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When I first heard about Chat Roulette, I thought the idea was amazing. Imagine hearing about Chat Roulette in 1970, or better yet 1800! How cool. Get connecte

When I first heard about Chat Roulette, I thought the idea was amazing. Imagine hearing about Chat Roulette in 1970, or better yet 1800! How cool. Get connected with random people anywhere in the world! The possibilities! I could talk about war with someone in pakistan, healthcare with someone in Britain, Chavez with someone in Venezuela, learn about cuisine they eat in Uruguay! Maybe I could make a new friend who'd I'd end up visiting some day. But of course when I say Chat Roulette now, all of you probably just chuckle inside - because it's a good example of how anonymous things on the internet turn out (for those who don't know, Chat Roulette is pretty NSFW, with many nude men on it... breaking down borders, but not in the way I'd have hoped). I hope services like this become successful as a way to break down borders and form connections across the world - but I'm not holding my breath. Edit: Maybe I'm part of the problem because I guess I could say the same thing about having a digital personal assistant (Siri) - and I just end up just asking her things like "How many calories are in a cubic light year of butter"? (5.83 x 10^54 kcals for those on MyFitnessPal)

GuiA 10y ago
You paint a wonderful vision, but it'd also include Americans telling you how great Trump is and how they can't wait for him to get rid of Mexicans, Arabic men telling you about how it's totally fine to marry a 12 year old and for her to bear their children, French people going on about how muslims should all be imprisoned, etc ... Of course if you're black, a woman, gay, or any other minority they'll be happy to insult and harass you for their entertainment. And not to forget all the very mundane people who don't have much to tell you about except for their mind numbing day labor job and how they can't take care of their sick children. The world is much less poetic and open minded than many techno utopians would like to think.
- kuschku 10y ago
  Well, the reason is simple. A lot of middle- and upper class people expect to talk to middle- and upper class people in other countries. And in that case, you’d likely get people living by the Knigge, and you’d get awesome results. Sadly, our society has thrown out etiquette in the recent times.
- VLM 10y ago
  One interesting long term experiment along the same lines provides the data point that if you have a couple million participants over a century or so, skew a bit older on average, eliminate anonymity, and erect a rather high IQ/financial barrier to entry, amateur radio is both much better behaved than most expect yet what little misbehavior exists is incessantly gossiped about.
  - GuiA 10y ago
    It's an interesting data point for sure, but I'd argue the prerequisites you listed make the experiment quite different.
  - throwaway7767 10y ago
    Better behaved in the sense that most everyone follows etiquette. But I wouldn't expect deep conversation there, unless it's about antenna design.
- Broken_Hippo 10y ago
  "The world is much less poetic and open minded than many techno utopians would like to think". A short read on news stories or youtube videos reminds me of that. I'm nearly always disappointed. I'm one of those techno utopians. I had great hope for the internet 20 years ago. You know, folks broadening their minds, learning things, not being so racist, finding similarities between places, and so on. And while they have, to an extent, I'm still sorely disappointed.
  - aphextron 10y ago
    It's more that these technologies have just widened the gulf between people who already cared about those techno utopian ideals, and the ones who never will under any circumstances.
- libeclipse 10y ago
  I know what you're getting at, but the generalisations in your comment are astounding.
  - GuiA 10y ago
    Wait, which part is bothering you? The one third of girls in the Arab region who marry before their 18th birthday? [0] Or the 36% (currently) of Americans who support Trump's policies? [1] Or the roughly 30% of French people who support a presidential candidate [2] whose father and previous party leader was fined for asserting that gassing chambers in world war 2 were just a small historical detail? [3] Not sure the right thing is astounding you here. [0]: http://www.prb.org/pdf13/child-marriage-arab-region.pdf http://www.prb.org/pdf13/child-marriage-arab-region.pdf [1]: https://ca.news.yahoo.com/clinton-leads-trump-5-points-reuters-ipsos-poll-062657638.html https://ca.news.yahoo.com/clinton-leads-trump-5-points-reute... [2]: http://www.sudradio.fr/Politique/Sondage-Marine-Le-Pen-au-2nd-tour-en-2017-dans-toutes-les-hypotheses http://www.sudradio.fr/Politique/Sondage-Marine-Le-Pen-au-2n... [3]: http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2016/04/06/jean-marie-le-pen-condamne-pour-ses-propos-sur-les-chambres-a-gaz_4897050_823448.html http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2016/04/06/jean-mari...
    - ekianjo 10y ago
      > but it'd also include Americans telling you how great Trump is and how they can't wait for him to get rid of Mexicans, > Or the 36% (currently) of Americans who support Trump's policies? [1] You are making a shortcut. There are probably various reasons why people favor a candidate, and you should not underestimate the "I hate the other one even more" factor. > French people going on about how muslims should all be imprisoned This is a preposterous statement. Even the FN's proposed policies is not about putting folks in prison, but to make them leave the country if they had the power to do so. Plus, French prisons are already over-capacity and most prison sentences are not applied because of that. Do you know what you are talking about or do you read tabloids?
      - GuiA 10y ago
        Just a French guy who's lived 10 years in the US here. Yeah, they don't want to send the arabic kids to prison, they want to send them back to where they come from. Oh wait, they were born in France. Well, they want to send them somewhere, that's for sure. I believe we may have gotten drunk together after a HN Kansai meetup last year, but my memory of the night's hazy.
- lagadu 10y ago
  > The world is much less poetic and open minded than many techno utopians would like to think. The problem isn't the world, it's that you're assuming the rest of the world (including the western one) shares your values and aspirations of what should and should not be down to minute details.
auganov 10y ago
I've talked to plenty of perfectly nice individuals on Omegle in text mode. But it's not like people want to talk about deep topics right of the bat or at all. Perverts aren't to blame for that not happening. Given random people most won't even know as much as you do about their country's situation and whatnot. A 1 to 1 chat with a stranger is a really bad format for that kind of conversations too. What you can do is, say, talk to a Syrian refugee about cats or pizza.
seanwilson 10y ago
I'm curious if this issue could be resolved by moderation and reviews so that people that want to talk about similar things are paired up and trolls are blocked/isolated.
- tgarma1234 10y ago
  Or a rating system like how Uber works. I mean the idea of getting into a car with a random stranger isn't that awesome of an idea and yet it works. Maybe like "Perv: 3 stars. Politics: 2 Stars." So that people who want to talk to perverts could find highly rated perverts easily. Otherwise, you just talk to people who want to chat about general things.
  - otoburb 10y ago
    The interesting part that I never knew about is that Uber drivers have access to a client score and (I believe) can also rate their clients after each ride. Although they can't reject too many rides or risk being flagged in the system, at least this gives them the ability to pass on riders who have a bad score, which last time I found out about the rider rating score was anything less than 4.5 out of 5 stars[1]. Fortunately, for something that the French Number is offering, it doesn't seem that this would be a problem. Hopefully the offering remains uncorrupted in this sense. [1] Anecdata warning: Based on a discussion I had with an Uber driver over several months ago.
Broken_Hippo 10y ago
I view the idea of chat roulette much in the same light. I think it is cool in the purer sense of the service. Too bad those haven't really worked out in that sort of sense. And I have the same hopes, honestly. Addressing the edit: That isn't the same sort of thing. Siri gives weird access to information. The idealized version of Chat Roulette (with actual conversation as the norm) gives human interaction, experience, and viewpoint that the digital assistants just can't seem to match yet.
rando444 10y ago
'chat roulette' as it is now referred, actually worked reasonably well back in around 1997 when Mirabilis built the feature into their ICQ messenger I used the feature quite a bit. I'm sure it eventually got taken over by predators and scammers, but it lasted quite some time. Years before that there was microsoft netmeeting, which was built into windows.. and for some crazy reason it had a phone book listing of all of everyone using the app. You could open the phone book and call anyone anywhere in the world. really it's just all about the balance of well-minded people, and perhaps as the internet grows and the barrier becomes lower for people getting online, the odds end up not working in favor of these sorts of things..
ObeyTheGuts 10y ago
U just wrote comment on international site. You are interactinwith people from all over the world all the time on international websites, idk what borders u tryingto break? Other than censorship and lack of iernet access.

GuiA 10y ago

You paint a wonderful vision, but it'd also include Americans telling you how great Trump is and how they can't wait for him to get rid of Mexicans, Arabic men telling you about how it's totally fine to marry a 12 year old and for her to bear their children, French people going on about how muslims should all be imprisoned, etc ... Of course if you're black, a woman, gay, or any other minority they'll be happy to insult and harass you for their entertainment. And not to forget all the very mundane people who don't have much to tell you about except for their mind numbing day labor job and how they can't take care of their sick children. The world is much less poetic and open minded than many techno utopians would like to think.

kuschku 10y ago
Well, the reason is simple. A lot of middle- and upper class people expect to talk to middle- and upper class people in other countries. And in that case, you’d likely get people living by the Knigge, and you’d get awesome results. Sadly, our society has thrown out etiquette in the recent times.
VLM 10y ago
One interesting long term experiment along the same lines provides the data point that if you have a couple million participants over a century or so, skew a bit older on average, eliminate anonymity, and erect a rather high IQ/financial barrier to entry, amateur radio is both much better behaved than most expect yet what little misbehavior exists is incessantly gossiped about.
- GuiA 10y ago
  It's an interesting data point for sure, but I'd argue the prerequisites you listed make the experiment quite different.
- throwaway7767 10y ago
  Better behaved in the sense that most everyone follows etiquette. But I wouldn't expect deep conversation there, unless it's about antenna design.
Broken_Hippo 10y ago
"The world is much less poetic and open minded than many techno utopians would like to think". A short read on news stories or youtube videos reminds me of that. I'm nearly always disappointed. I'm one of those techno utopians. I had great hope for the internet 20 years ago. You know, folks broadening their minds, learning things, not being so racist, finding similarities between places, and so on. And while they have, to an extent, I'm still sorely disappointed.
- aphextron 10y ago
  It's more that these technologies have just widened the gulf between people who already cared about those techno utopian ideals, and the ones who never will under any circumstances.
libeclipse 10y ago
I know what you're getting at, but the generalisations in your comment are astounding.
- GuiA 10y ago
  Wait, which part is bothering you? The one third of girls in the Arab region who marry before their 18th birthday? [0] Or the 36% (currently) of Americans who support Trump's policies? [1] Or the roughly 30% of French people who support a presidential candidate [2] whose father and previous party leader was fined for asserting that gassing chambers in world war 2 were just a small historical detail? [3] Not sure the right thing is astounding you here. [0]: http://www.prb.org/pdf13/child-marriage-arab-region.pdf http://www.prb.org/pdf13/child-marriage-arab-region.pdf [1]: https://ca.news.yahoo.com/clinton-leads-trump-5-points-reuters-ipsos-poll-062657638.html https://ca.news.yahoo.com/clinton-leads-trump-5-points-reute... [2]: http://www.sudradio.fr/Politique/Sondage-Marine-Le-Pen-au-2nd-tour-en-2017-dans-toutes-les-hypotheses http://www.sudradio.fr/Politique/Sondage-Marine-Le-Pen-au-2n... [3]: http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2016/04/06/jean-marie-le-pen-condamne-pour-ses-propos-sur-les-chambres-a-gaz_4897050_823448.html http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2016/04/06/jean-mari...
  - ekianjo 10y ago
    > but it'd also include Americans telling you how great Trump is and how they can't wait for him to get rid of Mexicans, > Or the 36% (currently) of Americans who support Trump's policies? [1] You are making a shortcut. There are probably various reasons why people favor a candidate, and you should not underestimate the "I hate the other one even more" factor. > French people going on about how muslims should all be imprisoned This is a preposterous statement. Even the FN's proposed policies is not about putting folks in prison, but to make them leave the country if they had the power to do so. Plus, French prisons are already over-capacity and most prison sentences are not applied because of that. Do you know what you are talking about or do you read tabloids?
    - GuiA 10y ago
      Just a French guy who's lived 10 years in the US here. Yeah, they don't want to send the arabic kids to prison, they want to send them back to where they come from. Oh wait, they were born in France. Well, they want to send them somewhere, that's for sure. I believe we may have gotten drunk together after a HN Kansai meetup last year, but my memory of the night's hazy.
lagadu 10y ago
> The world is much less poetic and open minded than many techno utopians would like to think. The problem isn't the world, it's that you're assuming the rest of the world (including the western one) shares your values and aspirations of what should and should not be down to minute details.

auganov 10y ago

I've talked to plenty of perfectly nice individuals on Omegle in text mode. But it's not like people want to talk about deep topics right of the bat or at all. Perverts aren't to blame for that not happening. Given random people most won't even know as much as you do about their country's situation and whatnot. A 1 to 1 chat with a stranger is a really bad format for that kind of conversations too. What you can do is, say, talk to a Syrian refugee about cats or pizza.

seanwilson 10y ago

I'm curious if this issue could be resolved by moderation and reviews so that people that want to talk about similar things are paired up and trolls are blocked/isolated.

tgarma1234 10y ago
Or a rating system like how Uber works. I mean the idea of getting into a car with a random stranger isn't that awesome of an idea and yet it works. Maybe like "Perv: 3 stars. Politics: 2 Stars." So that people who want to talk to perverts could find highly rated perverts easily. Otherwise, you just talk to people who want to chat about general things.
- otoburb 10y ago
  The interesting part that I never knew about is that Uber drivers have access to a client score and (I believe) can also rate their clients after each ride. Although they can't reject too many rides or risk being flagged in the system, at least this gives them the ability to pass on riders who have a bad score, which last time I found out about the rider rating score was anything less than 4.5 out of 5 stars[1]. Fortunately, for something that the French Number is offering, it doesn't seem that this would be a problem. Hopefully the offering remains uncorrupted in this sense. [1] Anecdata warning: Based on a discussion I had with an Uber driver over several months ago.

Broken_Hippo 10y ago

I view the idea of chat roulette much in the same light. I think it is cool in the purer sense of the service. Too bad those haven't really worked out in that sort of sense. And I have the same hopes, honestly. Addressing the edit: That isn't the same sort of thing. Siri gives weird access to information. The idealized version of Chat Roulette (with actual conversation as the norm) gives human interaction, experience, and viewpoint that the digital assistants just can't seem to match yet.

rando444 10y ago

'chat roulette' as it is now referred, actually worked reasonably well back in around 1997 when Mirabilis built the feature into their ICQ messenger I used the feature quite a bit. I'm sure it eventually got taken over by predators and scammers, but it lasted quite some time. Years before that there was microsoft netmeeting, which was built into windows.. and for some crazy reason it had a phone book listing of all of everyone using the app. You could open the phone book and call anyone anywhere in the world. really it's just all about the balance of well-minded people, and perhaps as the internet grows and the barrier becomes lower for people getting online, the odds end up not working in favor of these sorts of things..

ObeyTheGuts 10y ago

U just wrote comment on international site. You are interactinwith people from all over the world all the time on international websites, idk what borders u tryingto break? Other than censorship and lack of iernet access.