[HN Gopher] Show HN: I made a chat roulette for remote workers
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Show HN: I made a chat roulette for remote workers
Author : Pete-Codes
Score : 102 points
Date : 2020-03-13 16:01 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.remoteroulette.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.remoteroulette.com)
| [deleted]
| arjawn wrote:
| something related (but not real-time like chat roulette) is
| https://standups.io/ "Insta Stories for Remote Workers"
| FabienHerfray wrote:
| Loving the idea! On a different angle and for a more niche Indie
| Hacker audience, I've been building https://www.frenl.com around
| the same concept :)
| crimsonalucard wrote:
| Make this for groups of people. One on ones are too intense!
| jadbox wrote:
| For people interested in talking about politics and local
| community civic projects, I made a chat roulette service to
| connect people with similar topic interests:
|
| https://dinnertable.chat/
| lucb1e wrote:
| It says you should prepare for the debate with sources and that
| the next round will start in 1.5 hours... but no topic is given
| and when I click guest access I get a message saying that
| dinner is already over. The last tweet is from a few weeks ago,
| no topic announced there either to gauge whether I'm interested
| in the first place. Not sure how I should get involved other
| than showing up unprepared and seeing if anything is going on.
| phnofive wrote:
| Five dollars? Yuck.
|
| If it's a barrier to entry against creeps, it's got to be higher.
| Maybe a deposit of some kind?
|
| Also - since you made the bizarre choice to directly reference it
| below the "50% off till Monday" tag - it's coronavirus or
| COVID-19, not corona virus.
| KaoruAoiShiho wrote:
| > barrier to entry against creeps,
|
| If they just put this sentence on their homepage the reaction
| on this thread would be totally different.
| eganist wrote:
| https://slack.com/apps/A11MJ51SR-donut
|
| for anyone that wants something distantly close to this, but
| baked into slack.
|
| Not mine; I'm just familiar with it from past employers.
| lgeorget wrote:
| 10 or 15 years ago it would have been a giganticover-engineered
| distributed XML-based chat protocol that would have been
| proposed...
|
| Instead we have a down-to-earth simple subscription to a
| centralized list of email addresses and an automatic pairing
| service. For 5$. What have become of our dreams...
|
| Just kidding. I wish you success but I personally won't pay 5$
| for this, even if it's my first time working from home too.
| thrownaway954 wrote:
| _cough_ IRC _cough_
| roflchoppa2 wrote:
| what channel we in dawg?
| itakenaps wrote:
| Neat idea, but unwilling to spend $5.00 on something I don't
| need. Perhaps use affiliate links or some other type of not
| intrusive advertising.
| yingw787 wrote:
| How many people have signed up so far?
|
| Honestly, just having a Zoom call going for the entire day, with
| different breakout rooms and multi-person screenshare, would go a
| long way towards companionship. You don't even need your own
| platform! $15 / mo. for 100 people for a 24 hour long session :D
|
| If it's something like that, and you have DevOps and Full-stack
| people signed up, and we can switch breakout rooms by host
| request, I think I'd sign up!
| Pete-Codes wrote:
| I thought I'd put something together for people working from
| home.
|
| I've been working remotely since July and honestly, the lack of
| social contact gets old fast.
| jyriand wrote:
| I usually just have a twitch programming stream running in the
| background. I can participate in the discussion via chat if i
| feel like it or just focus on my work while hearing someone
| typing in the background. Not sure why but it gives me a sense
| that I'm not totally cut off.
| mey wrote:
| I have also found Twitch to be a great way to feel a social
| connection while WFH as a freelancer working solo.
| trwhite wrote:
| By that do you mean you dislike the lack of social contact? I
| started a remote role in November and I'm just starting to
| appreciate how much I miss spending my day in the company of
| others.
| Seth_Goldberg wrote:
| Did you choose the stock photos for your front page profiles?
| Are they random? Are you trying to be all 'modern' and
| 'diverse'? I'm always curious about those ones.
| vasco wrote:
| Working remotely for almost 4 years here. Whenever I join a
| call with co-workers to "hang out" there's no work being done.
| If someone is there I will speak to them or I'll want to hear
| what they're saying. And if we're just quiet, my work just
| becomes the same as if I weren't on the call except I can't
| have Spotify on.
|
| I think there could be a demographic for this tool, but I'd
| wager not a lot of work will be done while connected to it.
| ryneandal wrote:
| We leverage pair programming to alleviate this issue. It
| works incredibly well, but YMMV
| itsangaris wrote:
| Our team ended up creating a Discord voice channel that we can
| each chime in on as needed. It gives us a "ambient chat" as one
| of my colleges put it and helps simulate working in the same
| environment.
| EGreg wrote:
| Can someone recommend some good Discord channels to hang out
| with on diff intellectual subjects?
| NikolaeVarius wrote:
| This thread has so much optimism considering what chatroulette
| is/was/became.
| hocuspocus wrote:
| Interestingly, Chatroulette's founder is trying to reboot his
| platform. He built a small team over here in Switzerland and
| named a new CEO.
| shaneprrlt wrote:
| This tool upgrades #metoo for the remote workforce era.
| crusty wrote:
| Immediately thought... So I'm chugging along with work and
| ready for a little endorphin hit from a social interaction and
| Bam, a penis. Skip, Bam, an A-hole screaming the N-word at the
| top of his lungs. Why again did I... People suck, I don't even
| want my to work anymore.
| thrwaway69 wrote:
| exactly my thought.
| waltbosz wrote:
| Hi Pete,
|
| Some questions:
|
| 1. Is the price $5 for life? Or is that monthly fee?
|
| 2. Do you get to switch buddies if it doesn't work out?
|
| Also, I enjoyed your interview on the IH Podcast.
| iandanforth wrote:
| If you're looking for a reputable service of "someone to help you
| work" I highly recommend https://www.focusmate.com/
|
| It's not about meeting new people, in fact, socializing is
| discouraged, but it _is_ about real people helping each other by
| just being there.
| Wmamouth wrote:
| Should probably make it free to use to get a faster test on your
| assumptions. It is a very novel assumption that people will
| actually use this as intended and return everyday.
|
| I see more revenue opportunity for advertising, partnerships, and
| affiliate relationships than a flat membership fee.
|
| You can have a premiere membership that has special features like
| improved vetting and ability to refine matching specifications,
| after a person ends up liking it, and it's usage becomes routine.
| You should give users the opportunity to try, because again, its
| a novel assumption.
|
| For the free tier, the 728X90 leaderboard above the chat screen
| would be highly valuable real estate.
| trhway wrote:
| sounds like WFH version of WeWork :)
| Waterluvian wrote:
| A few thoughts:
|
| 1. This is a really neat idea. I love the creativity.
|
| 2. But for $5 you're not giving me a whole lot more than what I
| can get for myself on Reddit, HN, Social Media. What do I get
| exactly that I can't get by just asking on social media?
|
| 3. Call me wrong, I'm not actually sure how I feel on this. But
| it kind of slightly maybe smells like profiteering. Do you really
| need $5 per person? Does the price really need to go up if I
| don't act fast? (I'm anxious enough, thank you) Maybe make it
| free and ask for server donations?
|
| 4. The two bios on the front page feel so fakey fake fake that it
| turns me right off the service. Maybe that's just me.
|
| 5. I really _do not_ want to discourage you. I really hope this
| feedback is constructive enough.
| irl_zebra wrote:
| Uh yeah, especially on the 4. Tineye shows they're stock
| photos, which seems incredibly shady because you know the
| quotes are totally fabricated as well. This seems very
| opportunistic, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but
| opportunism + shadiness is a bad look.
| pvg wrote:
| They're generic usage scenarios and clearly intended as such.
| I can see how someone might find this off-putting or
| unappealing but calling it 'shady' is a bit overwrought.
| There's no intent to deceive here.
| irl_zebra wrote:
| The quotes next to them make it strongly seem like they're
| real people endorsing the product. Coupled with this "Show
| HN" post, one would think they're genuine people. If this
| were some corporate blog, I would disagree.
| pvg wrote:
| I don't see quotes, just descriptions. They're quite
| obviously stock photos. This sort of thing is common on
| all sorts of product pages, tv advertising, etc. It's not
| my favourite practice and I do think it gives off a kind
| of low-rent vibe. But it's not intentional deception and
| is well in-line of typical phoned-in marketing.
| alasdair_ wrote:
| >They're generic usage scenarios and clearly intended as
| such.
|
| Based on what? I assumed they were real users because there
| was no indication otherwise. This is why we have words like
| "actor portrayal" displayed at the bottom of our screens
| when a person makes a claim about using a product and it's
| actually just a person reading a script.
| pvg wrote:
| Based on, I dunno, browsing the web? Seeing an occasional
| TV ad on an airport TV? I don't think it's quality stuff
| or anything but if you found these confusing, I suppose
| we move in entirely different media environments.
|
| Edit: And, of course, it's also a typical way we often
| talk about generic scenarios outside of advertising.
| Alice and Bob are not real people trying to establish
| secure communications. There is no specific Johnny who
| can't read, etc.
| jchook wrote:
| Re: $5
|
| Money makes for an interesting barrier. For example,
| SomethingAwful charged $10 to sign-up and it basically weeded
| out all the trash and spam.
|
| You could have a tier system. E.g. $5 for general meetings and
| $100 tier to talk to whatever person will pay $100 for this.
|
| Not even sure how I feel about a free tier, but even a $0.01
| fee paid in crypto would instantly transform the type of people
| you might encounter on the service.
| EamonnMR wrote:
| $5 should discourage the lowest of low effort trolls and for
| that it's probably worth it.
| simonskoog wrote:
| It's just a cash grab. Created yesterday, stock photos, a '50%
| off' deal at $5 since inception with no demo of how it works. A
| lot of people will pay $5 and just not think more of it, but
| that can turn out pretty nice in these times.
|
| I do like the idea, but I feel that a Discord chat with
| separate rooms where multiple people can hang out and find
| eachother again would be cheaper and more useful.
|
| Edit: Actually, if someone feels like setting one up, just ping
| or reply here. I'd love to join and talk to all sorts of devs
| from all over who are remoting. My best coworker just had his
| last day today so doubly interesting personally.
| romes wrote:
| I'm interested!
|
| Just created a brand new empty one, i'm setting it up, join
| whenever whoever
|
| https://discord.gg/CVgKmaZ
| tapland wrote:
| Seems to be taking off, and saving HN users $500. See you
| there monday.
| wlesieutre wrote:
| For $5 you get the knowledge that the other users have also
| paid $5. I imagine that cuts out a whole lot of troll accounts
| and people waving their dicks around.
|
| Unlike Chat Roulette, there's a financial consequence for
| getting banned and you would need to pay for a new account.
| larrywright wrote:
| I wish I could be optimistic that this won't be abused by creepy
| guys to show off their junk, but I'm not.
| larrywright wrote:
| I somehow missed that this was a paid service. That is actually
| probably enough of a barrier to adoption that it could minimize
| junk-showing. It also removes the anonymity a bit (credit
| card), so it could serve to discourage that behavior.
| roflchoppa2 wrote:
| everything for money now days. catch me on freenode ##chat
| lostgame wrote:
| What? It's a _paid_ service? Based on one of the crappiest places
| on the Internet?
|
| Get off my HN feed.
| gczh wrote:
| Love how this might create a positive spin in light of all the
| pessimism in these trying times.
|
| You're awesome Pete!
| yani wrote:
| I like the idea. We will try it out Monday
| Disruptive_Dave wrote:
| Oh man, we did this (MVP style) about 6 years ago, called it
| Collabo. Tested it with a Facebook group, then we manually
| connected random people together and scheduled them video chats.
| We called it "the water cooler for solopreneurs." Really just a
| fun experiment more than a business. Happy to share whatever
| learnings I can dig up.
|
| Edit: Just found the homepage mock. "A first-of-its-kind virtual
| water cooler for freelancers and solopreneurs." It was invite
| only, too. At least at the start.
| azhenley wrote:
| What happened with it? Why didn't you continue with the
| concept?
| cedricium wrote:
| Sounds interesting! I, too, would like to know why you didn't
| continue with this. Also:
|
| > scheduled them video chats
|
| Does a service exist where you can programmatically schedule a
| video-chat/meeting for two parties?
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(page generated 2020-03-13 23:00 UTC)