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I love the idea of realtime anonymous forums by accident some months ago. I was writing an updated library for Friendfeed's API and decided to write a client fo
by jimminy 14y ago
I love the idea of realtime anonymous forums by accident some months ago. I was writing an updated library for Friendfeed's API and decided to write a client for testing, but while rushing through I had left out identifying information from the client.
It was one of the most interesting experiences I've had online; I noticed that I was liking/not-liking things specific people would say, that I normally wouldn't. I had somehow managed to surpass the internal biases I had built up about specific people. Obviously doesn't answer the question of how I'd change if I was acting anonymously, since everyone else could identify me. But for me looking out and interacting largely anonymously with people I already knew was profound.
Personally, I find the color's annoying and cluttered, but it is a decent idea to add some common identity inside a thread. I like the idea in general, and would love to see more things like it.
You're writing was great. I laughed several times during the "Then all hell broke loose" section.
- ecto 14y agoThanks! I spent a couple of days on the article and was pretty nervous having not written anything but specs in a year or two. I also am starting to find the colors cluttering, mostly because they're the first thing my eyes are drawn to on any given page. I'm not sure what the solution is here. If I make them any smaller, they look even worse.
- cocoflunchy 14y agoI think you only need the colors inside a thread and not really on the front page... and then in one thread you could just add a unique picture/avatar per participant (but maybe something subtle, not like a usual avatar - I was thinking of replacing the color rectangle by a random picture of the same format)
- tar 14y agoThis could be used with the poster's IP address. https://robohash.org/ https://robohash.org/
- _feda_ 14y agoThat's how 4chan works. Of course in practice, there's often a tendency for things to descend into anarchy.
- ecto 14y agoI agree, but I would replace anarchy with chaos. Anarchy != chaos