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I like the design, simple and clean.

The title sounds inflated but you win me, :)

Thank you. Currently the left pane has realtime update, and I am working on RT update for the right pane which is far more complicated.

I find people either really, really hate the design, or like it.

> I find people either really, really hate the design, or like it.

A sign you're doing things right :) great work. Looking forward to seeing more.

If you had nested comments, then maybe you can make the claim of being similar to Google Wave.

The design is great though, and the formatting on posts is excellent

Well it does support nested comments... They are just automatically folded so the appearance is cleaner. Try "#xxxx" (and click it). You can find the post id by clicking the user icon.

You can even do self-reference and build an infinite stair.

The idea behind threaded comments is they're a separate thread so to have them "folded in" is counter intuitive. It's already evident that this sort of "threading" is a problem, if you look you can see users referring to each other by name which doesn't associate the reply with the parent, which makes the conversation hard to follow. Imagine this with 10,000 replies...

If you don't properly thread the comments then you will very much cripple the way a conversation can evolve, I run one of the largest forums and if there's one thing that absolutely sucks it's a lack of proper threading, it seriously restricts how long a topic can survive and how useful it can be.

Ah I got you. I have considered this multiple times, but a flat system still appears better for me. Yes, it is a very important issue and I will try to come up with a better solution, probably hybrid.
Something I like is the idea of "forking" topics, conversations evolve and if a new comment thread becomes over a few replies there's generally a good chance it has become its own conversation which can then involve into another conversation etc etc etc.

If I was trying to keep the system as "flat" as possible I would consider deciding on an arbitrary cut off point (total replies, or total "levels" of replies) that automatically forks a thread into a new topic and then in the original topic would display in a similar style to a comment but with "this comment has generated a new topic, 2 replies... load preview / go to topic")

not sure if that's explained well enough, but I think that would solve the problem.

That's a great idea. Maybe it needs good auto-categorization to implement well, but another idea is to not bother with the thresholds at all -- every comment can potentially spawn off a new wave of replies, so why not just fork into separate threads immediately? The top level view gives you the flat view of the top level thread, and by diving in through the replies you can keep flat views of each sub-conversation. If every comment is treated the same, then it truly doesn't matter how old the comment you're replying to is because you could be sparking an entirely new discussion.
Is there any setup that can handle 10,000 replies well? I've always thought of it as an unsolved problem. Even with threading like HN, you have "more" and I almost never click it. I think /. used to have similar paging. Reddit?

The idea further down this chain of branching off sub-conversations has some merit IMO.

I couldn't find any nested comments, but I think it would be good to not flatten them so that you can actually see the conversation directly, like we're doing now
It'd be awesome if you used progressive enhancement so it still worked without JavaScript.
Unfortunately, that'll be very difficult as I plan to make it 100% realtime.
I have no idea what it is, but I think I like it. It feels nice.
Sometimes I think it is only similar to Google Wave in the spirit of having little points :)

I plan to use it as a blog first.

I have no idea what this is, but i'd suggest adding "Categories" The signal to noise ratio here is just to small. Nothing seems relevant...
There's a "Lists" function. And it is hidden, to keep the UI ultra-clean. Click the left pane title to show it.
I love this. I love the deliciously clean design, the immediate type-and-post functionality (reminiscent of IRC), the loose feel and structure of the forum that makes it a wonderful base for customisation in any aspect. I wish this were in Ruby/Rails; then I'd set it up on my site. It's precisely the sort of forum I've been looking to implement, especially the two-column format and the IRC-style text entry box.

(I wonder how I could get it to interface with a Rails app? Would there be problems just connecting it to the app's database, to get/store user accounts and stats, for example?)

Here's the github repo containing the open-source fork of it: https://github.com/cheshirecats/CuriousWall

Thanks cheshirecat, you've done a great thing here.

My pleasure. It is very relieving to see people actually like it.
Well done. Made a user, and I hope to be contributing to your site, especially if you finish that dump procedure I asked for in your site.
Yeah this would be a really nice private company chat system, a la Hipchat
I agree with this too. I, too, am looking for a non-conventional forum that I can integrate into a webapp I am building.

I would love for someone to port this into a Rails engine or a Ruby gem or something.

I concur in all the above. The application is responsive, powerful, and well designed.
UX nitpick - the site disables my Mac trackpad "swipe to navigate back" feature. Your site picks up the lateral scroll as a vertical scroll. Frustrating for trackpad lovers like me.

Otherwise, great minimalist interface!

My iPad 3 Herald suffers from a heart attack rendering the site. Scrolling isn nearly impossible. Using chrome though, so no nitro.
It's great. I love the math formulas and how you can right click to get them in different formats and change display settings. On further examination I see that this is a function of MathJax, but great job integrating it into your application.
Very cool simple design. I clicked around a few things. The only part that seemed "off" was having the "Post" button on the left side.

I like the expand button on the top right. Its nice for longer posts. Definitely keep the good work.

I think I'm having some problems with scrolling. But anyways, good job!
Thank you! The scrolling codes are messy and slow at the moment. I'll rebuild them using vanilla JS. You guys are the reason I can keep working on this.
I'm having problems with scrolling, too, but I'm not sure if it's a problem with the code being slow, or that we simply don't know how to use it.

The front page says "Click page borders and user icons for functions - feel free to experiment", but I think you need some documentation for people like me who aren't smart enough to figure out what they do. I see different colored rectangles and my cursor turns into a resize-top-border icon (??) and clicking things makes other things jump around or disappear but I can't tell where I am or what I'm doing.

A 2-minute tutorial could make the difference between "I'm confused, so I'm leaving" and "this is pretty neat". Of course, it'd be even better if it used controls that I already know how to use, so I didn't need to take a 2-minute tutorial to learn to use scrollbars again. :-)

Please use the native scrolling. It was completely unusable on a non-Safari browser on my iPad 2 (even vanilla Safari was so sluggish as to reduce any desire to use it). It looked interesting (and the comments here indicate it is), but the scrolling was so bad, I couldn't check it out.

I really hesitated to pint this out, because I hate negative comments when people throw there stuff out here, but this one is just too critical to your potential success.

There's a fork of Google Wave that's alive and kicking http://rizzoma.com

Here's a screenshot: https://plus.google.com/100419497458726670190/posts

Though I like Ivory's goal and aspirations.

Can I integrate Rizzoma in my web app? Or is it just a standalone web app?
Rizzoma embedding will be ready on October. Box version and version for your own Amazon server is going to be in March 2013
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OOOooo eeeeee rizzoma alive and I love it/ I use it in all sides of my life job vacation discussion planing I don`t use google docs more I trust them & I belive them
I really would love it, especially if they add export mechanisms so I won't lose my data if they ever decide to die. Burned once already, unfortunately.
The issue with Wave for me was that it killed my computer (and I don't have a light computer) and this does the same. OP his app is so nice and light...
Yeah, it was cutting edge back in the day, but Wave is kinda oldschool tech now, being easier and faster to build with the latest RTW frameworks out there now. (mostly built on JS).
I don't say OP's app is not nice, I like it too :)
Google Wave had threads. This appears to be missing.
I really enjoyed the feel of the interface. One suggestion: make it so that IJKL scrolls the right panel, the way WASD works for the left panel.
http://www.rizzoma.com is much better.

The founder himself stayed at my place using airbnb this summer. I'm a YC alum. He has one of the most interesting founding stories I've ever heard. He is a Siberian-Kazakhstani hacking competition winner who knows Judo and runs a series of small businesses in Russia. Bars that partake in sportsbetting-all Legal. He designed the software as a way to manage his businesses with his founders and grew it into something more.

How is it better? Rizzoma (wave) is so incredibly complicated I feel very overwhelmed when I visit the site. It's like stepping into a fighter jet cockpit.
Yet a fighter jet gives you so much power.
But requires 20 years of learning to understand how to operate.
I agree.. I've just tried it. It took forever to load and when it was loaded, I felt in an ugly wysiwyg editor with buttons and editable fields everywhere. I was troubled and had no idea where to look or click.

I feel that I really didn't give rizzoma a fair tryout but then if the first impression is overwhelming and scary, it's hard to move forward.

I'd suggest cutting all the crap and introduce more complex features over time.. or when it's needed.

Same experience here. I think compared to Ops site, Rizzoma is over-engineered out of the wazoo. Once you start adding features for everyone, their grandma and their dog, things are bound to get complicated. The Ops site is such a simple and a breath of fresh air.
Could you provide links to services that are you talking about?
Actually you right. Rizzoma have too complicated UX. In couple weeks we are going to release new version of our interface and I hope it will much easier in user perception
Rizzoma allows communication within a certain context permitting a chat to instantly become a document where topics of a discussion organized into branches of mind-map diagram and minor details are collapsed to avoid distraction.

Because we all know a person who's said to us at one point or another "I wish I had a way to have a chat instantly become a document where topics of discussion are organized into branches of a mind-map diagram."

I believe I know three people who have all said something almost identical to that a little over 10 years ago (I kid you not).
You must run with an interesting crowd! :-D
Actually I think that is what a lot of systems are moving towards... a real-time outliner/wiki. I use WorkFlowy with others to manage releases and other information and with just a couple multi-user oriented feature it would match your description. Trello is in this direction as well. Google Wave just felt toooo real-time and free-form.
Completely different site with completely different philosophy. I prefer pivory.

For starters I wouldn't log in to a site like this using neither a Facebook account (which I have but it's full of bogus data) or a Google+ account (which I only have because they created it for me, which is when I deleted the little true info about me there).

That unjustified blanket statement and the tone of your comment just rub me the wrong way.

Who cares how amazingly, mind-blowingly awesome your buddy the founder of Rizzoma is? This thread is about another project, and it's not based on Wave. This is hardly the place where you should walz in and shill for something else without so much as a word about Pivory, let alone some constructive criticism of any kind.

Sorry Udo.

I wish you the best in building your technology. I will say you've done some pretty cool stuff in the area of UX with the ability to change the fonts and appearance on the fly. I meant no offense.

Again, sorry.

Hi kumarski, your comment is strange. I don't know Udo in any way.

Pivory is a one-man project. I built all the codes and designs by myself (and owe many thanks to the users who were so nice and provided many useful comments - I posted it to /r/programming before this).

I have been coding for 20 years, so it's not that unthinkable. Sometimes the one-man way can be the fastest way. No time wasted in communications. Refactoring is always straightforward.

Rizzoma is 100 times more complicated and I must say: nice work! It covers a completely different market. I can see all the efforts behind it.

Actually yes, rizzoma goes to different market.

BTW I like how Ivory works. Me and other guys from rizzoma team played a couple hours with Ivory. My congratulations for developer!

WTF, I never said I had anything to do with the project! I was merely making a point about being more supportive towards a Show HN project instead of just linking to a competitor and stating "this is better and the guy running it is awesome".

How can anyone read my comment and infer it's my project? Was my wording really that misleading?!?

It's a very nice design, but I feel removing dates is a mistake. It may be that older topics lose their value as time goes on, however that's a problem that can be fixed on the community level (by encouraging people to bump old threads, instead of discouraging it -- which is a learned behavior.) I feel like you gain very little in reality by removing dates, and you otherwise lose some very valuable or interesting info.
Very nice and simple, I like it. Thanks for answering the questions over there, always curious about the inner workings of such things.
Just to make sure I understand.. It's IRC on the web? Is there anything I am missing? I.e. Compared to grove.io.

But design wise, it's simple and clean, I like it :)

I like it; a fresh new look at forum interaction
Because it's being used to talk about the scrollbars in it?
Did not work on my iPhone. Double tapping zoomed in as expected, but afterwards the design resized itself again. The result is quite funny ;)

I like the idea, though. Looks great on bigger devices.

Spent a little bit of time playing on this and really really impressed.

I've written a progressive enhanced forum (for mobile) and think there's a lot of room for some re-thought ways how forums could work.

But!

I did find navigating around PIvory a little hard work. I definitely had to think and discover. A lot of menu options aren't visible until you click in certain areas. That's great from a clean-design point of view, but frustrating for a new user.

I love the grey scheme, with the only colour being when you hover over icons. That said, hi-lighting your posts (and leaving your image always in colour) would be nice.

It really is an awesome effort. I'm inspired.

Cool we definitely has a problem with: "A lot of menu options aren't visible until you click in certain areas". I hope new version of interface will solve it.

Please let me know about other inconveniences or troubles: tw: @kobzevvv fb: http://www.facebook.com/kobzevvv

hopefully it fares better than wave - good luck!