Tea with strangers • Hacker News Board

Re: Tea with strangers

#51

Post by yrizk » Sat, Apr 18, 2015, 10:58 PM UTC

steamy wrote: post #24

Is this something like Couchsurfing but mildly less creepy?

far from it. TWS occurs in neutral locations (coffee shops etc) . no one's personal space (in the literal sense) is in the picture. Which is good actually, it lets you be comfortable both as the host and as one of the attendees, which tends to lead to authenticity.Thinking about it, there would be way too much already on the line if these were placed in someone's home from the get go.

Re: Tea with strangers

#52

Post by youshaei » Sat, Apr 18, 2015, 11:08 PM UTC

The only thing more amazing that going to a TWS meetup is the thoughtfulness and care the founder, Ankit, puts into growing this community. Highly recommend checking out a tea time or letting a friend know who's in one of the host areas to join.

Re: Tea with strangers

#53

Post by nickbarnwell » Sat, Apr 18, 2015, 11:32 PM UTC

green7ea wrote: post #43

ankitshah wrote: post #29

Wow. Didn't realize this was on HN. Hi guys. Ankit here. I started TWS. Happy to answer any q's here or by email (Ankit at teawithstrangers.com). Actually in the middle of a gathering of the SF host community right now so will be a tiny bit delayed on responses but will get to everything! Lots of gratitude for all the good words and valuable critiques.

I really like the idea but unfortunately you guys aren't in Montréal yet and I'm not comfortable hosting. I'm afraid that when you do get here that I won't remember to check it out. Would it be possible to sign up and get notified when your service expands?

Building this this evening! Will reply back once the feature exists

Re: Tea with strangers

#54

Post by desas » Sun, Apr 19, 2015, 12:02 AM UTC

mbrock wrote: post #23

alain94040 wrote: post #8

As an ex founder of similar ideas, good luck to you. This needs to happen. I'm just curious: doesn't tea give you a British angle?

Tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world after water, and it comes from China, not Britain! Obvious, perhaps, but the popular association of tea with Britishness is a tragedy that must be stopped. That's why I also firmly reject the ludicrous notion that the artificially scented "Earl Grey tea" is some kind of default option; why give such credence to the habits of 19th century British aristocrats?

Earl Grey is not even the default option in Britain...

Re: Tea with strangers

#55

Post by Khao » Sun, Apr 19, 2015, 12:05 AM UTC

green7ea wrote: post #43

ankitshah wrote: post #29

Wow. Didn't realize this was on HN. Hi guys. Ankit here. I started TWS. Happy to answer any q's here or by email (Ankit at teawithstrangers.com). Actually in the middle of a gathering of the SF host community right now so will be a tiny bit delayed on responses but will get to everything! Lots of gratitude for all the good words and valuable critiques.

I really like the idea but unfortunately you guys aren't in Montréal yet and I'm not comfortable hosting. I'm afraid that when you do get here that I won't remember to check it out. Would it be possible to sign up and get notified when your service expands?

Your username is so appropriate for this :)

Re: Tea with strangers

#56

Post by nickbarnwell » Sun, Apr 19, 2015, 1:10 AM UTC

nickbarnwell wrote: post #48

krick wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://making.teawithstrangers.com/github 404 Not Found

My bad. Forgot to fix that to 301 when moving stuff to S3/Cloudfront. The straight GH link someone linked down thread should work.

Fixed now, thanks again for pointing it out!

Re: Tea with strangers

#57

Post by rza » Sun, Apr 19, 2015, 1:20 AM UTC

Great concept, my main grip with meeting people on say a site like Meetup is that every event has like 100 attendees and smaller ones are too niche when all I really want is to have a conversation with a few people.

Re: Tea with strangers

#58

Post by j2kun » Sun, Apr 19, 2015, 1:24 AM UTC

I hosted a tea this afternoon and it was really relaxed. We talked about everything from our dream jobs to improv shakespeare to what makes math beautiful. We swapped some stories, drank tea, and after two hours just said goodbye and left.

Can't wait to do it again!

Re: Tea with strangers

#59

Post by slvv » Sun, Apr 19, 2015, 1:25 AM UTC

yrizk wrote: post #51

steamy wrote: post #24

Is this something like Couchsurfing but mildly less creepy?

far from it. TWS occurs in neutral locations (coffee shops etc) . no one's personal space (in the literal sense) is in the picture. Which is good actually, it lets you be comfortable both as the host and as one of the attendees, which tends to lead to authenticity.Thinking about it, there would be way too much already on the line if these were placed in someone's home from the get go.

Thanks for mentioning this! I definitely thought it was held in people's homes which was a big turnoff. Helpful clarification!

Re: Tea with strangers

#60

Post by petercooper » Sun, Apr 19, 2015, 1:37 AM UTC

At the risk of a derail, I'm in SF for a few days (to host O'Reilly Fluent) and "doing" breakfasts at Mel's on Mission downtown - first one tomorrow 9amish :-)