
Possibility of news.yc chatroom or IRC channel? - kyro

======
ed
Personally, I don't have the time for a chat room. From my perspective
building a chat room would put me at a disadvantage because I would lose out
on discussions taking place in the chat room (discussion which would normally
be taking place in thread comments).

I believe that YNews is supposed to be a place to quickly catch up on the
latest thoughts in the start-up community. It should serve the interests of
the busy start-uper and minimize the amount of time needed to get informed --
a chat room does not do this.

Additionally, chat room discussions are disorganized and difficult to properly
archive. They represent a step back from threaded discussions; however, chat
rooms offer real-time communication. That's their sole advantage.

I think if that's what we as a community want, we should propose some features
to accomplish those goals without losing the advantages of threaded, archived
discussion. How about features like thread subscriptions, reply alerts, the
ability to reply to a child comment via text message, thread organization
tools (some distinction between link threads and discussion threads), etc...
There's no need to cannibalize the existing community system when better
alternatives exist.

~~~
nostrademons
"Personally, I don't have the time for a chat room."

I don't really either. But I lurk anyway, because then I'm caught-up on all
the discussions and can jump in when I'm taking a break from coding.

Personally, I like chatrooms because they're much better for networking. I'm
much more inclined to visit the startup of someone I converse with (as opposed
to comment with), I'm more likely to make introductions for them, recommend
them for jobs, etc. Basically, I could consider someone that I spend a fair
amount of time chatting with a "friend", while someone who I only talk to on
message boards is a "professional acquaintance".

This is mostly because of everything you dislike about chatrooms: they're
disorganized, they tend to veer off-topic, they devolve into social chitchat,
they're spontaneous, and they take up lots of time. You don't really know a
person until you see how they behave spontaneously, when they aren't thinking
out their response. Hell, I probably seem significantly less intelligent in
chats than on here. But it's that vulnerability that makes me trust folks I
chat with real-time more than folks I discuss with on a message board.

BTW, I'm also in #news.yc on EFnet, along with Jey. Kinda quiet there at the
moment (I think we're both working on startups), but that's just because it
hasn't reached critical mass.

~~~
ed
If social interaction is really your goal then let's organize a meet-up. I'm
located in Boston, right across the Charles from all the Y guys, and would
love to get to know some of the YNews posters.

It's a frustration of mine when people propose technological solutions to
social problems. Facebook, twitter, et al. are absolutely horrible substitutes
for real human interaction. Real-life interaction can be intimidating for some
but are a very real necessity. We're built to read body language and receive a
strong, low-level, satisfaction from doing so.

How does this sound? I'd love to see this forum act as a networking spring-
board; maybe YCombinator Cambridge would be so kind as to provide space for a
meet-up?

~~~
nostrademons
That sounds like a good idea. I'd love to see more meetup posts here, but the
problem is, they have only local appeal and so usually don't get voted up.

I'm also in Boston, or rather one of the Boston suburbs. I'm pretty sure there
are other Boston folks around. So if somebody could propose a time and a
space...

~~~
ed
I emailed Jessica from YC and was told that YC is unwilling to sponsor any
event they don't organize. Given that we couldn't really make this a "YC
Thing" and wouldn't be able to use their space, does anyone still think this
is a good idea?

I'm afraid that without official support any attempt to organize a meet-up
would yield similar results compared to past attempts. PG -- chime in!!

~~~
jmw
I don't think it has to be organized by YC at all - this is more about
Boston/other city based networking than it is about. Jessica/Paul/YCombinator
are busy enough as it is - but that's no reason why there shouldn't be a
Boston meetup.

I currently live in Boston close to the Mass Ave bridge, but spend a decent
amount of time roaming coffeeshops in both Boston and Cambridge.

I'd propose a meetup this Thursday (the 3rd) evening or Sunday (the 6th)
evening either at Diesal Cafe in Sommerville (my favorite coffeeshop to hack
in <http://www.diesel-cafe.com/> accessible via the T), or the Espresso Royale
on comm ave.

I'll bring my cofounder, and maybe 1 or 2 friends if anyone's around and
interested.

~~~
ed
I think this sounds great. I'll start a new thread and propose the location. I
think it'd be a good idea to tentatively set the date for Sunday the 6th to
give people a little more time to plan.

~~~
ed
Here we go!

<http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=17969>

------
jey
I'm now in #news.yc on EFnet.

<http://www.efnet.org/?module=servers>

~~~
davidw
Anyone up for a freenode one? Reason: that's where the other channels I visit
are.

~~~
lupin_sansei
I just joined #news.yc on freenode

~~~
jey
There's already 10-15 people who have been visiting the EFnet channel. There's
currently 10 people there, and it's been fairly active over the last couple
days.

~~~
davidw
Cool. I'll go for less active so that I don't get distracted;-) (And because
I' lazy).

------
kyro
Seeing as there are many people who come and visit news.yc who have great
insight and beliefs, I think it'd be great for users to have a venue where
they can chat in real time and share said opinions. If people are new, have
questions, or just want to help out others trying to make it, having a news.yc
chat room could be a fantastic resource. Upvote, and be heard!!!

------
Leonidas
I like the idea of IRC. You don't have to continuously chat there, you could
just sit IDLE in there and chime in whenever.

I'm a huge Gamer and because of IRC, I got to know a lot of good gamers. So
lets do a Y Comb IRC. It's a good way to get to know people, especially if
you're not in the Boston Area. You really have nothing to lose as you will
always have the Y Comb threads to read. For those who aren't interested, you
don't need to join IRC..purely optional.

So lets pick a channel..jey's channel?

------
jlf
Great idea! I vote for IRC.

