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Blog author here The multiplayer cursors are an experiment in ambient togetherness on the web... ...and what I'm learning is that ambient togetherness really

by genmon 3y ago

Blog author here The multiplayer cursors are an experiment in ambient togetherness on the web... ...and what I'm learning is that ambient togetherness really doesn't scale to 500 simultaneous readers! Please use Reader Mode for calmness, and apologies for the noise. I'll work on adding a toggle to turn them off. btw you may be interested in the code, which you can use/fork: https://github.com/genmon/interconnected-cursor-party https://github.com/genmon/interconnected-cursor-party My blog is a static site, and real-time multiplayer is handled by a small app written with PartyKit (which I am super into).

nicholassmith 3y ago
I actually quite like it as a reminder of the gentle chaos of the early web before the vibe shift to homogenous design.
hsuduebc2 3y ago
Love the idea. Good job!
alisonatwork 3y ago
I love the cursors and already knew what everyone was commenting about without clicking through because I think another post was shared from your site a few days ago which has led to this comment thread feeling like déjà vu. I suppose instead of showing all other users you could hash the other users into buckets and only show one from each bucket. It'd be cool if the number of cursors could somehow scale based on the part of the text being read, same way as bullet text on Bilibili appears to increase and decrease to match the impact of what is happening in the video, but that might be tough to do without also changing the way that writing is presented online.
aceazzameen 3y ago
I love the absurdity of it all. It makes it a unique website/blog in the ocean of sameness.
dreadlordbone 3y ago
i love it, makes me feel like im at a party
- genmon 3y ago
  that is exactly it! when you spend time on the web, there is zero way to know that the site you're on is being mobbed right now. it's so socially impoverished I know that multiplayer cursors aren't the best way to show that, but it's a start!
  - mdrzn 3y ago
    I agree with the feeling and while chatting with others on the page we both felt the need to have an extension or something to be able to activate this "feature" on any website. Makes it feel like you're not alone on a website.
mdrzn 3y ago
I've spent at least 15 minutes playing with the cursor and other people on the page before even reading the article. Much fun. edit: //////////////////////////////
genmon 3y ago
It's gone full circle. People here are commenting that the multiplayer cursors are user hostile. tbh I agree... I need to build an off switch, or at least a volume dial... Meanwhile folks on the blog have discovered the cursor chat Easter Egg: you can hit "/" on desktop to start chatting with everyone else there. I just screen grabbed two cursors saying the opposite to the original opinion: > article is distracting lol > just use inspector 2 delete article This is hilarious chaos.
- mdrzn 3y ago
  > article is distracting lol This was me! I hope you're logging the messages being sent lol

by genmon 3y ago

nicholassmith 3y ago

I actually quite like it as a reminder of the gentle chaos of the early web before the vibe shift to homogenous design.

hsuduebc2 3y ago

Love the idea. Good job!

alisonatwork 3y ago

I love the cursors and already knew what everyone was commenting about without clicking through because I think another post was shared from your site a few days ago which has led to this comment thread feeling like déjà vu. I suppose instead of showing all other users you could hash the other users into buckets and only show one from each bucket. It'd be cool if the number of cursors could somehow scale based on the part of the text being read, same way as bullet text on Bilibili appears to increase and decrease to match the impact of what is happening in the video, but that might be tough to do without also changing the way that writing is presented online.

aceazzameen 3y ago

I love the absurdity of it all. It makes it a unique website/blog in the ocean of sameness.

dreadlordbone 3y ago

i love it, makes me feel like im at a party

genmon 3y ago
that is exactly it! when you spend time on the web, there is zero way to know that the site you're on is being mobbed right now. it's so socially impoverished I know that multiplayer cursors aren't the best way to show that, but it's a start!
- mdrzn 3y ago
  I agree with the feeling and while chatting with others on the page we both felt the need to have an extension or something to be able to activate this "feature" on any website. Makes it feel like you're not alone on a website.

mdrzn 3y ago

I've spent at least 15 minutes playing with the cursor and other people on the page before even reading the article. Much fun. edit: //////////////////////////////

genmon 3y ago

It's gone full circle. People here are commenting that the multiplayer cursors are user hostile. tbh I agree... I need to build an off switch, or at least a volume dial... Meanwhile folks on the blog have discovered the cursor chat Easter Egg: you can hit "/" on desktop to start chatting with everyone else there. I just screen grabbed two cursors saying the opposite to the original opinion: > article is distracting lol > just use inspector 2 delete article This is hilarious chaos.

mdrzn 3y ago
> article is distracting lol This was me! I hope you're logging the messages being sent lol