GIF Maker. But they would not be the main focus of the website anymore. These features are very hard to implement as well, but could provide Imgflip with serious revenue. They are high-risk, high-reward ventures.

Add like a 4 options about what you plan on using this service for
Social media, The community on Imgflip, Professional and All
For social media, you can post but can also link your social media profile so you can post it to your social media from Imgflip
For the community on Imgflip, it's the same as it is now
For professionals, you have access for the meme generator, but also the image generator which has a vast majority of options, including the ability to make slideshows, add charts to said slideshows, can pay for Imgflip Pro for Businesses to remove the watermark and the watermark can say "slideshow made on imgflip.com". We can also add the ability to make the slideshow with AI with the watermark saying "slideshow made with AI on imgflip.com based on the prefix "[insert prefix]."" with Imgflip Pro for Businesses.
For all, it's all of those options combined

Oh thank you for keeping nsfw off nsfw is for 18+

Whar

it’s depressing going to this menu

Agreed.

legit

got get that devs address

Ikr