Kiwichat

Consumer and social

local chat

SHOW HN2014

50points
41comments
#642of 2,272 in 2014
Top 29%of 2014 by points

How HN took it

MixedNo clear lean

4 positive, 12 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 17 critical, out of 35 comments about the project. Thread score -0.34.

Idea: 1 for, 13 againstExecution: 1 for, 2 againstDesign: 2 for, 0 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Clean, fast, polished sign-in and UI

    From 3 comments
    • I feel like there is definitely something in this basic idea. Although I'm not sure that a rigid 1 mile boundary really makes a whole lot of sense. I'll explain: I feel like the…
      MartinMcGirk on HN
    • I like this idea, the UI is fast and nice to use. I built something similar. The idea was to be able to play multiplayer games with people nearby. My motivation was simply to…
      fmstephe on HN
    • Very nice. I did something similar to test out Meteor.js, but it's much less polished than yours. http://mapchat.meteor.com/
      erokar on HN

Objections

  • One-mile radius too small; rooms are usually empty

    From 4 comments
    • There is no way someone is using this app a mile around me! I think 1 mile is too small of a distance, I would make it 5 or 10 miles. Or do something based on location, if you…
      __xtrimsky on HN
    • I agree that the 1 mile is too rigid. There are only going to be about 3,000 people within a mile radius of me (~1K/sq mile) whereas in Manhattan you would expect around 210,000…
      cpwright on HN
    • Love the idea. Wish the radius was wider. There aren't any chats near me, and I'm in a densely populated area. Since you're taking people's location, be sure to include a…
      normloman on HN
    • I was hanging out in Oakland for 45 minutes and didn't see another person come by -- I was expecting the Bay Area would have the densest group of people trying this out.
      eastbayjake on HN
  • Chat needs critical mass and near-instant feedback

    From 2 comments
    • In it's current form this doesn't work because chat requires almost immediate feedback.
      ebbflowgo on HN
    • I wrote the exact same thing about 3 years ago, according to HN timestamps: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2102790 I also had an arbitrary chat radius, initially. After…
      Skywing on HN
  • Very similar to existing apps like Popcorn

    From 2 comments
    • Already been done, Messaging within a 1 mile radius https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/popcorn-messaging/id718416705?mt=8
      maxdarapper on HN
    • Reminds me of Popcorn app. This looks like a very similar idea but for the web.
      bernatfp on HN

Requests

  • Use a wider or adaptive radius, or nearest N users

    From 3 comments
    • Tried it for me. No-one online now. Another idea: Chat-room with the nearest 100 people. Scales up and down.
      rmc on HN
    • I see one of these pop up every so often and always get disappointed when there is no one in my area. I wonder if this sort of thing might work better if it connected you with…
      morganherlocker on HN
    • There is no way someone is using this app a mile around me! I think 1 mile is too small of a distance, I would make it 5 or 10 miles. Or do something based on location, if you…
      __xtrimsky on HN
  • Private messaging between users

    From 1 comment
    • Private message between users as an option? So if I wanna talk to Brian later, I can PM them. Combine chat with interesting people, with random chances of meeting new people.
      rmc on HN

Questions

  • How is the chat engine built?

    From 1 comment
    • Very well done. Any background on how this is built? E.g. chat engine etc?
      pfalke on HN

Alternatives named

  • Popcorn messaging app

    From 1 comment
    • Already been done, Messaging within a 1 mile radius https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/popcorn-messaging/id718416705?mt=8
      maxdarapper on HN
  • Yik Yak

    From 1 comment
    • I've been trying the somewhat similar Yik Yak (mobile app) for about two weeks. It had flood of college students home for the summer so I assume it's taken off at colleges.
      ja27 on HN
  • Caramail

    From 1 comment
    • 15 years too late, Caramail was doing the same in france since 1997 (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/CaraMail) This is the type of thing where people will show up, see that their…
      pouzy on HN
  • Meetro

    From 1 comment
    • I too feel that the market has spoken on this: see http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/meetro and many others that failed.
      cft on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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