
Show HN: I made a chat roulette for remote workers - Pete-Codes
https://www.remoteroulette.com
======
Waterluvian
A few thoughts:

1\. This is a really neat idea. I love the creativity.

2\. But for $5 you're not giving me a whole lot more than what I can get for
myself on Reddit, HN, Social Media. What do I get exactly that I can't get by
just asking on social media?

3\. Call me wrong, I'm not actually sure how I feel on this. But it kind of
slightly maybe smells like profiteering. Do you really need $5 per person?
Does the price really need to go up if I don't act fast? (I'm anxious enough,
thank you) Maybe make it free and ask for server donations?

4\. The two bios on the front page feel so fakey fake fake that it turns me
right off the service. Maybe that's just me.

5\. I really _do not_ want to discourage you. I really hope this feedback is
constructive enough.

~~~
simonskoog
It's just a cash grab. Created yesterday, stock photos, a '50% off' deal at $5
since inception with no demo of how it works. A lot of people will pay $5 and
just not think more of it, but that can turn out pretty nice in these times.

I do like the idea, but I feel that a Discord chat with separate rooms where
multiple people can hang out and find eachother again would be cheaper and
more useful.

Edit: Actually, if someone feels like setting one up, just ping or reply here.
I'd love to join and talk to all sorts of devs from all over who are remoting.
My best coworker just had his last day today so doubly interesting personally.

~~~
romes
I'm interested!

Just created a brand new empty one, i'm setting it up, join whenever whoever

[https://discord.gg/CVgKmaZ](https://discord.gg/CVgKmaZ)

~~~
tapland
Seems to be taking off, and saving HN users $500. See you there monday.

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NikolaeVarius
This thread has so much optimism considering what chatroulette is/was/became.

~~~
crusty
Immediately thought... So I'm chugging along with work and ready for a little
endorphin hit from a social interaction and Bam, a penis. Skip, Bam, an A-hole
screaming the N-word at the top of his lungs. Why again did I... People suck,
I don't even want my to work anymore.

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phnofive
Five dollars? Yuck.

If it’s a barrier to entry against creeps, it’s got to be higher. Maybe a
deposit of some kind?

Also - since you made the bizarre choice to directly reference it below the
“50% off till Monday” tag - it’s coronavirus or COVID-19, not corona virus.

~~~
KaoruAoiShiho
> barrier to entry against creeps,

If they just put this sentence on their homepage the reaction on this thread
would be totally different.

~~~
DonHopkins
All these creepless chat startups could have a price war to see who can charge
the most!

------
eganist
[https://slack.com/apps/A11MJ51SR-donut](https://slack.com/apps/A11MJ51SR-
donut)

for anyone that wants something distantly close to this, but baked into slack.

Not mine; I'm just familiar with it from past employers.

------
Disruptive_Dave
Oh man, we did this (MVP style) about 6 years ago, called it Collabo. Tested
it with a Facebook group, then we manually connected random people together
and scheduled them video chats. We called it "the water cooler for
solopreneurs." Really just a fun experiment more than a business. Happy to
share whatever learnings I can dig up.

Edit: Just found the homepage mock. "A first-of-its-kind virtual water cooler
for freelancers and solopreneurs." It was invite only, too. At least at the
start.

~~~
azhenley
What happened with it? Why didn't you continue with the concept?

~~~
Disruptive_Dave
Bunch of reasons - never intended to do anything other than have fun with it,
co-founded another startup that ended up catching a little fire, and finally,
it was just me (marketer) and a designer doing this. Would love to see it
work, though.

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Wmamouth
Should probably make it free to use to get a faster test on your assumptions.
It is a very novel assumption that people will actually use this as intended
and return everyday.

I see more revenue opportunity for advertising, partnerships, and affiliate
relationships than a flat membership fee.

You can have a premiere membership that has special features like improved
vetting and ability to refine matching specifications, after a person ends up
liking it, and it’s usage becomes routine. You should give users the
opportunity to try, because again, its a novel assumption.

For the free tier, the 728X90 leaderboard above the chat screen would be
highly valuable real estate.

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yingw787
How many people have signed up so far?

Honestly, just having a Zoom call going for the entire day, with different
breakout rooms and multi-person screenshare, would go a long way towards
companionship. You don't even need your own platform! $15 / mo. for 100 people
for a 24 hour long session :D

If it's something like that, and you have DevOps and Full-stack people signed
up, and we can switch breakout rooms by host request, I think I'd sign up!

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lgeorget
10 or 15 years ago it would have been a giganticover-engineered distributed
XML-based chat protocol that would have been proposed...

Instead we have a down-to-earth simple subscription to a centralized list of
email addresses and an automatic pairing service. For 5$. What have become of
our dreams...

Just kidding. I wish you success but I personally won't pay 5$ for this, even
if it's my first time working from home too.

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itsangaris
Our team ended up creating a Discord voice channel that we can each chime in
on as needed. It gives us a "ambient chat" as one of my colleges put it and
helps simulate working in the same environment.

~~~
EGreg
Can someone recommend some good Discord channels to hang out with on diff
intellectual subjects?

~~~
kjaftaedi
What you're asking for is wholly separate from what the person you are
responding to is saying.

The point of stuff like what this thread is about is mostly silent
companionship to help focus on a work-related task.

Engaging in active discussion, you're never going to get any work done that
way.

------
Pete-Codes
I thought I'd put something together for people working from home.

I've been working remotely since July and honestly, the lack of social contact
gets old fast.

~~~
vasco
Working remotely for almost 4 years here. Whenever I join a call with co-
workers to "hang out" there's no work being done. If someone is there I will
speak to them or I'll want to hear what they're saying. And if we're just
quiet, my work just becomes the same as if I weren't on the call except I
can't have Spotify on.

I think there could be a demographic for this tool, but I'd wager not a lot of
work will be done while connected to it.

~~~
ryneandal
We leverage pair programming to alleviate this issue. It works incredibly
well, but YMMV

------
abalashov
Don’t know if it’s any good, and there clearly seems to be some controversy
about that in this thread, but jibes well with my sentiments over the years,
some of which have gathered extensive HN discussion:

[https://likewise.am/2018/12/01/seven-tough-lessons-from-
ten-...](https://likewise.am/2018/12/01/seven-tough-lessons-from-ten-years-in-
bootstrapped-business/)

[https://likewise.am/2017/05/19/in-response-to-the-cult-of-
re...](https://likewise.am/2017/05/19/in-response-to-the-cult-of-remote-
working/)

Edit: the point isn’t to promote my blog posts, it’s to say that I’m glad this
aspect of remote work is finally being recognised in various ways — some good,
some bad, but above all else, recognised.

------
jadbox
For people interested in talking about politics and local community civic
projects, I made a chat roulette service to connect people with similar topic
interests:

[https://dinnertable.chat/](https://dinnertable.chat/)

~~~
lucb1e
It says you should prepare for the debate with sources and that the next round
will start in 1.5 hours... but no topic is given and when I click guest access
I get a message saying that dinner is already over. The last tweet is from a
few weeks ago, no topic announced there either to gauge whether I'm interested
in the first place. Not sure how I should get involved other than showing up
unprepared and seeing if anything is going on.

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itakenaps
Neat idea, but unwilling to spend $5.00 on something I don't need. Perhaps use
affiliate links or some other type of not intrusive advertising.

------
iandanforth
If you're looking for a reputable service of "someone to help you work" I
highly recommend [https://www.focusmate.com/](https://www.focusmate.com/)

It's not about meeting new people, in fact, socializing is discouraged, but it
_is_ about real people helping each other by just being there.

------
waltbosz
Hi Pete,

Some questions:

1\. Is the price $5 for life? Or is that monthly fee?

2\. Do you get to switch buddies if it doesn't work out?

Also, I enjoyed your interview on the IH Podcast.

------
junetic
Not designed for random matching, but we're beta testing a free always-on
voice app for remote teams for anyone interested -
[https://www.presence.so](https://www.presence.so)

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FabienHerfray
Loving the idea! On a different angle and for a more niche Indie Hacker
audience, I've been building [https://www.frenl.com](https://www.frenl.com)
around the same concept :)

------
gczh
Love how this might create a positive spin in light of all the pessimism in
these trying times.

You're awesome Pete!

------
arjawn
something related (but not real-time like chat roulette) is
[https://standups.io/](https://standups.io/) “Insta Stories for Remote
Workers”

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crimsonalucard
Make this for groups of people. One on ones are too intense!

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Cam_F
Hi! Do you already have some paying customers? Best

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yani
I like the idea. We will try it out Monday

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ThePowerOfFuet
> For European users, this website is GDPR compliant.

lol. You're collecting PII but not stating uses, identity of the controller,
nothing. Nope.

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thrownaway954
_cough_ IRC _cough_

~~~
roflchoppa2
what channel we in dawg?

~~~
thrownaway954
the one where i put on my robe and wizard hat

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roflchoppa2
everything for money now days. catch me on freenode ##chat

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trhway
sounds like WFH version of WeWork :)

