
Show HN: Taaalk – A platform for public online conversations - FailMore
https://taaalk.co/
======
FailMore
Hi HN, I'm the founder and sole developer of Taaalk.

Taaalk is a platform for public, yet intimate, conversations (a bit like if
your WhatsApp was made public). You control who is in the Taaalk (intimate),
but everyone can read the conversation (public).

Why I built Taaalk?

I think we have all grown up in a digital world that is a bit awkward. In the
real world you don't walk around shouting out random facts and opinions,
instead you talk to people. And in the real world while you're talking,
hundreds of random people don't jump into your conversation. The best chats
have a healthy level of intimacy. Taaalk tries to recreate these real world
properties online. Firstly, it is all about talking (taaalking); back and
forths. This makes things feel a bit more natural than shouting out snip-its
of thoughts and ideas. There's also no character limit and you can save drafts
before you reply, so it's a place for deep conversations. My hope is that you
enjoy Taaalking even if you have normally found yourself to be a bit too shy
to fully enjoy other social platforms. Secondly, though anyone can read a
Taaalk, only the people the "Taaalk Owner" (the person who started the Taaalk)
chooses can join in the conversation. This keeps things intimate.

I think there is the potential for more knowledge to be shared. The world is
filled with people who know so many interesting things and have had amazing
experiences. When it comes to hearing about these people it normally happens
in the form of an interview. Traditionally it's been the case that a
journalist has to take an interest in what you do before you get one. That
doesn't happen too often, so it's probably the case that the world is under-
interviewed. Taaalk is here to change that. More interviews for more people =
More knowledge shared.

The word "interview" doesn't really capture what Taaalk is about though. It's
a bit too formal, and implies there is one person with all the knowledge (the
interviewee) and another person getting it from them (the
journalist/interviewer). Taaalk can be used more flexibly than that. Four
people (a Taaalk can have any number of people) who know a lot about a subject
can have an extremely detailed Taaalk about it. And three people who don't
know too much about anything can blab away to each other, just because they
enjoy blabbing.

You don't need to invite anyone to your Taaalk, if you want to write a poem
every day, or share a continuous stream of thoughts about a subject of your
choice, you can use Taaalk as a place to do that; monologues are encouraged on
the platform.

Taaalk is built for you to be even more creative than that. You can invite
yourself to your own Taaalk, change the second-you's details and have an
imaginary conversation. You can invite yourself to a Taaalk any number of
times, and even write a whole play made up of the dialogue of imaginary
characters.

If you don't have anyone to Taaalk with today, you can leave your details (on
the Start a Conversation page). This means someone looking to Taaalk can
introduce themselves to you. And you can introduce yourself to someone else
who has left their details.

What you say matters (and might embarrass you). Because of this I've tried to
include features to make people feel safe sharing their thoughts on Taaalk.
Firstly, even if you are not the Taaalk Owner, you can leave a Taaalk and
delete all your messages at the same time. The Taaalk will still exist, but
what you've written will not. If you are a Taaalk Owner you can delete your
Taaalk at any time. You can delete your account, deleting all messages you've
written on the Taaalk platform and all the Taaalks you've started at the same
time. It's possible to edit or delete an individual message after you have
written it. And because it's possible to edit a message after someone has
responded to it, we flag up when a message has been edited, so if you are the
responder, you don't have to worry about someone changing the question after
you've written a response to it.

It's very early days for Taaalk so if you have any feedback or ideas, I'd love
to hear them. Thank you for reading and checking out the site. If you want to
be awesome, please try out starting a Taaalk or leave your details for someone
else to Taaalk with you. Thank you!

