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by jbotdev 1041 days ago
As a user this seems like a nice way of connecting with people online.

As an engineer I wonder if/how you would open this up to a wider audience (behind “lonely” users). Moderation is the first issue that comes to mind, but I’m guessing that’s already a concern with the current audience.
1 comments
jaybhum 1041 days ago
Definitely, opening up to a wider audience is the plan :)

We first wanted to attack the 'hair on fire' problem as Paul Graham states it, creating solutions for people who really need this connection platform that is different from others because they would tolerate it even if our platform is sucky!

Moderation is easier on this platform I think, and so far we did not have to moderate any content. I think it is self-policing by nature because people need to speak what they want to share and also share their approximate location.

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SamPatt 1041 days ago
Do you have a sense for what motivates "support" users?

Already in listening through what is on there, a few people were clearly depressed, and lending support to those people is awesome, but also difficult to sustain (for any given individual).

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jaybhum 1041 days ago
I am not sure, but I was actually very surprised by how many supporters actually consistently came on the platform to leave supporting messages to lonely people. At one point, there were more supporters wanting to support than lonely people needing support haha

And a couple of very interesting occasions were when the people who initially reported 'lonely' decided to become 'supporters' because they wanted to give back to the community for the support they got, and wanted to help others who are in need more than themselves. I found that very touching :')

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navigate8310 1041 days ago
Do you plan to implement E2EE for private voice messages?
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jaybhum 1041 days ago
We do not have private voice messages yet. All voice messages are public, as in, everyone can listen to them. This way, people who are hesitant to speak can still listen to other people's conversations, and also learn from them.

In the near future, we plan to implement private messaging functions, which will be end-to-end encrypted. Upcoming feature! :)

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