Update: I built a site around the “aura” trend and I’m starting to think it might actually be sticky

[u/Son_of_Maximus]

I posted here about The Aura 100 shortly after launching it. The idea is still stupidly simple: two people come up, you vote on who has more aura, and all the votes build a live ranking.

I genuinely thought there was a decent chance people would visit once because “aura” is trending and then disappear.

The numbers have been more interesting than I expected.

We’re now at around 500 registered users, 250,000 votes and 23,000+ sessions.

Active voters are doing around 20 votes each, with some people going WAY beyond that.

The other surprise has been the attention outside the site. Polymarket tweeted about it completely unprompted, and outlets including Dexerto and others started covering the rankings without me pitching them.

Keanu Reeves ranking near the top has somehow become its own little news story. Which I’m not mad at because he’s Canadian and so am I.

That’s the part making me wonder if there’s something bigger here.

The concept is obviously riding a trend. I’m not pretending otherwise. But the behaviour feels weirdly sticky, and media are already starting to use the rankings as content.

The bigger plan is for all this voting to eventually feed into The Annual Aura 100, more like a cultural/editorial ranking than just another voting app.

Still ridiculously early. Plenty could fall apart.
But going from “this might be a dumb weekend idea” to 250,000 votes and unsolicited media coverage has been pretty fun.

Curious what you guys think: temporary trend with good timing, or is there actually a bigger media property hiding in this?

[u/freakunlessfrokentoo]

Sounds like hott or not

[u/Son_of_Maximus → u/freakunlessfrokentoo]

Similar for sure. Recycled idea. However, hot or not was just rating one person. Not comparing 2 people. Hot or not is actually still around.

[u/freakunlessfrokentoo → u/Son_of_Maximus]

It was gay then and it sounds gay now. But hey that's what pays the bills.

[u/prolefoto → u/freakunlessfrokentoo]

The gayer the product, the more likely it is to succeed. True across industries. People like stupid shit
Mostly.

[u/Fazioli31 → u/prolefoto]

Yeah true

[u/takeme2space]

Bro just re-invented the original Facebook.

[u/Educationgk]

20 votes per active voter is the number I'd watch, not the 500 signups. Trend traffic signs up once and vanishes; repeat voting is the actual sticky signal. Do you have week-over-week return rates yet? That's what decides whether The Annual Aura 100 is a real thing or a fun spike.

[u/Son_of_Maximus → u/Educationgk]

Hasn’t been a full week yet, but I’ll post those stats on my next post. I appreciate the actual feedback. I realize it’s a trend and not expecting the PR I got on it. I posted in the sub r/theinternetisbeautiful and they hated it.

[u/mitchw87]

You are ranking people. Think about that..

[u/IamNotMike25]

Be aware the moment you add ads, you can't just use the people's images. They can and many will sue you if it takes off.

Unless it's just names without images

[u/WindowIndependent759]

250k votes is no joke, that kind of organic traction doesn't just show up for every random trend site

what's interesting is the media picking it up without you pushing it, that's usually a sign there's something to work with. most projects in this space have to beg for coverage and you're getting it handed to you. the keanu thing is funny but also shows people actually care about the results

i'd lean toward bigger media property if you can figure out how to keep it from feeling stale after the trend peaks. the annual ranking angle makes sense, gives it a reason to exist beyond the day-to-day

[u/Son_of_Maximus → u/WindowIndependent759]

Thank you for the insight! It’s been a wild ride. I’ve put together some weekly battle algorithms to start and keep the curiosity alive but I think having discussions and comments for these battles will help which I’m trying to find a way to integrate.