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Show HN: I built the antithesis of Zoom. Add GIFs, stickers, BGs. Talk like IRL

reslash.co

31–40 of 236 posts

Re: Show HN: I built the antithesis of Zoom. Add GIFs, stickers, BGs. Talk like IRL

#32

I feel like I'm out of touch with current western culture, I honestly feel like I'm becoming an old fart at the age of 30. Everything is becoming increasingly infantile. Everything has to be fun and cool. I'm wondering where is this trend coming from. Is this some sort of a social response to how terrible and bleak reality seems to be? Or maybe it's because we actually treat majority of people like little children. I…

A lot of these products are failing to innovate in meaningful directions. Instead, they add silly features to justify your continued use of them and their development team salaries.

Re: Show HN: I built the antithesis of Zoom. Add GIFs, stickers, BGs. Talk like IRL

#33

I feel like I'm out of touch with current western culture, I honestly feel like I'm becoming an old fart at the age of 30. Everything is becoming increasingly infantile. Everything has to be fun and cool. I'm wondering where is this trend coming from. Is this some sort of a social response to how terrible and bleak reality seems to be? Or maybe it's because we actually treat majority of people like little children. I…

Maybe you’re right about some things becoming infantile, but a lot of the examples shown on this product page aren’t just about messing around with GIFs. You can build visual virtual spaces, like a virtual conference space or auditorium. The idea of being able to virtually walk around a virtual physical space and speak to people in an analogy to real life (by getting “closer” to them) seems like it’s an idea with at least some potential, and certainly a better idea than doing the real thing right now.

Also, you may be surprised to find out that you are allowed to have silly fun as an adult.

In my opinion, the “infantilization” of our workplaces is a huge positive, it’s really a side effect that’s demonstrating that employers are caring less about forcing us to wear fake clothes, fake personalities, and fake formality during our day to day work. Comedy is one of the best coping mechanisms to deal with stress and in that way it helps to be able to slap a GIF over a situation without feeling like the boss man is going to tell me to tone it down.

And sure, maybe there’s no need for this product, but what I can say is that if you build another Zoom/Meet/WebEx you aren’t really making anything new or interesting.

Re: Show HN: I built the antithesis of Zoom. Add GIFs, stickers, BGs. Talk like IRL

#34
I joined and couldn't see my own face or bubble. I clicked around trying to figure that part out but didn't get it.

I saw other people could easily publish content to the board and I think that part is a step forward. I could have clicked chess/gif and posted something but exited there.

When I join, I'd like a clear "you are here" with my own face looking back at me.

Re: Show HN: I built the antithesis of Zoom. Add GIFs, stickers, BGs. Talk like IRL

#35
post #24

I feel like I'm out of touch with current western culture, I honestly feel like I'm becoming an old fart at the age of 30. Everything is becoming increasingly infantile. Everything has to be fun and cool. I'm wondering where is this trend coming from. Is this some sort of a social response to how terrible and bleak reality seems to be? Or maybe it's because we actually treat majority of people like little children. I…

I'm slightly older than you, so we're both millenials, and I've noticed a lot of my friends sort of struggling with the fact that we're no longer the "young and cool" crowd. The Gen Y/Z TikTok crowd are the cool ones now, and speaking anecdotally the people I know in their late teens and early twenties are quite a bit more sheltered and childish than my friends and I were at that age. We were using fake IDs to get in…

Regarding the sheltering: I dunno. The next generation probably isn’t telling you the shit they’re getting into.

Besides that, I spent plenty of Friday evenings staying up until 4 AM playing The Sims (the original game). It’s not like high school kids really have a choice on what they’re doing a lot of times - they don’t have complete freedom of movement.

Re: Show HN: I built the antithesis of Zoom. Add GIFs, stickers, BGs. Talk like IRL

#36
post #31

When I talk IRL I don't use GIFs or stickers, and the only background is whatever is behind me. I like the idea of moving around to decide who you talk to; it is the premise behind jitsi-powered Work Adventure http://workadventu.re

> jitsi-powered Work Adventure http://workadventu.re

Getting a 404 - "Could not load map."

Re: Show HN: I built the antithesis of Zoom. Add GIFs, stickers, BGs. Talk like IRL

#37

I feel like I'm out of touch with current western culture, I honestly feel like I'm becoming an old fart at the age of 30. Everything is becoming increasingly infantile. Everything has to be fun and cool. I'm wondering where is this trend coming from. Is this some sort of a social response to how terrible and bleak reality seems to be? Or maybe it's because we actually treat majority of people like little children. I…

Or just because going to work is more fun when it's.. fun? I spend 8 hours a day there, I want to show who I am and I prefer my coworkers doing the same. Especially the last 9 months. Normally one would talk with coworkers in the office, over a coffee, before a meeting etc. Remote meetings I find are strictly business.

In terms of how to spend time percolating between hard work:

In the office, I can find something to do at my desk alone or I can chat up some coworkers over coffee and the like.

Remote, the options are endless and I can chat up my family and friends. I can do chores like dishes or laundry so they're not all waiting for me after work. I can go for a walk without being that guy who takes too many walks. Truly anything so long as the time allocation and availability to plug back in are appropriate.

For me, this is why I prefer remote meetings be strictly business, and changing that isn't particularly compelling. My coworkers are cool, but prioritizing them over the rest of my life makes no sense to me so long as the value I bring to the company remains just as strong.

Re: Show HN: I built the antithesis of Zoom. Add GIFs, stickers, BGs. Talk like IRL

#38

I feel like I'm out of touch with current western culture, I honestly feel like I'm becoming an old fart at the age of 30. Everything is becoming increasingly infantile. Everything has to be fun and cool. I'm wondering where is this trend coming from. Is this some sort of a social response to how terrible and bleak reality seems to be? Or maybe it's because we actually treat majority of people like little children. I…

This is Capitalism. Everything has to be family friendly so it can reach as wide an audience as possible. When you're waiting for customer support, you have to hear a fun jingle so you don't get upset. People have to be talked down to like children so they know their place in the wealth hierarchy. It's an ideology, not in the sense of political beliefs, but rather false ideas that dominate society that we all subconsciously hold to maintain the social system we built on contradictory premises.

I don't think I've presented the full picture, but you asked where this trend is coming from, and to me this is the only common factor and starting point of investigation.

Re: Show HN: I built the antithesis of Zoom. Add GIFs, stickers, BGs. Talk like IRL

#39

I feel like I'm out of touch with current western culture, I honestly feel like I'm becoming an old fart at the age of 30. Everything is becoming increasingly infantile. Everything has to be fun and cool. I'm wondering where is this trend coming from. Is this some sort of a social response to how terrible and bleak reality seems to be? Or maybe it's because we actually treat majority of people like little children. I…

I think you're approaching it from the completely wrong way. We are in the time of revolution for video calls and interactive spaces. In times of revolution quick adoption is key. Funny/viral things with no participation barrier are ways of increasing adoption.

It will allow the tech/product to evolve and soon also fit your usecase. Because most likely thats where the real money is.

Just check this out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Palace_(computer_program)

Re: Show HN: I built the antithesis of Zoom. Add GIFs, stickers, BGs. Talk like IRL

#40

I built a video calling app which is the antithesis of Zoom. It's called Reslash. You can play with everything - backgrounds, gifs, stickers. You can recreate a bar lounge, classroom, office, 80s party and more. It also has spatial audio - just move closer to talk to people, like you do IRL. Demo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zwXL7ZJra4 You can sign up here: https://reslash.co I would love to get your feedb…

I'm surprised you didn't launch on producthunt. Definitely think that crowd would get a kick out of it

Edit: I now see their producthunt page. It didn't pop up while searching /shrug

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