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Show HN: Nightchamber, a slow-web social site

nightchamber.com

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Re: Show HN: Nightchamber, a slow-web social site

#11

Post by tenpoundhammer »

sciguy77 wrote: post #5
tenpoundhammer wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm confused about why a person would want to use this? If I only get a random "tweet" every 24 hours that lacks context, I don't see myself coming back often. Two suggestions: 1. Allow the user to configure how often they get new thoughts. 2. Allow voting so that hopefully the random thoughts that are actually worth reading propagate out and people are reading something worth reading.

I actually really like this as a reaction against Twitter. You only get one thing to say per day, so you want to make it count. And I don't want another site to visit 50 times per day, once is enough. Kudos to the creator, this is really neat.

I like the idea of only being able to post once a day, but I think the solution would be more fun if you could read as much you want.

Re: Show HN: Nightchamber, a slow-web social site

#12

Post by s_kilk »

vessenes wrote: post #4

I like this. I think a good length for a 'daily' one-shot update might be a bit longer than a tweet though. The layout makes it look like you're expecting tweets right now. Have you experimented with longer-form posts to see how they feel?

I was intending for long-form posts to be encouraged on this site, but I do agree that the current layout may not be the best for that.

I'll take your suggestion and experiment with longer content and find a layout that makes it pleasant to read.

Ideally I'd love to see short-stories or poetry being shared on the site.

Re: Show HN: Nightchamber, a slow-web social site

#13

Post by s_kilk »

sciguy77 wrote: post #5
tenpoundhammer wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm confused about why a person would want to use this? If I only get a random "tweet" every 24 hours that lacks context, I don't see myself coming back often. Two suggestions: 1. Allow the user to configure how often they get new thoughts. 2. Allow voting so that hopefully the random thoughts that are actually worth reading propagate out and people are reading something worth reading.

I actually really like this as a reaction against Twitter. You only get one thing to say per day, so you want to make it count. And I don't want another site to visit 50 times per day, once is enough. Kudos to the creator, this is really neat.

Thanks!

That means a lot to mea, if even a few people get a kick out of it then it was worth the effort.

Re: Show HN: Nightchamber, a slow-web social site

#14

Post by s_kilk »

remyferre wrote: post #6
s_kilk wrote: post #2

Hi HN. I made this over the last few months. The idea is to have an activity feed which is randomly generated, and only refreshes once every 24 hours. The auth system incorporates some ideas discussed in this thread (The God Login): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8861800 I'm happy to answer any questions!

The god login is really an interesting idea ! Could you elaborate on your choice about the random feed?

I like the idea of a random, or semi-random, feed of content that the user has no real control over.

You don't get to build yourself an echo-chamber.

It's actually mostly inspired by postsecret.com in that way. People submit things, a feed is generated (or curated, in the case of PostSecret).

EDIT: I think later on we could introduce a form of upvoting, which would influence the odds of a given thought (or further thoughts from that author) ending up in a feed.

Re: Show HN: Nightchamber, a slow-web social site

#15

Post by skymt »

s_kilk wrote: post #10
Xeoncross wrote: post #7

Neat exploration of a solution - but I wouldn't consider this a complete product - more of a test of auth-less logins for a randomized guest book. There is a lot more that would be needed before people used this. I can almost guarantee that random posts will be worthless and I have no feedback on the messages I personally send.

Thanks for the comment, and I agree, it's very bare-bones right now. In an ideal world, what would a product like this look like when fully fleshed-out?

I can't see it becoming a product as in "makes money" or "attracts investors" without compromising the slow-web spirit. Social sites traditionally thrive on compulsive re-visiting (because ad money), and limiting users to one update per day kills that dead.

That said, it might become a more attractive experiment if it had some way of floating good thoughts to more readers. E.g. you could "like" only one of the thoughts from your feed and have an extra slot in your feed for a thought that another user "liked."

Re: Show HN: Nightchamber, a slow-web social site

#16

Post by s_kilk »

skymt wrote: post #15
s_kilk wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the comment, and I agree, it's very bare-bones right now. In an ideal world, what would a product like this look like when fully fleshed-out?

I can't see it becoming a product as in "makes money" or "attracts investors" without compromising the slow-web spirit. Social sites traditionally thrive on compulsive re-visiting (because ad money), and limiting users to one update per day kills that dead. That said, it might become a more attractive experiment if it had some way of floating good thoughts to more readers. E.g. you could "like" only one of the though…

>> I can't see it becoming a product as in "makes money" or "attracts investors" without compromising the slow-web spirit.

We're on the same page there. Still it would be nice to find a way to make enough to cover the server costs without fucking up the site.

The notion of upvoting thoughts is a recurring theme in this discussion, so I'm bumping that to the top of the todo list. Again, thanks for the input, it's very much appreciated.

Re: Show HN: Nightchamber, a slow-web social site

#17

Post by yaddayadda »

s_kilk wrote: post #10
Xeoncross wrote: post #7

Neat exploration of a solution - but I wouldn't consider this a complete product - more of a test of auth-less logins for a randomized guest book. There is a lot more that would be needed before people used this. I can almost guarantee that random posts will be worthless and I have no feedback on the messages I personally send.

Thanks for the comment, and I agree, it's very bare-bones right now. In an ideal world, what would a product like this look like when fully fleshed-out?

Not quite building off of your current system, but I've long wanted a service where I could log-in and be approved to participate anonymously in conversations that are still somewhat moderated. "?&%$#?#$&?", you ask.

There are a lot of sites that I participate in that allow you to rate and flag other users (e.g. HN). I actually really like this ability. But frequently I want to make many posts to such site, but I don't really want all my comments to be able to be tied together

For example, there's an HN post about BFE, Idaho and I mention that's my hometown. In another post, it's relevant to the conversation, so I mention I'm Italian. In another post it becomes clear that I have extensive professional experience in underwater basket weaving. Put these three facts together and they can quickly undermine any anonymity (i.e. I'm the only Italian born in BFE, Idaho that has a career in underwater basket weaving).

So having a log-on system that allows me to be held accountable (i.e. If I make a comment on HN that gets downvoted, my HN rating still goes down) but where I can still be anonymous (i.e. no one can aggregate my comments). From a service perspective, I'm thinking of something like a Disqus plug-in architecture where I could log-in to the primary service, and only that service would ever know that I'm a singular entity. That service would provide an api that other sites could use set and grab general reputation data.

For example, I log into Service as 'yaddayadda'. I navigate to HN, and log-in. The Service reports to HN that I'm an authorized user currently known as 2051013165142 (new, random user id each time I visit HN). HN polls the Service API for my current user id. The Service reports back that my identity has earned a total of X HN submission up votes, Y HN comment up votes, and Z HN downvotes. HN can then do what it does to calculate my reputation. When I subsequently make a submission or comment and am rated, HN reports those points back to the Service, which aggregates them into 'yaddayadda's' HN totals.

Re: Show HN: Nightchamber, a slow-web social site

#18

Post by alexhawdon »

Novel. I like it.

Has me thinking about a 'slow' messaging app: basically email but in daily digest format. E-mail, but with the latency of physical mail. You may reply at your convenience. Your message will be received at the time of the recipient's choosing, along with the rest of the day's correspondence. Optionally including weekly days off.

Probably not great for business. Between friends it might encourage more long-format replies which might be more enjoyable; an alternative to short, frequent messages.

Re: Show HN: Nightchamber, a slow-web social site

#19

Post by Gyonka »

This is cool, but I kind of see the use case a little different. I'd like to be able to receive a message like this on my phone once a day, just as a notification, at a time of my choosing. It would still be a random anonymous message, but it would be interesting because everyday I would receive some random/hilarious crap from someone elsewhere in the world.

Re: Show HN: Nightchamber, a slow-web social site

#20

Post by s_kilk »

alexhawdon wrote: post #18

Novel. I like it. Has me thinking about a 'slow' messaging app: basically email but in daily digest format. E-mail, but with the latency of physical mail. You may reply at your convenience. Your message will be received at the time of the recipient's choosing, along with the rest of the day's correspondence. Optionally including weekly days off. Probably not great for business. Between friends it might encourage more…

I like your idea very much. There's just something about artificial constraints that I find appealing.

Do let us know if you ever decide to build it, I'll be first in line to try it out!

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