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Show HN: Struct – A Feed-Centric Chat Platform

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Re: Show HN: Struct – A Feed-Centric Chat Platform

#101

Post by mrjn »

olivierduval wrote: post #99

Congrats for your product ! BTW: I'm old enough to remember the "forums' days"... and actually, it really seemed to me that you just rediscovered forum (you know... threads that are bumped when there an update) The only major differences I saw was: - the UI is more "chat-like" / "facebook-like" - forums where statically structured by an admin... but it looks like there no real way to structure your threads in folder…

Struct is quite inspired by Discourse. It's a unique blend of forum and chat application.

So, you know, every forum, including email, has threads and feed. But, forums are asynchronous, not designed around real-time chat. The challenge when applying concept of threads and feeds to a chat platform is that you need to make it real-time. And that's the hard thing that Struct is tackling -- with the real-time feed design that we have.

I disagree a bit about, "if it's chat, it doesn't need summary". I've been part of enough conversations which go on and on, to know that's not true. Even with the small team we run, we have threads which have like 100s of chat messages, going back and forth. Having summaries really help.

Or, at the very least, you'd appreciate the titles, so your feed would make more sense.

You can structure your threads using tags, and create feed around those tags. That'd be the equivalent of "folders". (Reminds me of when Gmail came out and people had to learn to map their labels on SMTP folders)

The difference in a Struct thread, v/s say a Discourse thread would be this. Struct emphasizes short form, real-time, back and forth communication. Discourse emphasizes long form, well-thought through, one-off posts. Former is chat, latter is forum.

This is long topic, but something I think about a lot. Designing Struct is hard exactly because of this balance between structure, knowledge and being real-time.

Re: Show HN: Struct – A Feed-Centric Chat Platform

#102

Post by mrjn »

creshal wrote: post #100
olivierduval wrote: post #99

Congrats for your product ! BTW: I'm old enough to remember the "forums' days"... and actually, it really seemed to me that you just rediscovered forum (you know... threads that are bumped when there an update) The only major differences I saw was: - the UI is more "chat-like" / "facebook-like" - forums where statically structured by an admin... but it looks like there no real way to structure your threads in folder…

> I see the point of having a dynamic summary of a thread... That was a really cool feature in Discord, for a while: The AI always completely missed the point of the discussion and made hilariously awful summaries that provided entertainment for hours.

It's hard to do summaries for chats in channels. Just not enough focus in them to be useful.

Could also be the model that they were using. I've tried a few and found GPT4 to be most accurate. GPT4-Turbo is still a question mark.

Re: Show HN: Struct – A Feed-Centric Chat Platform

#104

Post by mrjn »

nXqd wrote: post #103

I really like the UI, it's exactly how I use and share notes within my colleges for years with my current system. Is there anyway that I can bring my own model ( integrating with my data stored on struct ) to answer my questions?

Worth a conversation for sure. Maybe find a time to chat? https://struct.ai/schedule-demo

Or, you can jump in here and we can have a discussion: https://chat.struct.ai/join/DXVTmseDdBkeA6mG

Re: Show HN: Struct – A Feed-Centric Chat Platform

#105

Post by olivierduval »

mrjn wrote: post #101
olivierduval wrote: post #99

Congrats for your product ! BTW: I'm old enough to remember the "forums' days"... and actually, it really seemed to me that you just rediscovered forum (you know... threads that are bumped when there an update) The only major differences I saw was: - the UI is more "chat-like" / "facebook-like" - forums where statically structured by an admin... but it looks like there no real way to structure your threads in folder…

Struct is quite inspired by Discourse. It's a unique blend of forum and chat application. So, you know, every forum, including email, has threads and feed. But, forums are asynchronous, not designed around real-time chat. The challenge when applying concept of threads and feeds to a chat platform is that you need to make it real-time. And that's the hard thing that Struct is tackling -- with the real-time feed design…

OK, so the point is the "real time" interactions

Actually, at work, I'm either in 2 situations:

- I need a quick answer for a simple problem ==> chat (because it's more about getting a simple info and I need it now if possible, or the sooner)

- I need a complete/correct/thoughtfull answer ==> email (because I need someone to really think about it before answering and that person is not available all the time and has other things to do too... so quality of answer is worth waiting)

It may happen that complex email need some clarifications... but if the subject is complex, it usually requires a meeting

It may happen too that a simple answer lead to a complex question... but then we're back at email.

So, I'm not sure that your tool would fit my way of working and/or the places I work for. Moreover, I'm quite sure that "realtime" is one of the WORST possible way of working because it's giving other people a way to manage your time at work (interrupting, etc.)

Re: Show HN: Struct – A Feed-Centric Chat Platform

#106

Post by mrjn »

olivierduval wrote: post #105
mrjn wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Struct is quite inspired by Discourse. It's a unique blend of forum and chat application. So, you know, every forum, including email, has threads and feed. But, forums are asynchronous, not designed around real-time chat. The challenge when applying concept of threads and feeds to a chat platform is that you need to make it real-time. And that's the hard thing that Struct is tackling -- with the real-time feed design…

OK, so the point is the "real time" interactions Actually, at work, I'm either in 2 situations: - I need a quick answer for a simple problem ==> chat (because it's more about getting a simple info and I need it now if possible, or the sooner) - I need a complete/correct/thoughtfull answer ==> email (because I need someone to really think about it before answering and that person is not available all the time and has…

Real-time platforms cause interruptions, yes. But, that's where we are today with Slack.

So, we're starting off from that point. Let's take real-time chat platforms, and reimagine how we can make them more efficient. More useful. Less noisy. That's the idea for Struct.

The list of people we email is different from the list of people we chat with. In a team, that means, team comms happen on chat platform. And external comms happen on emails. Within a team using a chat platform, it's unlikely that people would chat, and then say, hold on, let me send you an email. If that happens, that's very rare.

What's a lot more likely is you jump from a chat conversation into a video call. Hence, the need for a nice integration with video service (like Slack has huddle).

So, for a certain set of people (your team or community), you're going to use the chat platform. And therefore, the chat platform should be built to enable conversations with good retrieval and focus -- so it can be used for complex conversations. Struct hits that pretty well.

Re: Show HN: Struct – A Feed-Centric Chat Platform

#107

Post by strogonoff »

mrjn wrote: post #24
kikki wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was about to say the same thing - I use Zulip at current employment - and after you get used to it it’s pretty great software that already solves all the problems struct aims to (without the AI nonsense)

Founder of Struct here. I looked at Zulip before starting Struct. And I'm sorry -- I don't think it's the same. Threads in Zulip are really sub-channels, and the idea of a unified feed like "All Threads" doesn't exist -- at least, that was my perception of Zulip. And just looking at the site right now, it feels the same as before. I could be wrong. Struct is different. It's a reimagination of what a chat platform wou…

> the idea of a unified feed like "All Threads" doesn't exist

I believe it does. You get a feed of all messages; and still organized by a topic, quite conveniently.

I don’t use it, though, since from anywhere in GUI I can immediately jump to the next unread message, irregardless of topic or stream, simply by pressing “n” on keyboard (preceded by Esc if I happened to be typing; my draft is saved reliably).

Re: Show HN: Struct – A Feed-Centric Chat Platform

#108

Post by WA »

1. OpenAI and the whole baggage of training on company data should be optional. Titles and summaries might not be that important and could be provided by the user.

2. Never ever will I buy anything from a company that looks like it's hiding where it's from and who's behind it. No, your profile pictures and a bunch of names do not count. This whole website could be scam for all I know.

This might be my European (German in particular) point of view, but here, every non-private website must have a full imprint with the company's name, registration number, address, and the Terms of Privacy need to have the full address of the responsible entities (usually the company plus a data protection officer). This is a good thing! We need transparency in businesses who collects money and since GDPR is very relevant for my own business, I want to evaluate how easy it is to get the necessary paperwork (data processing agreement) between your company and mine. Right now, you're hiding behind a hey@whatever email address, zero transparency.

Re: Show HN: Struct – A Feed-Centric Chat Platform

#110

Post by olivierduval »

mrjn wrote: post #106
olivierduval wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, so the point is the "real time" interactions Actually, at work, I'm either in 2 situations: - I need a quick answer for a simple problem ==> chat (because it's more about getting a simple info and I need it now if possible, or the sooner) - I need a complete/correct/thoughtfull answer ==> email (because I need someone to really think about it before answering and that person is not available all the time and has…

Real-time platforms cause interruptions, yes. But, that's where we are today with Slack. So, we're starting off from that point. Let's take real-time chat platforms, and reimagine how we can make them more efficient. More useful. Less noisy. That's the idea for Struct. The list of people we email is different from the list of people we chat with. In a team, that means, team comms happen on chat platform. And external…

Actually, I think that a real features for chat would be the ability to allow "different speeds":

- some questions requires "urgent" answers (for example: missing info in a meeting)

- some interactions may be processed "in the flow", during the day, when time is available

- some interactions are "human noise", people just chatting

Right now, with teams & others, everything may be "urgent" so you'll have to check and see (so interrupting your work)

Moreover, when it's not urgent, you may decide to answer later... and just forget it (because it's not a new message anymore)

So maybe that's a place where AI could help: show only what's urgent... and reminds at a later time for other kinds of chats

Just an idea

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