[danso]

Why does the service impose a mandatory expiration date on selfies? There are candid photos of me that I didn't like at the time but now (and some of this is just plain old bei familiar with them) are amusing and valuable to me.

This is a cool side project and I hate to do a serious critique of it...but since the OP decided to go the pithy Medium essay route, I'll take it he's sincere about thinking these this through. Here's my critique: the world doesn't need a constant stream of the ordinary. Ignoring the damage of enviousness, many FB users suffer from just spending too much time being interested in other people's lives...and that's just the highlights. What mental appetite or capacity do we have to consume all the mundane moments too?

[alariccole]

This is discussed at length in the article. It was found that having an expiration lets people worry less about getting the photo "right". Also, it's not about having another place to waste time living vicariously. Quite the opposite, as it's becoming a vibrant community where you can actually interact in a surprising way.

That said, it is worth experimenting with the dates and/or ways of saving certain images of yourself for posterity.

[sp332]

That's an argument for an optional timeout, but it doesn't explain having a mandatory one.

[vbl]

Mandatory timeout means that even the best photos go away. No proliferation of the beautiful and perfect, no buildup of the quick and dirty.

Every one dies.

[alariccole]

True. I suppose the answer is that it was not the goal of the app to be in the photo storage/memories business. Looking at ways to help with this use case though, such as letting you save your own images to your camera roll.

[pavel_lishin]

These aren't really candid photos, as I understand it; you take a photo of yourself, and you prepare yourself for it.

[joshuanguyen]

I'm learning that these are more like faces you would make in front of a mirror -- if you could carry a mirror with you anywhere and have it upload your face to a magical place in the cloud.

[christinasta415]

You can always take a screenshot ya know.