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I don't understand the hype, I gotta be honest. I enjoy podcasts and audiobooks, too. I listen to technical and political podcasts regularly, and sometimes I t

I don't understand the hype, I gotta be honest. I enjoy podcasts and audiobooks, too. I listen to technical and political podcasts regularly, and sometimes I try other genres when I don't feel like learning or getting disappointed by politics. I heard people talking about Clubhouse, they were all like "wow, amazing, revolutionary". They told me I would need to watch my screen time, because they are 10 hours a day on Clubhouse. I asked them to explain to me why they enjoy it, I didn't get it but wanted to try anyway. I got an invite, and tried the app. What a disappointment that was, I tried to follow interesting people and content, checked out what my friends were following, listened in on multiple rooms, stayed long and hoped something worthwhile would happen, but no, nothing really happened. Boring content, from people who are mostly neither funny, nor insightful (which is fine, most people are not extraordinary, it's not a personal attack or something, it's just that the top "talkers" already rose to the top via TV shows and podcasts). The constant reminders on LinkedIn about past discussions on the platform that I would be interested in is even more annoying, as I can't just open the talks later. I'm sure there are good conversations there but the noise to signal (value) ratio at clubhouse is just very very low.

mgh2 6y ago
There are many uses cases, but one of them *might be as a potential solution to current social media polarization. Imagine putting radical liberals and conservatives or loyal Taiwanese and Chinese in the same room AND be able to participate in the discussion. The value Clubhouse brings is the ability to start a dialogue to understand the other side that we are often blinded from - empathy through conversation from multiple viewpoints. Civil discussions that were never possible can now be (abuses are quickly reported and kicked out). Of course we will have to see the long term repercussions of this technology that only time can tell.
- volkk 6y ago
  > empathy through conversation. "Let's have a talk" why is it that clubhouse will do anything differently than what a FB post does? AKA devolve into mindless attacks in the comments sections about the way you look in your profile pic, your race/ethnicity, etc. is the difference simply..because it's voice? i think it's naive to think this is some new mindblowing tech considering a few points: a. it's invite only b. it's populated by tech oriented people. the only people that benefit from this are yuppies and already well off people. i want to hear opinions from the lower class too which i can guarantee are 100% not on clubhouse and are instead busy dealing with real life problems instead of talking about them on some VC backed app touted as the greatest revolution by mostly vapid social media sites (read: linkedin, producthunt, etc) i realize its a pessimistic POV but at this point in my life and all my years in tech..i'm tired of hearing how some random social media app is going to change the world for the better again and again. but also, i would LOVE to be proved wrong one day.
  - mgh2 6y ago
    > is the difference simply...because it's voice? I am not sure if you have seen the difference from communication via text only vs. voice/video. (ex: work or relationships). The later clears so much misunderstandings. For those who choose not to talk or ask questions, you can just listen in. But instead of a tube of biased information fueled by an AI algorithm (most social media today), you get to have a diverse group of people (up to 5k and expanding) all in one room, each able to participate. It is a two-way real-time dialogue, like in a conference panel discussion or an university class where the professor is lecturing, but also facilitating discussion among students. ex: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=harvard+justice https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=harvard+justice As for the invite only and tech oriented people, it is done for now to cope with bandwidth due to server limitations and also to have content quality control. It will be open to all eventually, they are still figuring it out. HN is an example of the complexities of moderation to maintain quality. Of course the human brain is going to be naturally biased and the development of content recommendations will eventually led to the same tribal mentality problem, but this is to be seen on how the creators moderate the platform to avoid the disasters from the past.
- thekyle 6y ago
  I don't really know how Clubhouse works. But why would radical liberals and conservatives ever want to talk with each other unless forced to? Seems from most other parts of the internet that people like to surround themselves with like-minded people.
  - mgh2 6y ago
    When the topic of the discussion decides who wants to participate. Like a debate: From non-serious as "cereal is soup" to "Do degrees/college dictate success?" and "Taiwan is part of China" (these actually happened)... The moderators can control the room but can also be reported by participants if he/she violates the guidelines- not sure how abuse is verified though. There is mutual accountability.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
- amoorthy 6y ago
  This is a good idea and one I'm about to debut shortly. Our guests will be highly rated journalists from across the political spectrum so that it is less likely to devolve into vitriol and rather is insightful people talking about their view on an important issue.
xiaolingxiao 6y ago
Out of curiosity when did you join CH? I find the the app differs by month, it was good for me for exactly one month. I think the predominate culture shifts so much as waves of people join, and they're not very good at allocating people into their respective tribes. So people churn when it's no longer their cup of tea. Their solution seems to be these high profile interviews held by investors of the app, almost like HBO would have GoT to get the weekly engagement up.

mgh2 6y ago

There are many uses cases, but one of them *might be as a potential solution to current social media polarization. Imagine putting radical liberals and conservatives or loyal Taiwanese and Chinese in the same room AND be able to participate in the discussion. The value Clubhouse brings is the ability to start a dialogue to understand the other side that we are often blinded from - empathy through conversation from multiple viewpoints. Civil discussions that were never possible can now be (abuses are quickly reported and kicked out). Of course we will have to see the long term repercussions of this technology that only time can tell.

volkk 6y ago
> empathy through conversation. "Let's have a talk" why is it that clubhouse will do anything differently than what a FB post does? AKA devolve into mindless attacks in the comments sections about the way you look in your profile pic, your race/ethnicity, etc. is the difference simply..because it's voice? i think it's naive to think this is some new mindblowing tech considering a few points: a. it's invite only b. it's populated by tech oriented people. the only people that benefit from this are yuppies and already well off people. i want to hear opinions from the lower class too which i can guarantee are 100% not on clubhouse and are instead busy dealing with real life problems instead of talking about them on some VC backed app touted as the greatest revolution by mostly vapid social media sites (read: linkedin, producthunt, etc) i realize its a pessimistic POV but at this point in my life and all my years in tech..i'm tired of hearing how some random social media app is going to change the world for the better again and again. but also, i would LOVE to be proved wrong one day.
- mgh2 6y ago
  > is the difference simply...because it's voice? I am not sure if you have seen the difference from communication via text only vs. voice/video. (ex: work or relationships). The later clears so much misunderstandings. For those who choose not to talk or ask questions, you can just listen in. But instead of a tube of biased information fueled by an AI algorithm (most social media today), you get to have a diverse group of people (up to 5k and expanding) all in one room, each able to participate. It is a two-way real-time dialogue, like in a conference panel discussion or an university class where the professor is lecturing, but also facilitating discussion among students. ex: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=harvard+justice https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=harvard+justice As for the invite only and tech oriented people, it is done for now to cope with bandwidth due to server limitations and also to have content quality control. It will be open to all eventually, they are still figuring it out. HN is an example of the complexities of moderation to maintain quality. Of course the human brain is going to be naturally biased and the development of content recommendations will eventually led to the same tribal mentality problem, but this is to be seen on how the creators moderate the platform to avoid the disasters from the past.
thekyle 6y ago
I don't really know how Clubhouse works. But why would radical liberals and conservatives ever want to talk with each other unless forced to? Seems from most other parts of the internet that people like to surround themselves with like-minded people.
- mgh2 6y ago
  When the topic of the discussion decides who wants to participate. Like a debate: From non-serious as "cereal is soup" to "Do degrees/college dictate success?" and "Taiwan is part of China" (these actually happened)... The moderators can control the room but can also be reported by participants if he/she violates the guidelines- not sure how abuse is verified though. There is mutual accountability.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
amoorthy 6y ago
This is a good idea and one I'm about to debut shortly. Our guests will be highly rated journalists from across the political spectrum so that it is less likely to devolve into vitriol and rather is insightful people talking about their view on an important issue.

xiaolingxiao 6y ago

Out of curiosity when did you join CH? I find the the app differs by month, it was good for me for exactly one month. I think the predominate culture shifts so much as waves of people join, and they're not very good at allocating people into their respective tribes. So people churn when it's no longer their cup of tea. Their solution seems to be these high profile interviews held by investors of the app, almost like HBO would have GoT to get the weekly engagement up.