Core Alpha is here.

We are now testing the first real version of CIROK with a small group of people.

Not publicly. Not with payments. Not with a big launch campaign.

Just a few testers, one session at a time, using the platform while we watch carefully where things feel clear, where they get stuck, and where the product still needs work.

That is what we call 0.1 Core Alpha.

CIROK is still early, but it is no longer just an idea or a private prototype. The core platform is there: people can create an account, browse films, use profiles, start watching, use subtitles, save titles to a watchlist, and continue where they left off.

Now we need to see how that feels for real people.

Because building a streaming platform is one thing. Watching someone use it without explaining everything to them is something else.

Now testing

What we are testing now

In this phase we are testing the basic CIROK experience.

Can someone open the site and understand what CIROK is?

Can they find a film they would actually want to watch?

Do profiles make sense?

Does playback feel smooth?

Can they find subtitles without us guiding them?

Does search work the way people expect, especially with Kurdish names, different spellings, and different languages?

Does the catalogue feel interesting enough, even while it is still small?

Those are the questions that matter most right now.

Before we build more commercial features, we want to know if the core experience is worth building on.

How it works

What the sessions look like

The Alpha sessions are small and personal.

A tester joins a video call, shares their screen, and uses CIROK on their own device. We ask them to do a few simple things: create an account, set up profiles, find a film, play something, search, use subtitles, add something to their watchlist, and come back to continue watching.

We ask them to talk out loud while they do it.

That part is important. We do not only want to know whether they completed a task. We want to know what they expected, what confused them, what they ignored, and what made them interested.

Sometimes the useful moment is not a bug. It is a pause.

Someone hesitates before clicking a profile. Someone searches for a film in a different spelling than we expected. Someone looks for subtitles in the wrong place. Someone says, “I like this idea, but I would need more films before subscribing.”

Those moments tell us what to fix.

Already clear

What is already clear

Some parts of CIROK are starting to feel real.

The platform has a shape now. It is not just a collection of pages anymore. There is a flow: you arrive, you browse, you choose something, you watch, you save, you come back.

That is a good sign.

But there are also things we are still watching closely.

Subtitles are one of them. For CIROK, subtitles are not a small extra feature. They are part of the product. Kurdish cinema crosses languages, dialects, generations, and countries. If subtitles are hard to find, badly labelled, or not comfortable to read, the whole experience becomes weaker.

Search is another one. People do not always search with the exact title. They might use a different spelling, a Kurdish or Arabic version, a name they only half remember, or just a genre. We need to understand how real users look for films, not how we imagine they search.

The catalogue is also a big question. CIROK will not start with a huge library. That means the films we do have need to feel carefully chosen. A small catalogue can work if it feels valuable. It does not work if it feels empty.

That difference matters.

Not yet in scope

What is not included yet

Some important things are not part of this Alpha phase yet.

There is no point in rushing payments if people still struggle to find a film, understand profiles, or use subtitles.

Payments and subscriptions will come in a later phase, which we call Commercial Readiness. That phase will be about making sure account flows, billing, cancellation, and production operations are ready before CIROK opens more broadly.

For now, 0.1 is about the core product.

What we want to learn

What we are trying to learn

We are not only looking for compliments.

Of course it is nice when someone says they like the idea. CIROK is a personal project for us, and it means a lot when people understand why it should exist.

But “nice idea” is not enough.

We need to know if people would actually use it.

Would they watch something tonight?

Would they come back next week?

Would they recommend it to family or friends?

Would they still care if the platform asked for a subscription later?

Those are harder questions, but they are the useful ones.

This is also why we are taking the Alpha slowly. A small number of honest sessions can teach us more than a big waitlist number. Especially at this stage.

What comes next

What comes after 0.1

After these first sessions, we will collect the findings and decide what needs to be fixed before the next phase.

Some issues will be obvious. If people cannot find subtitles, that is a serious problem. If profiles are confusing, we need to clean that up. If search fails on normal Kurdish spelling variations, we need to improve it.

Other things will be more subtle. Maybe the homepage needs clearer wording. Maybe the catalogue needs better grouping. Maybe people understand the platform, but not yet why they would subscribe.

Those are the things we want to learn now, before CIROK is in front of a wider audience.

The next step after this is 0.2 Core Alpha Fix Validation. That means we fix what we learned in 0.1 and test again, with more attention to devices, languages, profiles, subtitles, and catalogue value.

After that comes a mobile and tablet web readiness phase, so CIROK feels right on smaller screens before we layer commercial flows on top.

Only then do we move into the commercial layer: email verification, payments, subscriptions, cancellation, and production readiness.

How you can help

If you want to help

If you are interested in testing CIROK, we would love to hear from you.

The Alpha session takes around 45 minutes. You do not need to prepare anything. You just use the platform while we observe and ask a few questions.

Honest feedback is the most useful thing you can give us. If something is confusing, say it. If something feels missing, say it. If you would not pay for it yet, say that too.

That is how the product gets better.

If you are a filmmaker or distributor and want to talk about bringing your work to CIROK, you can contact us at film@cirok.online.

We are building this carefully, step by step. Not because we want to move slowly forever, but because Kurdish cinema deserves a platform that feels trustworthy when it opens its doors.

— Dylan & Hawre