
Show HN: Cenchat – Civilized commenting service - rmmmp
https://cenchat.com
======
brudgers
For a demo like this, it might be worth opening the platform without requiring
a signup. This makes it easier for the HN community to check Cenchat out and
play with it. Simply put, I am not certain that Cenchat is worth the effort of
typing in my email, checking my email, opening a link, and completing whatever
might come next. Basically, the landing page asks for "payment" before showing
me what I am "buying."

Often when a website wants my email immediately, what I wind up buying is just
spam about product updates for a product that isn't for me...which
statistically Cenchat is, no matter how good it might be for other people.
From the perspective of Cenchat as a organization, collecting my email up
front doesn't distinguish between people who provide an email just to check it
out and people who check it out and find enough value to sign up...those are
the people who matter.

For people like me who are going to judge a website by its landing page the
email signup is a wasted opportunity. It might be useful to look at how HN's
signup process works.

Good luck.

~~~
rmmmp
Interesting. Would you mind explaining more what you mean by opening the
platform without requiring a signup? It sounds really literal but I'm at lost
on how this would work. I mean, someone needs to have an account in order to
do something.

~~~
KajMagnus
They can look at other people's comments and in that way see how the platform
works, without typing their email. Like here at HN, you can look at this topic
and read other people's comments, also before you've created an account (typed
your email) yourself.

... Aha, now I see you've added a demo :- )

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KajMagnus
Interesting project. Would be interesting with a demo, or demo video or
screenshots of how it looks like. There's the chicken and egg problem, right?
Because:

 _" You can only send text comments to website owners and your followers. To
everyone else, only stickers and GIFs"_

This means text comments to no one (except for the blog post author), usually
— since it's unlikely that one's Facebook connections have stumbled upon the
same blog post. I'm thinking this means, that in its current shape, Chenchat
will be restricted to stickers and GIFS, hmm.

(Any thoughts about open source or not?)

~~~
rmmmp
Valid feedback.

Agree that it's unlikely for your Facebook connections to stumble upon the
same blog post. The chances could well improve though for your closest friends
(and maybe co-workers) as there's a better chance of viewing the same websites
due to similar likes and interests.

Although to make Cenchat really work to its full potential, you need to
establish your followers/followings. When you do, you'll now be able to tag
people into bringing them to the website (and comments section) or randomly
stumble upon their comments as you're surfing the web. From there you could
continue the conversations if any. This is usually what's happening in
Facebook right now with viral contents.

For other cases, having conversations with the author is enough for them.

------
rmmmp
Founder here. Also check out my blog post:
[https://rmmmp.github.io/2018/06/30/alternative-to-
disqus.htm...](https://rmmmp.github.io/2018/06/30/alternative-to-disqus.html)
to see the idea behind Cenchat.

~~~
hkai
Would you say your proposal contributes to shutting off valid criticism and
further reinforces echo chambers?

~~~
rmmmp
I wouldn't say so. Although the reply is only directed to the author or your
friends, it's still public and can go viral and influence a lot of people.

Thinking about it in a different way. In real life, you mostly just eavesdrop
into someone else's conversations then keep your criticisms to yourself or
discuss it among your friends rather than confronting the other group. If you
truly need to speak up, there are other platforms well suited for that.

~~~
hkai
Interesting distinction. I approach comments on the internet more like
comments on TV, which you broadcast to the entire world and can reasonably
expect everyone to hear and comment on.

Perhaps this is not how most people approach conversations.

~~~
rmmmp
With the current state of comments, I agree with what you've said.

However, if you think about it, there's a reason why comment policies contains
stuff like "Before commenting, ask yourself if you'd say the same thing to
that person in real life".

There's demand to approach comments as you'd approach them in real life. Not
just saying everything you feel out loud without responsibility. It's just not
happening though because people can hide behind the keyboard.

This is something we want to fix with the stickers and gifs restrictions which
you could think of as the reaction of the person eavesdropping in your
conversation if you happen to see it. Plus, stickers and gifs can usually sum
up a persons thoughts and emotions as well. We could already see chat apps
having minimal conversation by just using them.

