[HN Gopher] Which year: guess which year each photo was taken
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Which year: guess which year each photo was taken
        
       Author : trymas
       Score  : 583 points
       Date   : 2025-04-17 10:42 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (whichyr.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (whichyr.com)
        
       | dtagames wrote:
       | This is fun! Thanks for the post.
       | 
       | I got a score of 3740 and an average of 10 years off.
        
       | MisterBastahrd wrote:
       | 7.2 years off on average. First 3 were 3, 1, and 1 year off
       | respectively. Last two blew my momentum.
        
       | pekim wrote:
       | That was fun. I got a score of 4174, and an average of 6.2 years
       | off. Clothes and hair styles were quite helpful in 3 of the
       | pictures.
       | 
       | I'll definitely take a look at it tomorrow.
        
       | Jolter wrote:
       | This is exactly the same game as chronophoto.app, as far as I can
       | tell, except with way better UX and as a "daily challenge" type
       | game. Well done, anyway! It's a fun game.
        
       | fsargent wrote:
       | Now is there anything which will take this, run it through ML and
       | then find a date for all of my scanned family photos?
        
       | codecutter wrote:
       | This is really fun. My score was 4307 (top 12%) with average 5.8
       | years off.
        
       | peripitea wrote:
       | Tried plugging it into the new o3 model out of curiosity and it
       | got 0.2, i.e. it got everything exactly right save for one that
       | it missed by a year.
        
         | delusional wrote:
         | You know, there are easier ways to cheat at the game? The
         | photos are from the internet, a reverse image search will
         | surface all of them.
        
           | mr_mitm wrote:
           | I read it as more of an experiment to gauge the capabilities
           | of AI than an attempt at cheating.
           | 
           | I'm impressed that AI is that good.
        
             | codetrotter wrote:
             | Is it good, or are those photos already in the training
             | data that the model was trained on?
             | 
             | Would be interesting to see how well it would fare on five
             | photos from different years, using pictures that have never
             | previously been uploaded anywhere.
        
           | scrollop wrote:
           | Why would s/he come here to boast about cheating on a game?
           | S/he was obviously testing the AI.
        
       | nurina wrote:
       | This was fun
        
       | meatjuice wrote:
       | Very fun, but I'm horrible at this
       | 
       | WhichYear 4/20/25 3045 pts 13 avg. years off
       | 4
       | 
       | whichyr.com
        
         | omneity wrote:
         | I thought hackernews strips out emojis, interesting.
        
           | naitgacem wrote:
           | There are indeed no emojis on that comment for me, are you
           | using a different client?
        
             | omneity wrote:
             | I can actually see the emoji for number 4 on iOS Safari.
             | 
             | It's in the 3rd line, the one before the website url
             | (penultimate).
        
               | naitgacem wrote:
               | On Firefox Windows I see the number 4 with some line over
               | it.
        
       | Einenlum wrote:
       | I love it. Just too bad you can't zoom in the picture on mobile.
       | Had to open the picture on a new tab.
        
         | jjbinx007 wrote:
         | I could zoom in okay on Chrome for Android but I always enable
         | zoom override in accessibility so it might be that.
        
         | jonwinstanley wrote:
         | I pinched the page and it zoomed ok
        
         | rasso wrote:
         | Zooming in worked for me in Arc on iPhone
        
         | usr1106 wrote:
         | Usability on mobile Firefox was not great.
        
           | szenrom wrote:
           | In Firefox, you can now go into Accessibility options and
           | enable zooming on all sites which should help, it did for me.
        
         | pngeez wrote:
         | This is great to know, thanks! Will hopefully have it working
         | for tomorrow's challenge.
        
         | Einenlum wrote:
         | (I used Brave on Android)
        
       | pndy wrote:
       | I've got 4861 (top 2% ~3 years off)
       | 
       | If someone likes additional challenge then Teuteuf Games'
       | WhenTaken has both guessing the year and location:
       | https://teuteuf.fr/
       | 
       | They also got Worldle which was covered on hn -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30367906
        
         | me_bx wrote:
         | Yes, the extra challenge of having to guess the place really
         | adds some fun in WhenTaken. Direct link to it:
         | https://whentaken.com/game
        
       | uxcolumbo wrote:
       | Fun game.
       | 
       | Suggestions:
       | 
       | Make the logo clickable so it goes to the homepage
       | 
       | On the sharing stats page, add a link to start the game, e.g. if
       | I send the link to someone to challenge my score, there needs to
       | be an easy way to start the game.
        
       | j1elo wrote:
       | What do the last emoji numbers mean when you share your results?
       | 
       | Below my points, and how many avg years off, I got a dartboard,
       | then "6", "3", emoji of a blind man walking, then "6".
        
         | tetha wrote:
         | I think those indicate how far off that guess was. I have a
         | dartboard when I guessed the year exactly right, numbers 1 and
         | 3 matching these years off, and a blind man for >10 years off
         | or around there.
        
           | j1elo wrote:
           | Yes, I confirmed it with the results from other friends. Very
           | unintuitive, though. Just saying "Accuracy:" before the
           | emojis, would give a good enough hint of what those mean.
        
         | aweiher wrote:
         | Using the blind man with probing cane emoji to signify losing
         | in a game is really disappointing
        
       | redbell wrote:
       | That was fun and definitely a bit challenging to figure out--I
       | scored 3677, landing in the top 46%, with an average of 9.2
       | years.
       | 
       | As for some (hopefully constructive) feedback: I think the year
       | selection slider could benefit from a few adjustments. If an
       | image is from the distant past--say, pre-1950s--it might make
       | more sense to use decade-based precision rather than individual
       | years. For example, a black-and-white photo had me way off that
       | caused me to lose 20 years of my life :). It would be helpful if
       | such images were categorized more broadly, something like "191x".
       | 
       | For mid-century images (roughly 1960-1990), a 5-year interval
       | could strike a better balance. I came across one from that era
       | and was six years off. And for more recent images, say post-2010,
       | a one-year precision feels reasonable.
       | 
       | Of course, this suggestion mainly applies if we're deducing the
       | year based on visual cues like clothing, hairstyles, and the
       | environment. If the game is intended more as a quiz based on the
       | text descriptions under the images, then it shifts more into
       | trivia territory--and that's a different type of challenge
       | altogether.
        
         | dmos62 wrote:
         | The score takes the magnitude of error into account. Isn't it
         | nice that guessing the precise year is more rewarded than
         | guessing the decade?
        
         | pngeez wrote:
         | Hi, I made this game. Really appreciate the feedback! Seems
         | like older images tend to be frustrating, so I think I'll use
         | them less going forward.
         | 
         | Also, older photos are scored more generously, so being a few
         | decades off won't tank your score nearly as much as it would on
         | a newer one.
        
           | frereubu wrote:
           | This is fun. One tiny bit of UI feedback - when maximising
           | the image, I'd expect the escape key to go back to the game,
           | and found it a bit frustrating when it didn't.
        
           | Al-Khwarizmi wrote:
           | For the record, I especially enjoyed the older photos. Maybe
           | it's just a matter of making it obvious in the UI that they
           | penalize less, so that score maximizers won't be annoyed with
           | them.
        
             | bbarnett wrote:
             | Yes! Games are to be fun, but for many the challenge is
             | fun.
        
           | asdf12341 wrote:
           | Hi, I think you should credit the photographer of these as
           | well.
        
           | darkerside wrote:
           | I disagree with all of that feedback. Might be because I got
           | top 3%. I don't mean this in a mean way, but it sounds like
           | sour grapes to me!
        
           | Rapzid wrote:
           | I got that London blitz photo bang on. The older photos are
           | fun.
        
           | lolinder wrote:
           | No, don't stop using the older images! They were the most fun
           | for me! Reasoning about the political landscape that would
           | have led to the beach photo was challenging and rewarding
           | when I got it right. And the London Blitz photo was also a
           | ton of fun to see and think about.
        
           | gradascent wrote:
           | Adding to the chorus: I like the older images and the precise
           | year is important! The underground shelter is something that
           | wouldn't exist just a few years after that photo, or before.
        
             | lostlogin wrote:
             | > The underground shelter is something that wouldn't exist
             | just a few years after that photo, or before.
             | 
             | It's probably there now, it's the London Underground.
        
       | satiric wrote:
       | 4878, avg 2.4 years off. Way better than I thought I'd do, I
       | think I just got lucky. I agree that it's a lot like
       | chronophoto.app, but that also has freeplay. This has a nicer
       | looking UI but I think a worse feature set. In particular the
       | scroll-to-zoom and freeplay on chronophoto are nice to have.
       | 
       | Edit: I had seen the photo in the subway before, or something
       | very similar. It's an interesting decision to use photos from big
       | events that people might recognize. (Not inherently bad IMO, just
       | not what I would have intuitively chosen)
        
         | pngeez wrote:
         | Thanks! This is all super helpful. I'm hoping to have something
         | like Chronophoto's zoom working by tomorrow's game, and a
         | freeplay-style mode is in the works too.
         | 
         | Do you think it's more satisfying to guess based on clues like
         | tech, clothing, and photo quality, or when you recognize the
         | historical event or era (assuming it's something a little less
         | recognizable than that subway photo)?
        
           | satiric wrote:
           | I think both are good, it's nice to have variety. It was very
           | satisfying as a user to think that the photo of all the
           | people might be of the Egyptian revolution in 2011, then end
           | up getting the year exactly right. Some photos are inherently
           | gonna be easier to tell than others. Wartime photos can have
           | a fun game of "figure out which war it is based on the
           | equipment". I think the problem with the subway photo is that
           | it's a very memorable situation, to use subway tunnels as
           | shelters. But there are plenty of wartime photos that aren't
           | gonna be that way.
           | 
           | I also like trying to figure out where the photo was taken,
           | even if that isn't strictly part of the game. So I'm glad
           | that the photo caption is there.
        
       | atoav wrote:
       | A fun (hard) addition to that would be the color photography by
       | Sergey Prokusin-Gorsky because the picture quality is so out of
       | its time (~1900) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Prokudin-
       | Gorsky#Galle...
        
         | pyfon wrote:
         | Oof what! They are like a modern phone camera almost. Much
         | better than 80s film cameras. A lot of work must have gone into
         | that.
        
       | kzrdude wrote:
       | Thanks, got very lucky in the sense that they were recognizable
       | events mostly, except the ladies on the beach, so was 1.2 years
       | off.
        
         | dmos62 wrote:
         | Agreed. The beach goers threw me too. (Spoiler) I was off by 20
         | years.
        
           | cs02rm0 wrote:
           | Likewise, 29 years out for that, everything else within a
           | couple of years.
           | 
           | Probably didn't help that I'm not American so the cultural
           | references aren't there.
        
         | telesilla wrote:
         | As someone with interest in fashion and social politics, I got
         | that photo year within 2 years difference. Many photos here are
         | largely identifiable as political events but certainly helps to
         | have a fashion background as others have commented in this
         | thread.
        
       | djmips wrote:
       | I did OK, didn't try to hard but was surprised at how good people
       | are at this!
        
       | pembrook wrote:
       | Great idea! The trick is to zoom into peoples clothing, and then
       | the associated event becomes quite obvious. Eg. Photo of Disco,
       | no crazy lapels, obviously towards the end of disco, which puts
       | you within a year or two.
       | 
       | Might have gotten lucky but zooming in on clothing got me to 1.8
       | years off on average (top 2%).
        
         | david-gpu wrote:
         | Pinch to zoom didn't work for me on Firefox for Android, and
         | neither did double tapping.
        
           | nly wrote:
           | Me either. Squinting at it didn't help.
        
           | SlackSabbath wrote:
           | Settings > Accessibility > Zoom on all websites
        
             | exhilaration wrote:
             | Thanks!!!
        
           | qw wrote:
           | It doesn't work for me either (Android+Chrome)
        
           | janwillemb wrote:
           | Long press the picture, open image in new tab. Then you can
           | zoom.
        
         | Jensson wrote:
         | I just went by feel of each and got 2.4 year average, also top
         | 2%. I guess it doesn't do higher than top 2% then.
         | 
         | > obviously towards the end of disco
         | 
         | What is the end of disco?
        
           | frereubu wrote:
           | I presume OP meant towards the end of the disco era.
        
           | input_sh wrote:
           | Disco is probably the only genre whose "death" (as in very
           | quick drop from being mainstream) can be traced to a very
           | specific date: July 12th, 1979.
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco_Demolition_Night
        
             | Al-Khwarizmi wrote:
             | Interesting. Can we organize an event to blow up reggaeton
             | records (or trap, or latin urban, or whatever they call it
             | now - sounds all similar to me) and hope for it to go away?
        
               | input_sh wrote:
               | Personally, I'd prefer for a young white male demographic
               | to not riot against music primarily associated with
               | certain marginalised communities anymore.
        
           | zamadatix wrote:
           | I'm not sure why that would mean it doesn't go higher than
           | top 2%, it would only imply the scores you ended up with were
           | in the same percentage bracket.
           | 
           | Confirming this, it looks like you indeed get top 0% when you
           | end on a perfect score of 5000 with an average of 0 years
           | off.
        
       | alcover wrote:
       | 4920 here. Waiting for contenders ;)
       | 
       | More seriously I often wonder how this works in the brain when
       | there is no obvious historical clue. Is it akin to guessing a
       | numerical quantity (like when seeing a crowd) ?
        
       | ratatoskrt wrote:
       | Very clever idea! This was fun!
        
       | TrackerFF wrote:
       | One interesting observation is how much less variation there has
       | been in clothes for the past 20 years or so. Someone from 2005
       | could look completely undisguisable from someone today, by just
       | wearing regular non-fashion forward 2005 clothes. Same goes for
       | haircuts.
       | 
       | Same can't really said about someone from 1955 and 1975, 1980 -
       | 2000, etc.
       | 
       | edit: Score 4695 Avg. Years Off 3.0
        
         | 2mlWQbCK wrote:
         | Is that really true? It is true for me, but I always assumed
         | that is just because I were younger last century. In 1990 I
         | could easily tell if someone was looking like 1980, but today I
         | could never guess if someone looked like 2015 or 2025. I would
         | be happy to learn that this is because fashion actually slowed
         | down, but until proven wrong I will just assume it is because I
         | am older and not paying attention.
        
           | Jensson wrote:
           | > could never guess if someone looked like 2015 or 2025.
           | 
           | If you don't think the younger generation dress crazily then
           | fashion didn't change. Every previous generation thought the
           | next generations clothes were crazy.
        
           | simgt wrote:
           | > I could never guess if someone looked like 2015 or 2025
           | 
           | It's the length of the socks
        
             | trinix912 wrote:
             | And the width of the pants
        
               | btbuildem wrote:
               | And the length of the pants vs the socks
        
             | thfuran wrote:
             | How long are socks supposed to be now?
        
               | manfromchina1 wrote:
               | Apparently Gen Z prefer crew socks as opposed to
               | millennial ankle socks.
        
           | calderwoodra wrote:
           | It's easier to identify women's fashion among millennials
           | imo:
           | 
           | 2000's: jeans
           | 
           | 2010's: leggings
           | 
           | 2020's: not those
        
           | rafram wrote:
           | It's because you were younger. As a "Gen Z" person, there's a
           | huge difference between 2010s fashions and the fashions of
           | today.
        
         | jillesvangurp wrote:
         | It's an interesting phenomenon that you can observe with other
         | things as well like tastes in music. I think it has something
         | to do with people having access to about sixty years of people
         | trying out just about everything they could think off. It's all
         | been done before at this point and it's all available in new
         | and fresh forms. So, it's no longer about collectively picking
         | something that is genuinely new but individuals cherry-picking
         | whatever that they like. And it helps of course that we're not
         | funneling media through a handful of TV channels, newspapers,
         | etc. anymore like we used to. So people cherry pick where they
         | get their information as well.
        
           | numa7numa7 wrote:
           | > It's all been done before
           | 
           | Until something new is done ;)
           | 
           | The sound pallette is just about infinite with what's
           | possible.s.
           | 
           | I think modern music has become homogenous because true art
           | is risky and won't pass a modern focus group.
        
             | dgfitz wrote:
             | I keep waiting for inside-out clothes to be a thing.
             | Hipsters were getting close at one point.
        
               | fsckboy wrote:
               | back around 2002 I had some T shirts from the Gap (so,
               | pretty mainstream) that had the visible stitching and
               | tags look like the shirt was inside out; sort of a
               | duplicate in that if you actually wore them inside out
               | they still looked inside out. the only way to really tell
               | was the little washing instructions tag on the inside.
               | 
               | i really liked them, was sad when they went away
        
           | conception wrote:
           | Probably more that's it's much easier to market and sell
           | something that's been done before than come up with something
           | new. Also our supply chains are highly specialized for the
           | stuff we currently make. In 3-5 years we will see bell shaped
           | pants back again as we go from 90's repeats to 00's repeats
           | which were 70's repeats. Etc etc.
        
             | HelloMcFly wrote:
             | Perhaps another less depressing reason is the intersection
             | of two things:
             | 
             | 1) For all its negatives, online culture makes it easier to
             | find and acknowledge different groups with different tastes
             | that share yours, you're not as subject to having to "fit
             | in" just with those near you. Maybe another way to say it
             | is that fewer things are "weird" because it's easy to find
             | others doing something similar
             | 
             | 2) The availability of styles is not quite as bottlenecked
             | into a limited number of taste-makers like it used to be.
        
           | computerdork wrote:
           | For me, think it's probably more your second idea, that we're
           | not funneling media through a handful of TV channels,
           | newspapers, etc. anymore like we used to. This creates (for
           | better or worse) more of a "group think" mentality, since
           | they've all seen the same tv shows and movies, and become
           | more in sync with their views on all things, cultural,
           | political... So people's sense of fashion is also in sync as
           | well as the need to fit in.
        
         | pyb wrote:
         | This cultural phenomenon is sometimes called "the Long 90s"
        
         | cheschire wrote:
         | Well there's very little "common" cultural influence these
         | days. It used to be that you could see a significant episode of
         | a TV show and EVERYONE was talking about it the next day in the
         | office. Now you're lucky if you can even find one person that
         | has seen the show you're even talking about, let alone if they
         | are "caught up" on it since many people prefer to buffer a few
         | episodes while they watch other things.
        
           | victor106 wrote:
           | Agreed, I think the last of the shows where everyone talked
           | about was Game of Thrones.
        
         | ksec wrote:
         | >edit: Score 4695 Avg. Years Off 3.0
         | 
         | How is that even possible? Only three years off? I thought
         | guessing it which tens would be good enough. Getting the last
         | digit right is impossible without blind luck? Or am I missing
         | something?
        
           | echoangle wrote:
           | For some images, it involves some luck. But one image was
           | WWII for example, that one is much easier to get accurately.
        
           | macintux wrote:
           | I averaged 5 years off, but my average would have been much
           | better without one photo that I botched by 16 years because
           | I'm unfamiliar with early 19th century swimsuit styles.
           | 
           | There were 2 major world events represented, that helps.
           | Clothing style helps.
        
             | earthtograndma wrote:
             | If you guessed the 19th century, you were off by a bit more
             | than 16 years.
        
               | macintux wrote:
               | And here I complain about people erroneously specifying
               | EST all summer along. They're only off by 1 hour.
        
               | kQq9oHeAz6wLLS wrote:
               | I skip specifying Standard or Daylight time altogether,
               | and just use ET (or CT, MT, etc). Much easier on my
               | brain, and nobody actually cares which they're in at the
               | moment.
        
           | lolinder wrote:
           | I got 3.2. Spoilers below.
           | 
           | Round 1 I just guessed in the middle of the 70s.
           | 
           | Round 2 I was 5 years off, but I should have been able to get
           | closer if I'd slowed down. Someone with a better knowledge of
           | modern Middle Eastern uprisings or Arabic could have read the
           | signs, but also the tech in everyone's hands was pretty
           | closely dated.
           | 
           | Round 3 was pretty clearly the London Blitz--the uniform was
           | WW2 era and people were piled on top of each other in a
           | London Tube station--which narrowed it down to basically a
           | single year.
           | 
           | Round 4 was another guess-the-decade shot, I was 6 years off
           | (I guessed 1940). Had I thought about it harder it would have
           | been unlikely to have been taken during WW2, which would have
           | bumped my guess up a few years to be closer.
           | 
           | Round 5 was a bunch of protesters who were pretty clearly in
           | the mid-to-late 2000s (cell phone in the background), and the
           | topic of their protest was gay marriage which had a single
           | very important flashpoint in that decade with Prop 8 in 2008.
        
             | ksec wrote:
             | Round 1 was the same.
             | 
             | Round 2 I guessed it was something to do with Arab Spring
             | but without looking up the year of it happened I remember
             | it was late 00s or early 10s so I put 2010.
             | 
             | Round 3
             | 
             | >and people were piled on top of each other in a London
             | Tube station--which narrowed it down to basically a single
             | year.
             | 
             | Not sure that is a knowledge I know but I only guess it was
             | WWII, again without looking it up I only remember it as the
             | 40s.
             | 
             | Round 4 I had the same thought so I guess something like
             | 1960s because I thought it wasn't WWII.
             | 
             | Round 5, not from US so I only know / heard of Prop 8 when
             | Mozilla fired their CTO Brendan Eich. I thought it happened
             | in early to mid 2010s.
        
           | Lerc wrote:
           | 4586 Avg. years off 5
           | 
           | I felt like I should have been able to be closer. The images
           | wouldn't zoom on my phone though. I'm impressed by three
           | years off but would consider it quite possible for somone who
           | knows their history.
        
           | incanus77 wrote:
           | Score 4722 Avg. Years Off 2.6 here. Spoilers: I got two
           | exactly right (Arab Spring, Battle of Britain) and one off by
           | a year (dancing). The two exacts were pretty obviously tied
           | to specific dated events, and I both love history and have a
           | pretty easy time remembering dates. I love this sort of game,
           | as I do trivia, history trivia especially.
        
           | petesergeant wrote:
           | > Score: 4947; Avg. Years Off: 1.2
           | 
           | Skill issue.
        
           | furyofantares wrote:
           | I got one off by 20 years, oops. But there's two where I
           | think you can get exact or off by 1 with some knowledge of
           | world events, maybe it's a 50/50 shot. And there's two where
           | the half-decade is pretty clear.
        
         | sergiotapia wrote:
         | It's called "stuck culture".
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pyi-KGwuR9c
        
         | I-M-S wrote:
         | I would say athleisure is a recent development. 10 years ago
         | you'd see far fewer women wearing tight leggings outside the
         | gym. Heck, even in gyms you'd be hard pressed to see the kind
         | of tank tops and sport bras you regularly see nowadays [1]
         | 
         | N.B. I'm just noting the phenomenon, not commenting on its
         | merits
         | 
         | [1] https://www.vice.com/en/article/women-are-intimidating-
         | men-w...
        
           | Oreb wrote:
           | I've never seen women wearing that kind of outfits in gyms in
           | Norway or France, but I see it all the time online. Is it an
           | American thing?
        
             | I-M-S wrote:
             | Can't comment on the USA, but I'm seeing a fair number of
             | them in Canada and (somewhat less commonly) in Croatia.
        
             | MzxgckZtNqX5i wrote:
             | Not uncommon in Norway, at least at few gyms I've been to
             | after they reopened after COVID.
        
         | hnpolicestate wrote:
         | Lindy.
        
         | dredmorbius wrote:
         | Clothing variation has a lot to do with not only _fashions_ but
         | _fabrics_.
         | 
         | Considered over a longer timescale, up through the late 19th
         | century, the principle options for clothing were cotton, flax,
         | silk, wool, leather, grasses (in some regions), and metal, with
         | very few other options.
         | 
         | Viscose rayon was the first _synthetic_ fibre created, in 1899.
         | It was followed by Nylon (1930s) which pressaged a slew of
         | additional synthetics, notably polyester. Adoption was somewhat
         | slowed by various factors, including WWII, but by the 1960s
         | synthetic fabrics and brilliant dyes were exploding into
         | popularity.
         | 
         | Flagrant use of synthetics faded somewhat through the 1970s and
         | 1980s, with fabric blends and natural fabrics becoming more
         | prevalent (yes, I'm aware that the leisure suit was prominent
         | in the 1970s, but it was _less_ so by the end of the decade).
         | 
         | There've been variations in specific styles since, though most
         | to my eye have been evocative of earlier 20th-century periods
         | since the 1990s, rather than distinctively original. (I'm far
         | from an expert in clothing fashion, take with heaping handfuls
         | of salt.)
         | 
         | Other scene-setting elements include architectural styles
         | (notably houses in the West), automobiles, and since ~2000, the
         | presence and style of handheld mobile devices, smartphones
         | after about 2010. Camera styles would be a useful indicator for
         | much of the 1900s ("Brownie" box cameras, SLRs, "Instamatics",
         | and the like).
        
       | gblargg wrote:
       | I wanted to play more but couldn't find any way. Refresh page, no
       | new game link, tried entering URL again. Checked but no cookies
       | to delete. That's one way to ensure I never visit the site again.
        
         | k1kingy wrote:
         | To be fair it's a daily challenge. Try again tomorrow. But yes,
         | I would love it if there were more game modes (similar to
         | GeoGuessr)
        
           | gblargg wrote:
           | I like things I can improve my skill on. This works by
           | getting a stream of feedback as I study what I did and the
           | errors I made, then try again with changes. Having only 5
           | rounds a day (assuming it resets each day) greatly limits
           | this. This limitation seems more like an attempt to make me
           | use it in a certain way (make it part of my daily routine).
           | That's off-putting. I wanted to sit there grinding over
           | dozens of photos and watching my skill improve in real-time.
        
         | pngeez wrote:
         | Hi, I made the game. Appreciate the feedback! Working on a mode
         | that lets you play more right now.
        
       | psittacus wrote:
       | There's a similar game, but for guessing both the year and the
       | location
       | 
       | https://timeguessr.com/
       | 
       | Discussed on HN a couple of years ago too:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37203511
       | 
       | edit: found another game like OP in the linked thread
       | https://www.chronophoto.app/game.html
        
         | clippyplz wrote:
         | Another for year + location https://whentaken.com/
        
           | 8organicbits wrote:
           | The whole collection is great:
           | 
           | https://whentaken.com/teuteuf-games
        
           | kentimental wrote:
           | https://pointguessr.com is another one, it's like timeguessr
           | but with real-time co-op functionality
        
           | airstrike wrote:
           | Holy, I was off by 7 years and 427km on my first guess and I
           | don't want to play anymore because I've surely peaked
        
             | kQq9oHeAz6wLLS wrote:
             | I just got one that was off by 2 years and 24.2 _meters_ ,
             | but it was kinda cheaty because it showed Barbara Bush on
             | the South lawn of the White House.
        
               | airstrike wrote:
               | lol nicely done
               | 
               | I only immigrated to the US in my adult life and I can't
               | say I recognize Barbara Bush at a glance, so I was _also_
               | off by a few years and a few km on that one :( but still
               | a lot of fun!
        
               | tecleandor wrote:
               | Seems like they're "season photos", so a lot of Easter
               | and Holy Week celebrations today.
               | 
               | I have to say I got almost perfect a Holy Week
               | celebration in Sevilla in the 1920's (I'm Spanish, so
               | only some hundred meters away but kinda wild guess for
               | the year and only was two years off), and pointed Mexico
               | instead of Guatemala for another, but nailed the year
               | (1981) for a grand total of 902 out of 1000 points.
               | 
               | That was fun!
        
       | rubychill wrote:
       | This was fun! Sent it through to my "gamedle" group chat and it's
       | probably going into my daily rotation.
       | 
       | One thing though, the url in the share text doesn't start with
       | https:// so it doesn't turn into a clickable link when posted in
       | some chat clients.
        
         | pngeez wrote:
         | Ah this is really helpful, thanks!
        
           | saaaaaam wrote:
           | Also I think there's a bug when you view "All-time Stats".
           | I've only played once and in my first game I scored 3971 but
           | it shows lifetime points of 7942 (which exactly double 3971)
           | and 2 games played.
           | 
           | Great game though, really good idea!
        
       | tiberius_p wrote:
       | This is a great way to gather labeled training data for a neural
       | network that can guess in which year a photo was taken.
        
         | krisoft wrote:
         | A photo archive with actual correct date labels is even better
         | (the thing which this game is built on.)
        
       | ChrisNorstrom wrote:
       | Here's another one for guessing ethnicities https://hbd.gg/play/
        
       | 8474_s wrote:
       | This is interesting concept, if there was more variety it could
       | be some like timeguessr.
        
       | NehalNetha wrote:
       | would be so fun if it has a multiplayer mode
        
       | sudofoo wrote:
       | This was fun!
        
       | jillesvangurp wrote:
       | Nice idea. I was 6 years off on average. Probably something the
       | new AI models might be very good at.
        
       | xg15 wrote:
       | I guess I'm getting a bit paranoid, but whenever I see a game
       | like this, my first suspicion is that it's just a trainset
       | annotation UI in disguise.
        
         | rightbyte wrote:
         | Nah seems like pictures choosen for this purpose? Or do you
         | mean they will sneak in a picture with an unknown date every
         | now and then to good estimators?
        
           | xg15 wrote:
           | Something like this, pretty much.
        
             | asdf12341 wrote:
             | I doubt why they need to, these photos are all from
             | newspaper which already have the date.
        
               | xg15 wrote:
               | Eh, we already had a discussion a few days ago about
               | people using AI to effortlessly geolocate photos. That's
               | the "where". I could see a model that also provides the
               | "when" as useful for a lot of purposes.
        
       | ashish1dev wrote:
       | Tried this, it is very addictive game, good job team !
        
       | ashish1dev wrote:
       | tried this game, it is very addictive, good job team !
        
       | dbcooper wrote:
       | WhichYear 4/20/25 4939 pts (top 1%) 1 avg. years off
       | 
       | 2 1 1 1 1
       | 
       | whichyr.com
        
       | thih9 wrote:
       | Does it have only one set of photos per day?
        
       | rimbo789 wrote:
       | WhichYear 4/20/25 4215 pts (top 17%) 6 avg. years off
       | 
       | 3 1 8
       | 
       | whichyr.com
        
       | eqvinox wrote:
       | If you grab statistics per photo rather than the whole thing, and
       | maybe do rough client geolocation, you can turn this into a
       | sociological study and publish a paper about it...
        
       | Vinonasg wrote:
       | Guessing the year each photo was taken can be surprisingly
       | accurate when you observe changes in technology, fashion, or even
       | product developments visible in the background.
        
       | aulisius wrote:
       | 3121 pts, 14 avg. years off.
       | 
       | Decent try considering most of the options were USA specific.
        
       | rafram wrote:
       | Definitely the most polished game of this sort that I've seen.
       | Nice work!
        
       | goldfishgold wrote:
       | I created a similar game a few years ago for guessing the year of
       | an object in the Met's collection. Would love any feedback if
       | people want to try it.
        
         | brador wrote:
         | What is Mets collection?
        
           | slig wrote:
           | I'd guess The Met [1]
           | 
           | [1]: https://www.metmuseum.org/
        
       | bbarnett wrote:
       | I tried playing again, but how?! I am presented with the last
       | play stats, but see no way to play again.
       | 
       | I can share, or get all time stats. That's all.
        
       | davidfdriscoll wrote:
       | I created a similar game a couple years ago for guessing the year
       | of an object in the Met's collection. Would love any feedback if
       | people want to try it. https://davidfdriscoll.github.io/met-
       | chronoguesser/
        
       | Waterluvian wrote:
       | I love this idea so much and would make this one of my daily
       | games.
       | 
       | FWIW: The jankiness of the slider feels quite jarring, given it's
       | the sole interactive element. It makes the thing difficult to
       | stick with. On my iPhone 12, it lags way behind and the numbers
       | update at like 10fps.
       | 
       | I really hope this keeps getting daily images added.
        
         | kwertyoowiyop wrote:
         | Also laggy on my iPad Air.
        
       | pyfon wrote:
       | 4580. Helps if you recognise the current affairs. Gay marriage,
       | Arab spring, London Blitz came up. Leaving me with a party with a
       | mix of drab and 70s disco clothing so I guessed 1981 and was
       | close enough!
       | 
       | The one that got me was some people at a beach in black and
       | white.
        
       | pieterr wrote:
       | When I press "All Times Stats", I see "Games Played: 2". But I
       | only played today. Off-by-one error?
        
       | jpalomaki wrote:
       | The "global score distribution" (and my score) and the end was
       | pretty good idea. Much more informative than just some high score
       | list.
        
         | johnsillings wrote:
         | Agree - great feature & nice for sharing.
        
       | hliyan wrote:
       | One thing I realized was: the presence or absence of smartphones
       | is an easy way to determine whether something happened before
       | circa 2009 or after. Another: indoor smoking.
        
       | frogarden wrote:
       | 4902, 2% off. I like how you've created a guess distribution
        
       | johnsillings wrote:
       | I love this!
       | 
       | Small bit of feedback that - after expanding an image - it'd be
       | nice to more easily collapse it and return to the game screen.
       | Maybe by pressing escape on the keyboard and/or clicking on the
       | image.
        
       | BMc2020 wrote:
       | Score
       | 
       | 3433
       | 
       | Avg. Years Off
       | 
       | 12.2
        
         | navigate8310 wrote:
         | Score
         | 
         | 4266
         | 
         | Avg. Years Off
         | 
         | 5.2
        
       | aae42 wrote:
       | ripoff of https://www.chronophoto.app ?
       | 
       | it's really fun/simple so can't feel too bad
        
       | kelvinjps10 wrote:
       | I feel dumb, I can't figure out how to play again
        
       | js4ever wrote:
       | ChatGPT 4o guessed perfectly 8 in a row!
        
       | karaterobot wrote:
       | You know, this game pretty much demonstrates how fast cell phone
       | addiction happened. You can tell the year by how many people are
       | staring at their phones, and how big their phones are. You don't
       | see nearly as many people reading newspapers in old photos as
       | there are people gormlessly staring into their phones in
       | contemporary photos.
        
       | hnpolicestate wrote:
       | I love this stuff. I was always good at guessing song, movie or
       | photo years.
        
       | alanvillalobos wrote:
       | Nice game! Good UI experience. When sharing you get 4 different
       | scores (points, top %, avg error, total error) I think. This is a
       | little confusing, better to share one score (maybe plus total
       | error, maybe) so people can more easily compete. 4 scores is too
       | confusing.
        
       | xyst wrote:
       | geoguessr clones/copies are so hot rn.
       | 
       | Cool idea, m8. I ended up just looking at clothing and fashion
       | choices. Although black and white photos do tend to represent
       | historical era (ie, holocaust, ww2)
        
       | almosthere wrote:
       | 5.2 years average off. The first was a dance club in the 70s, I
       | guessed 78, but it was 79... There was one where nudists where
       | taking off their clothes, I guessed 50s but it was 1934!!!
        
       | bijant wrote:
       | o3 got a SCORE AVG.4989 YEARS OFF 0.2 TOP 0%
        
       | juancroldan wrote:
       | Neat thing! I'm gonna add it to my round of daily games.
       | 
       | I'd suggest changing "Share results" to some variation of "Copy
       | results". Share looks like it's gonna open some sharing menu and
       | deter people from playing (and hence promoting your game)
       | 
       | WhichYear 4/20/25 4142 pts (top 22%) 7 avg. years off
       | 
       | 4 6 1 2
       | 
       | https://whichyr.com
        
       | icemelt8 wrote:
       | Score: 4246 pts 6 avg. years off
       | 
       | I am not american or native english speaker or never have been
       | outside Asia
        
       | pbhjpbhj wrote:
       | WhichYear 4/20/25 4311 pts 5 avg. years off
       | 
       | 6 1 5 2
       | 
       | https://whichyr.com
       | 
       | Wordle opens (or used to) a mock modal dialog with a copy button
       | for sharing the results. I feel like opening the modal rather
       | than requiring clicking the 'share' button probably leads to a
       | lot more shares?
       | 
       | I think I'd save a longer and just put "WhichYr.com" as the top
       | line, bump the date and score to the next line.
        
       | logikblok wrote:
       | WhichYear 4/20/25 4361 pts (top 11%) 6 avg. years off
       | 
       | 4 6 8 7 4
       | 
       | https://whichyr.com
        
       | wileydragonfly wrote:
       | Styles haven't changed that much since jeans and a tshirt
        
       | mNovak wrote:
       | Fun, though I'm apparently terrible at this -- avg 14 yr off.
       | 
       | UI note: the statistics tab shows games played: 2 when I only
       | played once, and the lifetime points appears to be double my one
       | game.
        
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       (page generated 2025-04-20 23:00 UTC)