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Ask HN: Is there a masterbation-free site where I can have random conversations?

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Ask HN: Is there a masterbation-free site where I can have random conversations?

#1

Post by notetoself »

Is there an online community where I can have a random video conversation to meet some great people/hone my social skills?

I'm looking for a reputable one (no masterbaters!) where I can match with likeminded people and simply have a short video conversation.

Being a remote software developer means I spend large amounts of time isolated in my own head, and I'd love to break up my day with 15 minute conversations with random, awesome individuals.

If this doesn't exist, please let me know if you'd also find value in something like this.

I'm currently between projects and I might build it myself :)

Re: Ask HN: Is there a masterbation-free site where I can have random conversations?

#2

Post by smt88 »

> I might build it myself

Build it if you think it'd be fun or something worthwhile for your CV. Don't build it because you want it to be a useful, nudity-free chat service. People have tried that (including Chat Roulette itself).

It's hard to get people to use things with their real identities. Unfortunately, anonymity also enables trolling. I think it's impossible to have a random chat site without masturbation. It is, bizarrely, part of human nature to troll.

Honing your social skills can be hard, but you might want to try clubs or meetups in your city. Video chat isn't much like real-life socializing anyway.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a masterbation-free site where I can have random conversations?

#3

Post by orbifold »

Hm, maybe if you build one yourself, require something like a github account for chatting but don't reveal the identity to the parties. That way you can ban people that get reported for inappropriate behavior and random weirdos are unlikely to have a github account.

Setting something up that uses webrtc is not all that hard... :)

Re: Ask HN: Is there a masterbation-free site where I can have random conversations?

#4

Post by notetoself »

smt88 wrote: post #2

> I might build it myself Build it if you think it'd be fun or something worthwhile for your CV. Don't build it because you want it to be a useful, nudity-free chat service. People have tried that (including Chat Roulette itself). It's hard to get people to use things with their real identities. Unfortunately, anonymity also enables trolling. I think it's impossible to have a random chat site without masturbation. It…

I think it's possible to more or less exclude nudity.

If you kick out anonymity and build out profiles around user's social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc), which something like this would do, there are some good ways to 1) be pretty sure of identity and 2) make sure people can't create duplicate accounts.

With those parameters I think out of the gate people are less likely to whip out their junk, and, if they still do it multiple times, they can effectively be banned.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a masterbation-free site where I can have random conversations?

#5

Post by notetoself »

orbifold wrote: post #3

Hm, maybe if you build one yourself, require something like a github account for chatting but don't reveal the identity to the parties. That way you can ban people that get reported for inappropriate behavior and random weirdos are unlikely to have a github account. Setting something up that uses webrtc is not all that hard... :)

GitHub is too niche.

I would want to meet people from all walks of life, not just fellow software developers.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a masterbation-free site where I can have random conversations?

#8

Post by notetoself »

xena wrote: post #7

Why not talk to people on IRC? irc.ponychat.net #geek is my usual haunt.

Typing on IRC is still pretty "in-your-head".

The idea is to replicate online, as much as possible, the experience of having a face-to-face conversation.

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