HN Explorer

Coffeehouse, one-on-one voicechat with random HN users (coffeehouse.chat)

59 points by amadeuspagel ↗ HN
One-on-one, because it's simpler:

- When one stops talking, the other starts.

- No groups, no hierarchy, no status.

Voicechat, because it's more intimate then text and more private then video.

With other HN readers, because that creates some common ground.

20 comments

[ 3.8 ms ] story [ 52.7 ms ] thread
synu
Cool idea! I always have ideas to make these sorts of community apps, but end up worrying about trolls and talk myself out of it.
capableweb
The trick is to consider moderation/administrator from the get go. Build your frontend, but also build your admin/moderation panel and have that live. At the very least, add the functionality of being able report and kick people off the platform, that's a great start and you can easily manage to manually moderate things in the beginning. If the platform grows, you'll need to grow your admin tooling with it.
synu
That’s good advice. I have an idea for a slow social network that’s based on your town/region/city (like bbses, and then local IRC channels were like) to help provide a place for online local community.

It’s probably a pipe dream, but like I mentioned I always talk myself out of even trying it for fear of how hard moderation would be.

99112000
Just had a chat with the creator omn the platform, cool dude!
notRobot
Like the last time this was posted, I don't seem to be able to get a match. :/

I did briefly connect with one person for a few seconds, but after they disconnected it hasn't worked again, which is super unfortunate because I really like the idea.

Maybe it's because I'm on mobile though.

meowtastic
Not seeing the start button on my Android Firefox browser. But I love the idea.
2Gkashmiri
can anyone do that kitboga style bot that he uses to talk to spammers with them not knowing they are talking to a bot in hopes of wasting their time? this would be a good experiment testing ground because people would be able to talk and maybe help improve the bot.

then we could do bot vs bot with people as mute spectators, like those reddit bots who write stuff and then build on it.

lawlorino
Great idea, although I'm not able to connect for more than a brief second before it drops. Using Android + Chrome if that helps.
PhillyG
Playing around with this, seems I created a new channel/room/page called "raar" (https://coffeehouse.chat/raar), I wasn't expecting it to just let me create something that seems to be just there on the homepage as literally the second channel, without any signup or anything. It also seems to be a public thing. I opened the link on my phone and joined the call from there and it connected. However when I tried again it wouldn't connect
PhillyG
ooh - discovered something interesting - the homepage seems to only list channels that you've previously visited - interesting
PhillyG
Just had my first actual proper call, with a guy in Turkey who seemed very nice, call worked really well. In part of the conversation he asked about what I was working on, and I missed the ability to send a link through the call - (though maybe that's a sign that my own domain could have a better name!)
simonebrunozzi
I'd prefer chat over voice, frankly. And I'm not an introvert.
PhillyG
I could see this being really useful for people doing show hn, they could have this open and chat directly to people interested in their project
tarkin2
I can only get the conversations working in chrome. They cut out in firefox after a few seconds.
Agamus
Is this for use with a handheld computer-telephone?

I would love to see some kind of "about" page that explains a little more.

When I visit the page, I see three lovely pictures of espresso, a title at the top, a line that says, "one-on-one voicechat with random HN users", and a button that says "Start".

I love the espresso part!

hahamrfunnyguy
I waited for a match for a few minutes. It would be neat if you had an indicator of how long matching would take.
amadeuspagel
A lot of people seem to have problems with mobile or firefox. Sorry about that. Coffeehouse works great on desktop chrome, and I also had a chat with someone using Safari, so that seems to work as well.
exhaze
Just wanted to say that I spent several hours on this today and had 4 amazing conversations. Used safari mobile whole time.