
Show HN: Kiwichat – group chat of people who are within 1 mile - tomd3v
http://kiwichat.co/
======
nilkn
I've seen something like this attempted before. It suffered from this problem:

A <\---> B <\---> C

A and B are 1 mile apart. B and C are 1 mile apart. B can see what both A and
C say, but A can't see what C says to B and hence will see out-of-context
messages from B.

It looks like Kiwichat attempts to solve this by having dedicated chatrooms
rather than just phasing people in and out of visibility to each other based
exclusively on proximity, though I'm curious what happens when you physically
leave the coverage area for a chatroom.

~~~
michaelfeathers
To me, one of the toughest lessons in engineering is that you don't have to
solve all problems. Imagine holding up the release of the first text messaging
system until the problem of dropped texts had been solved.

In the distant past, there was a chat system that had the A <\--> B <\--> C
distance problem. People used it and were very happy with it despite that
limitation. It was called CB Radio.

~~~
gmu3
In the even more distant past, you would sometimes encounter this problem when
using your vocal cords in a noisy environment.

------
mappum
Instead of connecting to the people within 1 mile, it should be the n closest
people. This would give the same effect, but work for anyone living in any
population density.

~~~
morganherlocker
That would be awesome. I see things like this every few months and it is a
bummer when there is nobody to test it with.

------
rkuykendall-com
You need to think of a way to make this less useless for when it is less
popular. There's a chance another developer at my school will find this and
join, but it's slim.

What if you grouped chat rooms by zip code, and then showed users the 5
nearest rooms, regardless of the distance?

Additionally, what if I want to watch multiple zip codes, like my neighborhood
AND campus, even if I'm at home?

~~~
rkuykendall-com
You can join any room if you have the URL:

[http://kiwichat.co/chat/ee3e49a2ea3889d13df02f10050d94](http://kiwichat.co/chat/ee3e49a2ea3889d13df02f10050d94)

Some more feature requests:

\- Sound notifications

\- Create link tags for URLs

Bugs:

\- If you enter your zip and immediately hit enter, it gives a no-address
error.

\- The information on the left only refreshes if you reload the page.

------
emhart
This is the loneliest thing I've tried to do in a while. Looking forward to
using this when I'm in a populous area again. I really hope it takes off.

Oh, and I'd love it if we could use underscores for our names.

~~~
theg2
I'm in Boston and getting no one so maybe just no one is using it. I like the
N people nearest your idea though.

~~~
mitchty
Its a bit depressing being in a downtown area with absolutely nobody to chat
too.

Feels like being alone in a crowd sorta. >.<

------
opendais
Fyi, this [https://kiwiirc.com/](https://kiwiirc.com/) , might lead to
confusion.

~~~
kzisme
I also thought this.

------
xhrpost
I worked on a very similar idea for a while though admittedly failed to polish
and market appropriately to gauge interest. I thought about a lot of the
"issues" that people are bringing up here. My idea was mainly to try and
emulate a digital CB radio. So you'd have the overlap issue as mentioned by
nilkn, but I didn't see this as a problem in accomplishing the main objective.
The main objective being to permit local, real-time communication. Why is the
high way backed up to a stand still? Hop on local chat. Where is a good place
to park for the outdoor concert? Hop on local chat. I'm new in the area and
can't find 'blah' street. Ask on local chat.

~~~
wmblaettler
I thought of the very same idea, but never even built it, I still think it
would be cool. The main problem is that you have to have enough people on the
network to make it useful.

~~~
xhrpost
Yup, hence rkuykendall-com's comment. Also this is where good marketing comes
in. I tried some free Google ad credit and got tons of exposure but few
clicks. My next guess would be to try large metro areas and retain old
messages in hopes to bootstrap some conversation.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed's_law](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed's_law)

------
laoba
Reminds me of this popcorn chat app that was posted here a while back:

[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/popcorn-
messaging/id71841670...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/popcorn-
messaging/id718416705?mt=8)

------
Matsta
Seems like a cool site but from anyone in NZ, the name doesn't seem fitting.

The word 'Kiwi' in a brand name is almost exclusively used by the Asian
population here. Eg. Cheesy souvenir shops and Chinese takeaway shops.

[http://www.skykiwi.com/](http://www.skykiwi.com/) is a good example.

Just a heads up for anyone wants to put 'kiwi' in their brand name and wants
to target New Zealand.

PS. We call the fruit Kiwifruit here, not just Kiwi by itself.

~~~
Lerc
I'm also from NZ. I don't have this perception. I generally expect something
kiwiX to be somehow related to New Zealand but draw no conclusions as to the
type of person behind it.

Kiwi as a fruit comes from a deliberate re-branding of the somewhat
inelegantly named "Chinese gooseberry" to draw an association with New Zealand
Where it is a significant export.

I have encountered non New Zealand uses of Kiwi and don't have much of a
problem with it. I get a small feeling of disappointment like I recognize a
friend at a distance but realise it's not them when I get closer. That's about
it.

------
petercooper
What I'd rather have is something that acts like a _forum_ for people within X
number of miles.

It'd be awesome for classified ads, community events, local news, etc.. and if
you went on vacation, you could be immediately plugged into what's happening
locally. There are fixed groups for various cities on things like Facebook and
Craigslist, but it's amazing how hard they can be to find sometimes.

~~~
csmatt
That was the idea behind SociaLocale
[https://github.com/csmatt/socialocale](https://github.com/csmatt/socialocale)

------
j-hernandez
Tested on Opera <-> Mobile Safari on iOS 7.1

Great experiences on both, clean design and nice user experience from homepage
to chat.

One small bug that I noticed: titlebar notifications in Opera didn't fire on
new chats (regardless whether tab was background or not), and in iOS, titlebar
notification flashed "New!" even after acknowledging and responding to chat.
Persisted until logout.

Aside from that small nit, great effort!

------
kylec
Interesting idea, but I wish it had a larger radius. The area covered goes up
with the square of the radius, so even a small increase (say from 1 to 2
miles) would greatly increase the chances of bumping into someone else. As it
stands I'm the only one in my area.

~~~
j-hernandez
Agreed, I'm in Atlanta and I'm know there are folks a few miles further in
town that I'd bump into with a slightly larger radius

~~~
dllthomas
You could pick another point of interest.

------
jipiboily
You could always pivot to a chat for people from New Zealand with that name :)

~~~
flog
It'd never work. We think in kilometers not miles ;)

~~~
mkingston
That seems to be intrinsic after a while. I moved to the UK almost a year ago
and I still can't get used to miles. (Or rather, get a feel for them). I've
become very good at *1.6 and /1.6 though.. Also the confusion between pounds
of mass and pounds of currency. 8 pounds (a little under 4kg) sounds like an
awful lot of curry.. Of course, we don't use either in NZ, but when both are
unfamiliar you don't always make the right choice on the first parse.

------
sequoia
Cool! +1 for the "closest n people" for those of us plebes who don't live in a
tech center... I tried a couple zips near me and no one to chat :(

~~~
listic
Where can I see this feature?

~~~
alex8022
I think its a feature that the someone on hn suggested that hasn't been built
yet.

------
bertil
Zip code exists in most countries, yet you assume those are US-based one.

------
dllthomas
I've already made a couple new friends. Thanks!

------
dllthomas
Very nice. Is there an XMPP gateway?

