[notetoself]

Typing on IRC is still pretty "in-your-head".

The idea is to replicate online, as much as possible, the experience of having a face-to-face conversation.

[wvenable]

I like face-to-face conversations but I'm not a fan of video conversations. In fact, I prefer audio-only if I have to conference in. Maybe if you made it audio only that might make for better conversations and a reduction in "masterbaters".

[palidanx]

I second an audio only approach. To me this would filter out a lot of the potentially scandalous video conversations you might have.

Audio also forces both users to focus just on the conversation and takes away the worries of how you look, lighting, etc.

With audio, you remove some of the friction of having a webcam, laptop, etc for video unlike for audio you could potentially integrate it to a cell service.