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Group Chats Are Making the Internet Fun Again

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Re: Group Chats Are Making the Internet Fun Again

#131

Post by asdff »

misterzip wrote: post #118
m-i-l wrote: post #108

The article doesn't cover this, but how do people discover these group chats? All the Discord servers I've joined I've essentially found by word-of-mouth, which doesn't seem very high tech. In the old days you'd find the interesting online forums by "surfing the web".

Discord is experimenting with a searchable servers list. But in my opinion, the fun part of these group chats is that you have to seek them out or get lucky enough to know someone in them, or have friends with whom you can form them organically. I wouldn't want random internet strangers drive-by chatting in my friends' group chats – that's why we talk there and not in the comments on social media.

I'm in over a dozen groupchats among my friends and they all have a purpose or topic. Works pretty well! I don't think chat apps are that great if you didn't already know the bulk of the people in them in real life. The rapid fire mess that is 99% of popular twitch chats is an example of what happens with a wide open chat lobby.

Re: Group Chats Are Making the Internet Fun Again

#132

Post by falcolas »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #96
ctvo wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's more to a product than a protocol and foundational similarities. Whenever someone uses this to distract away from the success of Slack, for example, I question if they realize that UX, design, ease are all part of a product and can be independently innovated on.

Reminds me when you start working on a side project, get a PoC working on the weekend (like a to-be application/website that for now kinda works on the command line), and tell yourself "alright, the hard part is over!" Then you realize you only finished the 0.01%. That's about where IRC seemed to have stopped. "We're done. The clients can do the hard stuff that users actually want."

Naw, IRC was v1. It worked quite well, was well thought out, and standardized. Perfect? No. Good enough for the time and use-case? Yes.

Slack and its kin are v2, capturing the requirements that have changed with the changing userbase. I only wish they were standardized, so we could have non-first party implementations (with the benefits that come with that).

Re: Group Chats Are Making the Internet Fun Again

#133

Post by asdff »

kalado wrote: post #62
jacobedawson wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think part of the allure of private chats is that it's you & a small group of people who actually know each other - having a free-for-all and just splitting rooms up doesn't engender a feeling of togetherness any more than going to a random gathering of people with a single 'banner' topic. Twitter almost has the hashtag thing down. Human social groups have a purported manageable upper limit of around 150 people, so…

Oh I agree. But I see this as an opportunity where you would split of the main chats by creating a more obscure named chat. Like you have a nice conversation with a few people and you can send them a private message "hey, lets continue this in #got-indepth" and then you invite others that you like. You can have general conversations with a lot of people and break up into like minded groups naturally. Moderation is a…

Groupme is big for this at my university.

Re: Group Chats Are Making the Internet Fun Again

#134

Post by carlmr »

falcolas wrote: post #132
hombre_fatal wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me when you start working on a side project, get a PoC working on the weekend (like a to-be application/website that for now kinda works on the command line), and tell yourself "alright, the hard part is over!" Then you realize you only finished the 0.01%. That's about where IRC seemed to have stopped. "We're done. The clients can do the hard stuff that users actually want."

Naw, IRC was v1. It worked quite well, was well thought out, and standardized. Perfect? No. Good enough for the time and use-case? Yes. Slack and its kin are v2, capturing the requirements that have changed with the changing userbase. I only wish they were standardized, so we could have non-first party implementations (with the benefits that come with that).

Isn't mattermost an open source version of slack with most of the important features?

Re: Group Chats Are Making the Internet Fun Again

#135

Post by bmm6o »

jjoonathan wrote: post #67
iamben wrote: post #4

This rings very true. I'm down using Facebook/Twitter for work, or checking every 2 or 3 days if I'm bored, desperate or looking for something in particular. Instagram is about a 50% mix of pretty things and friends, but the pretty things post way more often, so the split is heavily in that direction. I'd say approximately a third of the friends I chat to regularly (late 30s ish) have left or don't use Facebook - but…

Suddenly google circles don't seem so silly after all.

No, that was the one thing G+ got right. It just wasn't good enough to make up for the other deficiencies.

Re: Group Chats Are Making the Internet Fun Again

#136

Post by dmitriid »

Fnoord wrote: post #112
dmitriid wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What I'm not fine with is being forced to use Slack for work-related material. You don't want such sensitive data centralized. You want to host such yourself and immediately: > IRCCloud, whatever it is, probably does not have the same amount of users as the previously mentioned two. But if it uses the IRC protocol (which the name suggests), at least that is open IRCCloud is a centralised, closed-source entity that…

> IRCCloud is a centralised, closed-source entity that stores all your chat logs in the cloud. So, no different than Slack/Discord (with the exception of the protocol). (A very important exception.) IRCCloud just appears to be akin to a BNC. If Bob decides to use IRCCloud or a BNC that is his choice. The rest of the team or group can still use their preferred IRC client because the protocol is an open standard. Would…

> (A very important exception.) IRCCloud just appears to be akin to a BNC. If Bob decides to use IRCCloud or a BNC that is his choice. The rest of the team or group can still use their preferred IRC client

If just one team member uses IRCCliud for chat, all tgat sensitive info is now stored on IRCCloud’s servers.

So, hiw exactly does “open FOSS protocol” help in this case?

Re: Group Chats Are Making the Internet Fun Again

#137

Post by Skunkleton »

Crinus wrote: post #28
YokoZar wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least your friends don't need a whole lot of instruction to join. Inserting pictures is pretty easy. And it's mobile.

I remember IRC in the late 90s, early 2000s having A LOT (like 9 out of 10) of people who otherwise had no idea about computers (remember droves of people disconnecting after 'Press Alt+F4 to get @'?). People who didn't knew the difference between a file and a directory (or folder) were on IRC with channels having hundreds of people. If someone can figure out Facebook (and trust me, Facebook is far from intuitive for…

> Facebook is far from intuitive for someone who doesn't know.

I am a 30-somthing software engineer who doesn't use facebook. The few times I have tried it out it was indeed incredibly confusing.

Re: Group Chats Are Making the Internet Fun Again

#138

Post by chongli »

qxcbr wrote: post #109
ulisesrmzroche wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re in the super tiny minority that actually likes IRC. Why would you think everyone’s the same way, even when all evidence points otherwise?

I agree. I know most people don't think the same way. But my friends and I do, that's why we keep using EFnet.

And that's fine. None of us want to take IRC away from you. And it's fine as well for you to advocate for IRC, so new people can find out about it and join it. Some of us like other chat services though, for various reasons, and we enjoy using emoji in playful ways and to supplement the lack of body language in written communication.

Re: Group Chats Are Making the Internet Fun Again

#139

Post by sixstringtheory »

donatj wrote: post #116
ulisesrmzroche wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ever been to a bar?

Yeah, but I've never made a lasting friendship in one.

There’s a big difference though between decent conversation with strangers and long-lasting friendships.

I’d even say it’s detrimental to always expect the latter from the former. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater!

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