
The French Number – Connect to a random French person and talk about anything - davinov
http://www.thefrenchnumber.fr
======
tuna-piano
When I first heard about Chat Roulette, I thought the idea was amazing.
Imagine hearing about Chat Roulette in 1970, or better yet 1800! How cool. Get
connected with random people anywhere in the world! The possibilities! I could
talk about war with someone in pakistan, healthcare with someone in Britain,
Chavez with someone in Venezuela, learn about cuisine they eat in Uruguay!
Maybe I could make a new friend who'd I'd end up visiting some day.

But of course when I say Chat Roulette now, all of you probably just chuckle
inside - because it's a good example of how anonymous things on the internet
turn out (for those who don't know, Chat Roulette is pretty NSFW, with many
nude men on it... breaking down borders, but not in the way I'd have hoped).

I hope services like this become successful as a way to break down borders and
form connections across the world - but I'm not holding my breath.

Edit: Maybe I'm part of the problem because I guess I could say the same thing
about having a digital personal assistant (Siri) - and I just end up just
asking her things like "How many calories are in a cubic light year of
butter"? (5.83 x 10^54 kcals for those on MyFitnessPal)

~~~
GuiA
You paint a wonderful vision, but it'd also include Americans telling you how
great Trump is and how they can't wait for him to get rid of Mexicans, Arabic
men telling you about how it's totally fine to marry a 12 year old and for her
to bear their children, French people going on about how muslims should all be
imprisoned, etc ...

Of course if you're black, a woman, gay, or any other minority they'll be
happy to insult and harass you for their entertainment.

And not to forget all the very mundane people who don't have much to tell you
about except for their mind numbing day labor job and how they can't take care
of their sick children.

The world is much less poetic and open minded than many techno utopians would
like to think.

~~~
VLM
One interesting long term experiment along the same lines provides the data
point that if you have a couple million participants over a century or so,
skew a bit older on average, eliminate anonymity, and erect a rather high
IQ/financial barrier to entry, amateur radio is both much better behaved than
most expect yet what little misbehavior exists is incessantly gossiped about.

~~~
GuiA
It's an interesting data point for sure, but I'd argue the prerequisites you
listed make the experiment quite different.

------
brbsix
This reminds me of #CALLBRUSSELS, a Brussels tourism initiative wherein anyone
could call public phones throughout Brussels via
[https://call.brussels](https://call.brussels) and chat about anything. There
were live video feeds as well. IIRC this was in January, right around the time
Trump and others were making negative comments, so it was meant to dispel
concerns about safety in the city.

Here's an article discussing it in detail:
[http://www.ibtimes.com/callbrussels-new-tourism-
initiative-d...](http://www.ibtimes.com/callbrussels-new-tourism-initiative-
de-link-brussels-terrorism-2257855)

There's also some video content:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRnybwEvQsU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRnybwEvQsU)

~~~
treehau5
There is also a phone number if you feel like talkin shit to a gangsta

[http://www.gangsterpartyline.com/](http://www.gangsterpartyline.com/)

------
danieka
Seems inspired by the swedish number.
[http://theswedishnumber.com/](http://theswedishnumber.com/)

~~~
joezydeco
When we were obnoxious teens we would call two numbers (like the local
McDonalds and Burger King) and then conference them together while we stayed
on mute and listened in.

Kind of tempted to do it again...

~~~
k__
lol, reminds me of my teen IRC days.

Wrote a bot that generated a name and joined a big public channel.

Stuff like jenny21 tina123 etc.

Then it spammed some generic greetings and waited.

"Hello, anyone wanna private chat?"

When someone started to talk to it it would start another private chat with
another person choosen randomly and copy the messages of the first person to
the second and vice versa.

Then it copied the whole conversation in a different channel.

Hilarity ensued.

~~~
infinity0
sauce plz

~~~
k__
sorry, did this like 13 years ago as a mIRC script. Nothing left from those
days :D

~~~
mveety
That's what's sucks about data: it's pretty ephemeral. I have some code I
wrote when I was little but only the good stuff. I wish I had the crap code
and the code I wrote when I was learning so I could see what 12 and 13 year
old me was really like.

~~~
k__
True story, but I guess most stuff I did back in the days could be replicated
in >1h haha

~~~
pavel_lishin
I think you have that sign flipped, you're probably looking for < \- "less
than".

~~~
k__
yes :)

------
microcolonel
It really is impressive to see people making productive use of human
loneliness, a sadly abundant resource.

They missed the opportunity to call it the _Francophone_ , though.

~~~
type0
> They missed the opportunity to call it the Francophone, though.

Yeah, if you only had to speak french with them, but I'm sure a lot of ppl in
France know English by now or do they?

------
Fiahil
I'm almost tempted to try becoming an "ambassadeur téléphonique pour la
France", but I would need an extra temporary number "à la google voice". I
really don't trust them enough to let them have my real number, as they would
probably sell it to the highest paying advertising company they can find.

~~~
jbg_
dtmf.io could be a good way to give it a go without giving away your identity.

~~~
bmsleight_
dtmf.io gives errors for every option ? 'We're sorry, an error occurred.
Please try again soon.'

~~~
jbg_
I just tried and it seems to work for me.

------
Normal_gaussian
This used to exist for Sweden, at

[http://theswedishnumber.com/](http://theswedishnumber.com/)

~~~
BurningFrog
Weird. I can't find any announcement or news article about why it closed down.

~~~
Normal_gaussian
It was just a temporary tourism campaign. I rang and one of the things we
talked about was the campaign and whether we thought it would increase
tourism. The guy I was talking to only signed up because it was cool.

------
vbsteven
I would love a service similar to this one but with a match making algorithm
based on interests and/or self selected topics.

This way I could make a lonely commute a lot more interesting by calling a
random person also interested in for example Ruby programming

~~~
collyw
There used to be a cool chat application Odigo I think, where you could search
for random people based on Location. I used to practice my Spanish with people
on that.

~~~
livatlantis
wow, I never though I'd come across a casual reference to Odigo on the
internet (and it isn't from me). Gosh I loved Odigo -- met so many people that
I eventually lost contact with. You could even talk to other people browsing
the same website as you (interesting, of course, because I wasn't on any
social networks -- mostly forums and metal websites).

------
vardhanw
> this fonctionnality is offered to you only if you call the plateform via a
> special number - see if your country is in the list

Classic French English "mistakes" on the page.

~~~
forestjc
French here, i don't see the mistakes, can you explain?

~~~
ritonlajoie
I guess it's 'functionality' ?

------
zwetan
OK... french guy here and yep I gonna rant as french usually do

I don't really have any problem with the concept/idea (if there is an idea in
the first place)

but why oh why someone in 2016 thought it was a good idea to call a phone
number ?

"The call will be charged as an international call" I mean WTF?

did those guys ever heard of all the way you can connect people on the
Internet for free ?

Really if I can stream live a gaming session on Twitch or whatever I should be
able to, at least, use bit of that tech to talk for free without having to use
an actual phone number right ?

I don't know... something like random Skype or random gtalk or random whatever
chat that support voice ...

crazy idea right ? instead of using phone lines let's transfer voice over the
Internet ...

so they "rely on digital innovation & UXs to promote tourism in France", so
sure let's use phone numbers and pay international charges right ?

and let's make an horrible front page design while we are at it, here the
concept put the french flag color everywhere: blue, white, red, simple!

It's look "cute" like that but please the clichés all over the place, like
"Our Telephone Ambassadors commit themselves to speak in English (with the
French accent of course!)" ...

oh and let's write "French" as a reverse hashtag eg. frenc#, that will make us
French look so cool ...

------
OJFord
134 calls since July 18? (And how many of those, I wonder, occurred in the
last hour for which it's been on HN and accrued 81 points..)

So far I'd say it's probably not justifying it's cost/effort. I don't really
understand _why_ the Swedish one (which I understand to be the original) was
made - but I understand clones even less. Is it just PR; does the tourism
company behind it really think it will be effective?

~~~
MasterYoda
I would say the Swedish number was an big success and very cost effective pr
campaign compared to normal advertising. And that is why France trying to do
the exact same thing.

It's not easy to get peoples attention in the media noise, but the Swedish
number was something different and new an got viral globally.

Over 190.000 got so interested they actually interacted and called, many
millions have read about it. People called from 186 different countries, so
the campaign spread to almost every country in the world. People talked
combined for more than one year.

To get such attention globally and so many to interact is really worth a lot,
you could not have paid for that in normal ways you do pr.

By the way… I guess the Swedish number also could have been inspired by one of
the official swedish twitter accounts [1] that is curated by a new Swede every
week [2]. It got alot of attention when released, so I think they got inspired
on that idea. My guess tho.

[1] [https://www.twitter.com/sweden](https://www.twitter.com/sweden)

[2] [http://curatorsofsweden.com/about/](http://curatorsofsweden.com/about/)

------
WheelsAtLarge
Tried this, it was lots of fun. Talked to a 19 yr old student learning
English. His English was excellent. Every one should try it. I used google
voice. It cost me 8 cents for about 5 mins, not sure of the time.

------
richardw
Reminds me of this. Brazilian kids learning English by talking to US seniors,
who love the company:

[https://www.cna.com.br/speakingexchange/](https://www.cna.com.br/speakingexchange/)

------
guessmyname
This will be helpful for people like me that want to improve their French
language skills. I started studying French four years ago or so and during the
first two years the learning curve was painful because this language is not
very popular in my country, so socializing in order to practice the skills
gained in class was mostly between the same classmates. I wish this project
was launched during that time though, but better late than sorry.

~~~
pbiggar
Try Tandem. It's an app that connects you to language learners. So you'd help
a French person learn English, and they'd help you learn French. They have
both text and video chat so if you're not ready for video chat, you can get
stronger by text. It's a really well done app!

~~~
_kyran
How long has this been out for? Just downloaded it and it's everything I
dreamed that Chatroulette could be.

~~~
pbiggar
I first used it in December.

------
lisper
Do I have to speak French?

[UPDATE] Ah, I see the answer is on the site: no.

------
katzgrau
I'm definitely going to do this and have a little fun, although I'm not sure
that's the intended purpose #cestlavie

------
weberc2
Presumably calling this number from a U.S. number (Verizon in my case) would
incur lots of long distance charges, no?

EDIT: Just read the disclaimer:

> The call will be charged as an international call. Please check with your
> phone operator what your calling rates for France are. You may prefer to
> call from a special number (see if your country is on the list).

~~~
laurentoget
2c a minute using google voice i think

------
xiii1408
Neat idea!

Added ten bucks of credit to my Google account, then feverishly dialed the
number... "You are about to be connected to a random French." Ooh, how
charming. Upbeat hold music, then silence. "Hello?" I call out. Then, my call
is dropped. DISAPPOINT.

------
hiimnate
According to the site, they've only had 150 calls since July 18th

------
coldcode
I've always wanted something like this with full two way translation that
worked. That would be a great way to learn how other people live their lives
without the wall of language.

------
truth_sentinell
This is pure gold. Thanks for giving me this. I will enjoy talking to random
people and improve my conversation skills, plus I will get to know more
French. Again, this is gold.

------
welanes
"Hello, France? Which way does the water turn in your toilet?"

~~~
oli5679
Simpsons reference?

~~~
welanes
Sorry, I couldn't help it. I realize the number of people who get Simpsons
references is falling into endangered territory.

------
a-l-c-o
"Your call may be recorded."

Non merci.

------
trevorg75
Whoever named this should be fired for missing out on calling it "The French
Connection"

~~~
coherentpony
That'd probably be a trademark infringement. FCCN is a pretty well established
clothing company with the same name.

~~~
wyldfire
Unlikely. The standard for infringement in the US (likely similar w/EU via
treaties and the like) is that it's confusingly similar _and_ in relation to
products or services similar to the products or services covered by the
trademark.

~~~
ZenoArrow
Exactly. That's how the clothing company could use the name after the film
with the same name was released.

~~~
wyldfire
That's an interesting grey area, I think. The film title trademark was applied
for and awarded [76238315], but if I created another film called "The French
Connection" with an unrelated, original story -- would it be infringement?
Only if indeed their original trademark was considered valid _and_ if my film
were confusingly similar.

Their application states "...G & S: series of motion picture films...
featuring live-action entertainment. ..." It actually is a series (did you
know they made a sequel? I didn't). So it's probably a legit trademark.

But if my film were a romcom set in Paris, I suspect they'd be really
challenged to make the case. The defense should probably cite the countless
films with identical titles made over the years. Even if many/most of them
weren't trademarked it probably still hints that there won't be confusion.

------
ConroyBumpus
"Um, bonjour. Est en cours d'exécution de votre réfrigérateur?"

~~~
lucd
Apparently french ambassadors are supposed to speak english.. Maybe I'll try,
just to get some english speaking training..

~~~
truth_sentinell
What's your mother tongue?

------
nkjoep
Cool initiative.

Btw, that blue (#000099) with white is so disturbing.

------
campuscodi
That would imply talking in French... so no, thanks.

------
calimac
The French or doing anything they can to revive there stalled and dismal
tourism Industry that is suffered from the Islamic terrorist attacks and over
bearing waves of "Muslim refugees" who have harassed tourists, actually,
Muslim terrorists who mowed sightseers down with a semi truck on basil day.

~~~
JMCQ87
If you want to go to places where there hasn't been any terrorist attack
nearby, you don't have many places to go to left.

Irrational fear, a car accident is the far more likely option to die.

