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Dear Google, who I am supposed to use google wave with?

6 points by crocowhile ↗ HN
I figure this is the right crowd to discuss this. I got a gw account and I could use it. The problem is, the people with whom I may start collaborative projects have no account yet and I got no invitations. So I am stuck at the start and cannot really do anything with it. Google wave dudes, I think you screwed it up.

17 comments

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Henrikb4
Okay, I think they did an amazing job. Maybe it's because I got ~10 people that I can speak with. 5 of those I take notes with in school I.e. collaborate. The other 5 just random friends and relatives who showed an interest. I speak with them occasionally. Along with that I talk with many people on the public waves.

Yes, life is though when you got no friends to talk to, but I would recommend you to search for "with:public" to get some people to talk to.

It's not Google's fault you got no friends.

crocowhile
How old are you? 15? I got plenty of friends. Thing is, I am not into computer by business, only by hobby. Most of my friends are scientists like me and few of them are geek enough to even know what google wave is, at this stage.

I thought the point of distributing invitations is to get the whole thing tested. What is the best way to make sure gw is tested properly?

joezydeco
I can't even find the googlewave name of the person that invited me, unless I ask him directly. That seems like a missed opportunity right there.
Josh0
It didn't automatically put them in your contacts list? It did for me, plus all the people that I've invited.
Josh0
Search for 'with:public' to find public waves and meet some new people.
crocowhile
Truth is: I don't want to use wave to meet new people. Also, I am sure this is not what wave is particularly useful for. I would love to actually use wave to DO stuff.
arjuan
1. Do a search for with:public

2. Be sure to save the search with the archive option checked (this makes sure your inbox doesnt get flooded with public waves)

3. Wave with everyone!

drhowarddrfine
Isn't this beta? Isn't this the purpose of a limited invite so people can kick the tires and try things out? This isn't the amateur hour here.
crocowhile
My beta testing would be much more productive if I only could test it with people I actually work with. Don't you think?
slpsys
No, I don't think. From the messages you get if multiple people edit a wave too quickly, the site seems to be pretty intensive given the resources they're currently running it on. If I had to guess, I'd say they're cultivating the server resources to match the needs of who's currently using it, and throttling the number of new users so that they don't overextend themselves. It seems like they're capacity beta testing, not feature testing (right now).
abyssknight
I have wave, and you're welcome to add me. However, the single most annoying thing I've seen with wave thus far is that when offline, you have no notification in regards to new waves. My friend who invited me sent me a wave, but I didn't see it until a week later because I didn't log into wave. I'm sure this is easily fixed, but it just seems silly in an era of push email and IMs.

As far as finding people to chat with, check with:public or some of the more famous waves. The Unofficial "The Guild" wave is neat, and I know there were a couple RPG waves out there as well.

That said, this community is probably one of the better places to find those with wave simple because we're interested. So you just did what you needed to do. :)

gte910h
There is an email notifier bot you can add.
chwahoo
I got invitations about 5 days after joining (last night). It isn't useful initially (unless the people you want to communicate with are already in).

I think you are right that google is taking the wrong approach with invites, but with a bit of patience, your network of collaborators will get in.