
Show HN: Solo – App for sharing loneliness and aloneness - wtsui
http://www.sharesolo.com
======
cyberferret
As an INFP persona who has worked remotely and solo for many years, I'd like
to break the stigma that "alone = bad". I find it incredibly energising a lot
of the time, but then there _are_ the odd times when I crave a little human
social engagement.

Traditional social media channels have devolved into a cesspit of noisy
pollution, but I tend to occasionally post right here on HN, guitar forums, or
even on obscure Reddit threads just to hear the rare "Thanks", or "Wow, that
was something useful".

I guess while I don't find loneliness a depressing thing, I just want to feel
as if I am heard or making a difference to the world every now and then.

~~~
DeusExMachina
Tangentially, since you mention INFP.

It seems to me that the Myers-Briggs test is becoming mainstream. I see people
mention these personality codes more and more.

But the test seems to have no scientific validity:
[http://www.indiana.edu/~jobtalk/Articles/develop/mbti.pdf](http://www.indiana.edu/~jobtalk/Articles/develop/mbti.pdf)

~~~
Jach
I don't think it's becoming more prevalent in the last 10 years, at least no
more than mentioning your birth sign... But anyway (take with a grain of salt)
the last time I looked at M-B it seemed that although there's no reason to
take it very seriously scientifically, nevertheless it correlates surprisingly
well with one of the psychology crown jewels, the Big 5, and misses out only
on testing for neuroticism.

~~~
gvx
My personal problems with M-B are

1) I have trouble understanding the significance all of the axes except for
introversion/extroversion. For example, what is the concrete difference
between INFP and INFJ?

2) The results of MBTI tests seem to vary wildly (at least for me), both
between different tests at the same time, or within the same test when I take
it at different times. I don't know if I have any consistent MBTI value other
than that I lean towards introversion most of the time.

But if someone can link me to a good explanation of the different axes and/or
recommend an MBTI test that isn't bullshit, I'd be grateful.

~~~
Jach
Found some references again.. INFP and INFJ would mostly differ in
Conscientiousness (the J being more so). Extraversion-Introversion correlates
with Big 5 Extraversion (on the E pole), Thinking-Feeling with Agreeableness
(F pole), Sensing-iNtuition with Openness to Experience (N pole), Judging-
Perceiving with Conscientiousness (J pole).
([http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.555...](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.555.3131&rep=rep1&type=pdf))

If you're on a boundary you might get more insight from breaking the Big 5
into the 10 aspects
([https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17983306](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17983306)),
e.g. Conscientiousness can be split into Orderliness and Industriousness. You
also might benefit from having someone close you think models you well (if
available, this is the loneliness thread...) answer the test questions for you
to see what they get, or perhaps as effective you answer for yourself and also
for someone else you think you have a good model of to help highlight
differences in degree.

Lastly since MBTI tests are still sketchy, go for a Big 5 test, read about the
Big 5 (my first link has some useful descriptors), and forget about MB. For
free,
[http://www.personal.psu.edu/%7Ej5j/IPIP/](http://www.personal.psu.edu/%7Ej5j/IPIP/)
exists and is the longest one I've seen. I've read that
[https://work.coach/assessment](https://work.coach/assessment) is useful. The
only paid one I've heard about recently is the rather steep
[https://www.understandmyself.com/personality-
assessment](https://www.understandmyself.com/personality-assessment) but I
suspect like IQ tests paid might give the most utility... (I'm not part of the
JBP fanclub but do listen in on him sometimes, so again grain of salt...)

------
djsumdog
I like how it's all in the browser. I'm sick everything requiring an app
download. Still, you should be able to just use it from the Desktop. Why force
people?

Also, why do you need access to my microphone? I really want to post
something. I am alone this holiday. But I don't want to give you access to my
microphone. Why do you need it? It just looks like text and photos. If I deny
access, I can't do anything.

~~~
ekr
Use an user agent switcher the get around the mobile-only restriction.

~~~
rayalez
You can also just open dev tools and turn on mobile mode.

------
seawlf
This site has an exposed Git directory, so you can clone the whole thing.
Funnily enough, it appears to be actually talking to a MySQL database.
[http://sharesolo.com/get_notes.php](http://sharesolo.com/get_notes.php)

Also, all of the credentials are there. I won't post them, but lordy, please
close this before your database is wiped.

~~~
tomcooks
Bravo for pointing that out! Care to explain how you discovered this? Making
such security mistakes is what my nightmares are made of

~~~
aw3c2
Probably tried to access
[http://sharesolo.com/.git/](http://sharesolo.com/.git/) for the repo and
looked at the network traffic to see the get_notes.php.

------
addict3d
What people do alone is very interesting and this site does a really good job
at capturing that. HN is a place of very constructive and brutal criticism, so
you will probably be disciplined on what it should do or what's wrong with it.
But in my eyes this is a really interesting piece of art and social media that
people like me really appreciate. Keep up the excellent work!

~~~
soneca
HN has always supported and cared about loneliness for all the time I've being
here. I expect nothing but encouragement and helpful advice in this thread.

~~~
addict3d
But at the same time we're engineers with pessimistic minds focussed on
failure and monetization so I sadly expect different.

------
ajeet_dhaliwal
Going viral with this particular market might be tough :-)

Jokes aside loneliness is a big deal and I enjoy reading about it but as some
other comments mention there is a confusing conflation of ‘being alone’ and
loneliness here. Some posts are describing doing something alone (in a
positive way) and others are talking about loneliness (negative). Are you
actually targeting both?

------
doctorstupid
"Solo connects us in these moments when we are most authentic to ourselves"

If we were authentic to ourselves we wouldn't need to share experiences. We
wouldn't need an audience to authenticate them if we valued ourselves as
worthy witnesses.

~~~
jesperlang
> If we were authentic to ourselves we wouldn't need to share experiences

And sometimes, the experience is _already_ shared with other people!

~~~
doctorstupid
Very true. When friends fetch their smartphones to 'capture' the moment I
suddenly feel lonely, getting the feeling that we no longer value our own
memory, that only what can be digitally shared and verified is real. So we end
up talking to the digital middleman whilst failing to remember the 'shared'
moment.

------
kenning
My pessimistic prediction is that this will either die or be overrun with the
alt-right. They seem to gravitate towards the more anonymous social networks
(4chan, yik yak). Also see "unpopular opinion puffin" memes on reddit -- a
(now dead) meme format designed for people to share what they're afraid to say
out loud to their peers, and quickly became a hub for alt-righty opinions on
social issues.

~~~
nihilum
Anonymity also permitted the American Revolution, among other things.

Meanwhile the most prominent example that comes to mind for attempts to end
even the pretense of anonymity online is authoritarian China.

And fwiw, most of the other boards on 4chan at least tend to push the more
obnoxious sorts of commentary back to /pol/, its 'containment board'.

Twitter likewise tends to isolate communities of extremists, on both sides,
simply by virtue of explicit blocking or mere lack of sufficient interest to
follow on the part of more balanced participants.

~~~
pwaai
> Anonymity also permitted the American Revolution, among other things.

Not sure what that has to do with anything.

> Meanwhile the most prominent example that comes to mind for attempts to end
> even the pretense of anonymity online is authoritarian China.

South Korea forces people to use their social insurance number to sign up to
forums and commenting on social media. Again, not sure why you are using
China, they aren't the only ones trying to deanonymize online.

> And fwiw, most of the other boards on 4chan at least tend to push the more
> obnoxious sorts of commentary back to /pol/, its 'containment board'.

What the parent is referring to is that _online_ anonymous platforms attracts
toxic trolls that overtake a platform, even with the moderation you mentioned.
When people hide behind a faceless mask, it brings out the worst in people,
simply because of the dopamine release from inflicting pain on others to feel
good about their otherwise miserable life.

> Twitter likewise tends to isolate communities of extremists, on both sides,
> simply by virtue of explicit blocking or mere lack of sufficient interest to
> follow on the part of more balanced participants.

Twitter hasn't done a great job, it's overrun by bots with political agendas,
people are mob attacked and it's a poor case to support your assertion that
anonymous somehow works even against the mounting evidence against it.

------
kowdermeister
If this is a web app, why can't is use it from my desktop browser?

~~~
wtsui
Built mobile first so people could share experiences on the go, but desktop
version is planned.

~~~
jonathankoren
Why does the desktop experience have to be different? It's the web. If you're
building for a browser, you failed.

------
cstigler
Reminds me of this famous forum thread, composed of people who Googled "I am
lonely" and found themselves routed to a movie codec site via impressive SEO.

[https://www.salon.com/2014/11/19/i_am_lonely_will_anyone_spe...](https://www.salon.com/2014/11/19/i_am_lonely_will_anyone_speak_to_me_inside_the_saddest_thread_on_the_internet_ten_years_later/)

~~~
sattoshi
Is there no archive of that thread? archive.org got nothing, archive.is got
only the first page..

The forum went down in 2016, where are the archives?

------
Sytten
Not sure if this is terribly awesome or immensely sad

~~~
wtsui
Thanks for the feedback.

I created this project because ​​I know many people who struggled with
loneliness at times in their lives.

My hope is that by sharing this experience we’ll feel a sense of connection
when we’re alone, and find more acceptance of ourselves and our aloneness,
however happy, peaceful, or sad.

~~~
QAPereo
Maybe, although generally when you fill a room with sick people, they don’t
make each other well. Group therapy can work, but it takes the guidance of
people not currently looking up from a hole.

~~~
IncRnd
> _Maybe, although generally when you fill a room with sick people, they don’t
> make each other well. Group therapy can work, but it takes the guidance of
> people not currently looking up from a hole._

Being alone is not a sickness. The site, when viewed on mobile even without an
app, shows the first entry as someone who climbed a mountain when alone.
Another learned about the three poisons, and yet a third chose to read a
series of books.

------
hrasyid
maybe it's a silly question. When I opened it from desktop it tells me to go
to my phone, and then I open it from my phone, and then it shows me this
mobile web app (not a native app). What's the point of telling me to open from
my phone if it's only a web app anyway?

------
tehabe
I remember that there was an anonymous social network a while ago. The
screenshots for this service look similar. Maybe someone got nostalgic for
that long lost application.

Edit: I think that was "Secret", it shut down in 2015.

------
dannyr
Props for continuing the project.

Here's the original post from July 2014:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7985932](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7985932)

------
anonytrary
As someone who is alone, yes, I get lonely. Everyone who wants for more gets
lonely, and it isn't necessarily a compliment -- it applies to idiots as well
as geniuses and everyone in between.

------
ziqiaojin
Just curious are you aware of a quite similar Chinese app which have been
running some time? it is called "BaoBao"

------
calebm
Couldn't help thinking of this:

"If you find yourself struggling with loneliness, you're not alone. And yet
you are alone. So very alone."
([https://despair.com/products/loneliness](https://despair.com/products/loneliness))

~~~
calebm
Joking aside, it seems like a great idea for an app.

------
jeswin
I am not alone any longer, so I don't think I can legitimately post on the
site.

But I love the app and that it is just a plain web app. No play store or app
store, and no nagging data collection. I hope this is the future of apps.

------
krotton
It's pretty moving. I just wonder what the dynamics may be when this gains
traction. I guess it could make you feel ever more lonely when you get down to
posting something and nobody reacts in any way.

------
sattoshi
There is an easily-fixable bug that breaks it on Firefox,

Change `$('#cameraInput').change(function (e) {` to
`$('#cameraInput').change(function (event) {`

------
mr_spothawk
This reminds me of Secret. I wish that I'd seen this before I messed around
with Secret, I'd be more inclined to share some tidbits.

------
Froyoh
Can you cut the "like" system? In some ways it contributes to the problem we
see with people on most social media.

------
freeloop3
It's even lonelier when you post to a site intended for people who are alone
and your post is silently rejected.

------
rdiddly
Ironic that Facebook is not doing this job!

~~~
djsumdog
How could it? No one trusts it. It is literally impossible for Facebook to
ever provide an anonymous service of any kind, because they will always be
able to implement some algorithm to at least try and associate you with your
real identity.

~~~
rdiddly
Yeah obviously what I'm portraying as irony is really just the contrast
between Facebook's marketing itself as a wonderful new way to "connect" and
"share," and the actual truth that it's a surveillance machine.

------
JensRantil
Tried searching for the app in Google Store. Does the app exist for Android?

~~~
progval
It's a website, not an app. You have to access
[http://sharesolo.com/](http://sharesolo.com/) from your phone.

------
sattoshi
The relevance of this on the Holiday season is tragic.

------
pat_space
Awesome. I wish Instagram was still this way.

------
Void_
Okay I get it that people are lonely, but this app is nuts. I would understand
network like that for diabetics. Being lonely is not a sickness.

Seriously this crowd acts like everything is a sickness. You have ADHD because
you can’t focus for 5 minutes straight, but you don’t think of deleting
facebook from your app first, see if that works.

Same here. I’m-so-lonely, boo hoo go out and make some friends! Did we really
become so passive?

Don’t you think it would be better to sign up for a boxing class and meet some
people as opposed to making an app about how sad you are?

