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Convore (YC W11) Wants To Be The Easiest Group Communication App Yet

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Re: Convore (YC W11) Wants To Be The Easiest Group Communication App Yet

#44

Post by ryanb »

wildmXranat wrote: post #26
ryanb wrote: post #15

The YC W11 class has been using Convore nonstop. It's pretty amazing.

And that explains some of the comments I saw about this service. I don't mean to belittle their efforts or YC linked developers, but hearing opinions from developers and users from the inside has somewhat lost its meaning. Keeping the debate honest and true is key when selling a product by echoing each others consensus. In fact, I would like to hear a polarized and detailed opposite opinion ( if it exists ) of any se…

I disagree. I think it's impressive that they were able to get such a large part of our YC class hooked on using their product, especially since everyone is super busy working on their own startup.

Re: Convore (YC W11) Wants To Be The Easiest Group Communication App Yet

#45

Post by axod »

simonw wrote: post #8

I've been hanging out on Convore for a few weeks and they're definitely on to something - it's entirely replaced Twitter as my online water cooler. In a way it's similar to IRC, but the ability to create new topics which have their own chatroom-style thread (while still being alerted to conversations elsewhere) means you can duck out and come back again a few days later and pick up the same conversation.

Isn't this essentially what Chatterous tried?

Re: Convore (YC W11) Wants To Be The Easiest Group Communication App Yet

#46

Post by axod »

leahculver wrote: post #9
kingkilr wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope leafy chat was/is an entirely separate project (I was one of the devs), I don't doubt some of the UI/whatever for convore was inspired by it though.

Yes, Leafy Chat was a totally separate project built by myself, Alex Gaynor, and Chris Wanstrath for the Django Dash a couple years ago. Leafy Chat was a pure web IRC client. Convore is inspired by IRC but not based on the protocol and functions a bit differently. For example, Convore has the concept of topics, which is not in IRC.

IRC Topics:

  #firefox
  #firefox-dev
  #firefox-users

Re: Convore (YC W11) Wants To Be The Easiest Group Communication App Yet

#47

Post by simonw »

jonpaul wrote: post #21

It looks beautiful. But I must be missing something... what problem does it solve that forums or Twitter don't solve? Or how does it do it better? I just signed up and I'm not seeing the utility. I'm asking this sincerely.

Check out ericflo's answer to a similar question to this on Quora: http://www.quora.com/What-makes-convore-com-different-than-c...

Re: Convore (YC W11) Wants To Be The Easiest Group Communication App Yet

#48

Post by alttab »

jberryman wrote: post #31
alttab wrote: post #22

I've seen some amazing, incredible collaboration tools come out of the web. The main issue isn't the technology or the software or the CSS they use - but the fact that a majority of people don't know how to communicate. I say fix that first. Also, the problem isn't being able to create groups or include or invite people as much as it is getting people to consistently use it to make it meaningful . My company has a wi…

I would say the problem with your company wiki is a problem of technology. A wiki requires that people become curators That takes a lot of energy, thought, and intention. I think there is huge room for technology to solve these kinds of problems, and we've only scratched the surface.

I think I understand what you are trying to say -- that the wiki is a bad technology solution to the problem. Its because the wiki isn't where the decisions are happening.

However, in most small businesses (and lets face it, theres more SMB then there is large or enterprise customers hands down) the decisions aren't made on a wiki, or even e-mail for that matter. In a company size of 60-70 or less its still way easier just to walk over to their desk and talk it out. Who remembers hearing a conversation ending with "don't forget to put this on the wiki?" This sentiment being true in my own workplace, the wiki is still considered the de-facto documentation on a subject (guess how many pages are up-to-date).

I believe any successful business collaboration tool will fully grasp facilitating interaction in a way that meetings or quick one-on-one's can't. Having technology outpace human interaction when it is humans that ultimately have to fully articulate themselves I think is the largest obstacle.

TL;DR - I think I agree with you, but the real solution is still difficult to solve with technology alone.

Re: Convore (YC W11) Wants To Be The Easiest Group Communication App Yet

#49

Post by old-gregg »

zx76 wrote: post #17
simonw wrote: post #8

I've been hanging out on Convore for a few weeks and they're definitely on to something - it's entirely replaced Twitter as my online water cooler. In a way it's similar to IRC, but the ability to create new topics which have their own chatroom-style thread (while still being alerted to conversations elsewhere) means you can duck out and come back again a few days later and pick up the same conversation.

I agree the new features are really useful but would also argue that there is an Evaporative Cooling Effect ( http://blog.bumblebeelabs.com/social-software-sundays-2-the-... ) taking place - there is hardly any noise on Convore at present. Even with a carefully maintained follow list on twitter I still get so much noise in my stream that I no longer check it regularly.

We've been on convore for a few weeks and for certain things it is starting to replace HN for me. There's generally enough high-quality HN-caliber folks to have a quick and intelligent discussion about MongoDB on AWS or whatever, something I always wanted #startups on IRC to be.

Careful though: could be addictive as hell. ;)

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