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

reslash.co

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

#81

Post by rzodkiew »

remotelyyours wrote: post #42
rzodkiew wrote: post #15

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 am actually 32 haha I do understand where you're coming from. However, our motivation around this was to have an emotional response to space. The idea of personalizing your space where you're spending time is an important one. We also want to be treated like people online and not boxes. So the whole idea of being on "mute" when you're listening to someone needs to be challenged. This is probably not an answer to wh…

Oh yeah, I think what you've built can be great enabler for expression and creativity and product itself and definitely has the old school web feel to it. I think what inspired me to write above, was more of a marketing angle you are taking, not necessarily product itself.

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

#82

Post by reaperducer »

dangus wrote: post #33
rzodkiew wrote: post #15

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…

Having an office clown is a great tension breaker.

Having an office full of clowns is a great way to get nothing done.

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

#83

Post by balia »

rzodkiew wrote: post #15

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…

Same. What I want out of every communication product is the same: reliable, boring, and get out of my way. Humans innately know how to communicate with each other. They know how to make jokes, get info across, make hints, etc. we don’t need technology for the content of the communication

We need the transportation. Make it reliable, fast, and non interfering. That’s it. That’s why Zoom rocks. It just works

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

#84

Post by jrockway »

evanb wrote: 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

I think the idea is to add some sort of flair, like you would in real life. For example, people wear unusual socks, and you'd notice them in real life, but in a video call you'll never see someone's socks. So the video call takes away that dimension of being alive.

I'm not sure GIFs are the answer, but I think that's what the attempt is.

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

#85

Post by reaperducer »

postingpals wrote: post #60
vorpalhex wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is Capitalism. Everything has to be family friendly so it can reach as wide an audience as possible Ah yes, those socialists and their totally not family friendly media? Really? > When you're waiting for customer support, you have to hear a fun jingle so you don't get upset. It's so you know you haven't been disconnected. > People have to be talked down to like children so they know their place in the wealth h…

From your website: "Admit Nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-Accusations" Why am I not surprised to see this kind of instinctive reaction. I don't want to debate your points because that is way out of scope for this thread and I don't want to be chased out.

Be careful. That smells like a personal attack.

Moreover, if you can't debate what he wrote in HN, you shouldn't explore his life outside of HN to try to build a strawman.

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

#86

Post by treve »

DiggyJohnson wrote: post #61
cam0 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Respectfully, I think the younger generations are “up to” the exact same stuff. I should write a post about college campus ID culture. It’s always fun to break out a pseudonym.

My understanding is that going out, (binge-)drinking has actually significantly gone down in the last decade.

I can't vouch for these specific stats, but I've come across multiple articles over the years that support this. Here's at least some data I found:

https://www.childtrends.org/indicators/binge-drinking

Anecdotally, tons of clubs have closed in since the 90's with no replacement where I lived (Toronto and North Netherlands). Everything at least in my circles suggests that drugs, drinking, partying is all happening less now compared to the previous generations.

Ymmv depending on where you are from though.

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

#87

Post by ericmcer »

rzodkiew wrote: post #15

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…

Seems like the logical endpoint of the shift away from tie and button down formality to the more casual/fun (at least on the surface) vibe tech businesses introduced. I don't really go for all the unicorn/muffin/whatever type childish aspects, but friendly UI's are a welcome change from the sort of austere 'businessy' UIs.

This also doesn't just apply to work, many people my age (32) are super into cartoons and Disneyland, but the concept of going to Disneyland without a child in your 30s seems... weird to me. It is probably good that people feel comfortable to be sort of weird though versus the stoic version of adulthood in the past.

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

#88

Post by schnevets »

TheCycoONE wrote: post #69
rzodkiew wrote: post #15

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 don't know about that - I'm a little older than you, and I remember when the web was more like this. GeoCities and MySpace allowed tons of customization, and everybody made their own barf on a page to express themselves. Then sometime in the mid 2000s everything online became sanitized and corporate.

I'd describe the mid 2000s aesthetic as "Professional", while current trends are "Genuine". Snaps, stories, livestreams, and other volatile social media became chic because it would go away - you didn't have to rehearse your words, worry about lighting, or ensure your images are perfectly aligned.

I really dug this Reslash concept after seeing that grainy image of a classroom used as a background. It's something you just slap on because you're about to teach, but it isn't a painfully constructed "Knowledge Session" with a stock image-riddled Powerpoint deck.

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

#89

Post by rzodkiew »

TheCycoONE wrote: post #69
rzodkiew wrote: post #15

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 don't know about that - I'm a little older than you, and I remember when the web was more like this. GeoCities and MySpace allowed tons of customization, and everybody made their own barf on a page to express themselves. Then sometime in the mid 2000s everything online became sanitized and corporate.

I think there's a line somewhere between expressiveness and infantility. It's actually corporate that pushes the latter through the way they add those ways of expression to their products.

I'm not saying everything has to be boring and same everywhere, I'd like to see the world that's actually quite the opposite, that's diverse and where people are pushing the boundaries of expression. Where I see infantilisation happening is where things with very low information ratio (and usually something evoking one of the basic emotions with high valence and high arousal) are described as fun and cool.

I think OP's product is sitting somewhere on that border, but their marketing angle is definitely pushing it towards the infantility. Just look at the title of this very post, but I guess it worked, in the end we've all clicked on the comments and are here.. :)

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

#90

Post by victorevector »

rzodkiew wrote: post #15

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…

Infantile is a compliment. It suggests creativity and pushing the boundaries. Normally old curmudgeons think young things are empty and stupid because they don’t understand.
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