Ask HN: Do you put a smiley photo of yourself on your app's About page?

In case you want to maintain your privacy, do what I did...

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This is why you teach yourself to have a distinct writing style. It gives you the personality and the privacy.

When I launched a site in February with a friend, we got a lot of email feedback complimenting us directly for our About page, which had snippets like "Rory is pretty much certainly a douche" strewn about it. We also asked for feedback haiku, and received so much we couldn't post all of it online. All that without a single personal tidbit about either of us.

There is some research to show that a "real world feel" is a critical component of a website (from the "What makes a website credible" study from a few years back. Having a picture of you will go some ways towards doing that. I put my pic on my website.

If you do this, please make sure to put a good pic up -- no self-taken camera phone bluriness, please. Remember, you want to personalize the experience but still seem professional.

Looking at the analytics of all the websites I have build (50+) the most visited page is always the "team" or "about" page. So there seems to be a desire for getting to know the people behind the company name. Yet this doesn't prove that it is a good idea ... just saying :-)

It's hard to give a definite answer without knowing who your target market is or who you are. If you are a B2C, connecting personally is good, everyone loves the underdog startup. If you are a B2B, it may be difficult to land large contracts with that sort of persona.

Nope, it's everything except my face. Cameras are great for hiding behind ;-)

http://www.shutterscouts.com/about.html

If you are one person, no. Don't promote the fact that you're a one-person shop.

If you're multiple people, plenty of startups (Kayak and Meebo come to mind) put pictures up.

There are some people who won't like it. I guess it depends on the type of marketing you're doing.. but I'd have a hard time buying an iPhone is I saw Jobs' face on the back.

Nothing wrong with adding personality to your site. I don't think it will detract or add anything to it, unless you're either a supermodel or the fly.

We opted for very stern and serious photos.

http://looklookbuy.com/about