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Show HN: Virus Cafe – Make a friend in 2 minutes

virus.cafe

171–180 of 238 posts

Re: Show HN: Virus Cafe – Make a friend in 2 minutes

#171
post #2

Hey folks! I built Virus Cafe to help you make a friend in 2 minutes! My goal is to help people stuck indoors because of COVID-19 (or police curfews) to make meaningful connections with strangers. Here's how it works: 1. You are matched with a random partner for a video chat 2. You're given a deep question to discuss. You have 2 minutes! 3. The only rule is: no small talk! Small talk is the worst and I'm on a mission…

> Here are a few samples: These seem like extremely controversial, divisive topics. Not the kind of thing to bring up with someone you don’t know well, and the opposite of a good way to make a friend.

I suppose the thought was: if two can speak about such a topic, they'll get along well. No idea if that was the case, nor about its merit.

Re: Show HN: Virus Cafe – Make a friend in 2 minutes

#172
post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give her a kid friendly phone not your phone with your history and preferences.

I really don't think six year olds need their own phone yet...

"Kid friendly phone" usually means an older device that is disconnected from service and only has access to wifi (if even that) and apps designed for kids in their age range. I don't think they were suggesting giving the kid an actual full-service phone.

Re: Show HN: Virus Cafe – Make a friend in 2 minutes

#173
post #118

Don’t want to sully the conversation here, but I want to raise an important point - so @feross, please stick with it. I gave my daughter (6) my iPad for ten minutes this morning and put her on a site to draw minecraft skins. I took a call and took my eyes off the device (but not daughter) for about five minutes while I paced around the room. When I sat back next to her, she somehow ended up on virus Café and was in a…

I am 40, my first access to a computer was when i was about 4 maybe? I wrote my first program (10 print "hello", 20 goto 10) at 6.. IMHO this early introduction massively impacted my ability to understand tech and assimilate information around me. While i think that monitoring usage of devices is important, the idea of not giving a 6yo an ipad or similar when in all likelihood their familiarity with these concepts wi…

Did your machines always have parental controls for you and did you ever read or look at things your parents wouldn't approve on the internet or in real life growing up?

Re: Show HN: Virus Cafe – Make a friend in 2 minutes

#174
post #118

Don’t want to sully the conversation here, but I want to raise an important point - so @feross, please stick with it. I gave my daughter (6) my iPad for ten minutes this morning and put her on a site to draw minecraft skins. I took a call and took my eyes off the device (but not daughter) for about five minutes while I paced around the room. When I sat back next to her, she somehow ended up on virus Café and was in a…

I am 40, my first access to a computer was when i was about 4 maybe? I wrote my first program (10 print "hello", 20 goto 10) at 6.. IMHO this early introduction massively impacted my ability to understand tech and assimilate information around me. While i think that monitoring usage of devices is important, the idea of not giving a 6yo an ipad or similar when in all likelihood their familiarity with these concepts wi…

Same here - almost 40 - I was exposed to electronics at a very young age and that was an early catalyst into becoming a software developer.

Too often people argue for an all or nothing approach, when there's a good compromise in-between.

Parenting is complicated. There's thousands of books on the subject and probably thousands on the subject of electronic use for kids.

These comments telling the OP they can't change every website so "it's not worth trying" are not productive. There's nothing wrong with requesting this feature from Virus Cafe. Maybe it's something they were planning on doing anyway. You never know and it doesn't hurt to ask. What if the change is implemented and it becomes a web-design standard for other sites to adopt? Every idea starts somewhere and HN is a good platform for it to start in.

Re: Show HN: Virus Cafe – Make a friend in 2 minutes

#175
post #2

Hey folks! I built Virus Cafe to help you make a friend in 2 minutes! My goal is to help people stuck indoors because of COVID-19 (or police curfews) to make meaningful connections with strangers. Here's how it works: 1. You are matched with a random partner for a video chat 2. You're given a deep question to discuss. You have 2 minutes! 3. The only rule is: no small talk! Small talk is the worst and I'm on a mission…

Did you consider these questions?

https://www.gwern.net/docs/psychology/okcupid/thebestquestio...

These questions are selected as particularly relevant to dating while being innocuous. Even if Virus Cafe is not a dating site but I guess they can still be great conversation starters. They are:

Proxy for "Will my date have sex on the first date?"

- Do you like the taste of beer?

Proxy for "Do my date and I have long-term potential?"

- Do you like horror movies?

- Have you ever traveled around another country alone?

- Wouldn't it be fun to chuck it all and go live on a sailboat?

Proxy for "Do my date and I have the same politics?"

- Do you prefer the people in your life to be simple or complex?

Proxy for "Is my date religious?"

- Do spelling and grammar mistakes annoy you?

Re: Show HN: Virus Cafe – Make a friend in 2 minutes

#176
post #2

Hey folks! I built Virus Cafe to help you make a friend in 2 minutes! My goal is to help people stuck indoors because of COVID-19 (or police curfews) to make meaningful connections with strangers. Here's how it works: 1. You are matched with a random partner for a video chat 2. You're given a deep question to discuss. You have 2 minutes! 3. The only rule is: no small talk! Small talk is the worst and I'm on a mission…

> Small talk is the worst and I'm on a mission to eradicate it. To me small talk is the lubricant that makes conversations flow smooth with strangers. You can hear inflections and humor and irony all in a relatively safe, unemotional topic. Also, since your philosophical side is not needed, your emotional intelligence can be more engaged. For example, just by seeing how someone responds to a comment on the weather, y…

I very recently came around to this opinion. I used to loathe it as a waste of time and energy for everyone involved, but then I realized that as I participated in it more with my coworkers, I felt those acquaintances really start opening up into something more like friendship.

Of course, it's hard to apply that lesson now...

Re: Show HN: Virus Cafe – Make a friend in 2 minutes

#177
post #2

Hey folks! I built Virus Cafe to help you make a friend in 2 minutes! My goal is to help people stuck indoors because of COVID-19 (or police curfews) to make meaningful connections with strangers. Here's how it works: 1. You are matched with a random partner for a video chat 2. You're given a deep question to discuss. You have 2 minutes! 3. The only rule is: no small talk! Small talk is the worst and I'm on a mission…

JFC, please don't answer these questions to strangers who almost certainly do not have your interests at heart.

What is the biggest lie you've told without getting caught? Holy shit.

Re: Show HN: Virus Cafe – Make a friend in 2 minutes

#179

I met a German girl on this app. We had a great time and right when we were exchanging numbers the server restarted. Please give a lengthier grace period. :(

Piggybacking off this, if you are the teacher from Saudi Arabia, send me an email. address in bio.
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