7 ms·

Every webpage deserves to be a place

164 points by herbertl 2y ago

mock-possum 2y ago
It’s a fun idea, though generally I want all my web activities to be solo, not multiplayer, so I’m clearly not the target audience for this feature.
apitman 2y ago
It took me a solid minute to be 100% sure the background color was, indeed, slowly changing.
Fauntleroy 2y ago
I like the general idea, but the execution here is lacking. The inclusion of the "type to reply" feature quite terrible turn off, because it's abused by other users immediately. Further, these cursors are really distracting—ideally they'd be less intrusive and more ambient in nature, at least by default.
joemi 2y ago
I thought it was broken until I decided to try it in another browser. I guess it works in Chrome on Windows but not Firefox on Windows. Not sure if it works in Safari or not since I don't have my macbook handy right now.
- patrickmay 2y ago
  It works on Safari. Neat idea.
- RobotToaster 2y ago
  Seems to be a lot of console errors in firefox
- shinryuu 2y ago
  On mac and firefox here. Sad that it doesn't work on FF.
- account42 2y ago
  Get used to more and more websites not working in FF.
  - joseda-hg 2y ago
    Why? What changed?
CM30 2y ago
It's a cool concept, though distracting as all hell. Might work okay for something special like an /r/place successor, but I sure hope this doesn't become the norm for web pages in general.
tompetry 2y ago
Cool concept. Anybody know of a project with realtime spontaneous interactions like this that fits a defined use case?
- konklone 2y ago
  On isitchristmas.com, this happens for several days surrounding Christmas. The defined use case is informing you of whether it is Christmas.
- Timwi 2y ago
  Google Docs.
nsonha 2y ago
This is not the same but reminds me that every piece of writing deserves annotations and discussion. I don't care much for the "live" part. I wish there was some social network built around that idea, kinda like reddit and twitter, but with in-place comments and side annotations.
- janalsncm 2y ago
  I agree, it would be a great feature. Medium kind of has this. There was another tool that I found with much better functionality, I will try to find it.
broses 2y ago
That's so cool! Is there a way to talk on mobile? Maybe we could add a talk button in the bottom right. I might add this to my website!
naming_the_user 2y ago
The keys used mean that it doesn't work properly for me on Firefox, hitting / opens a search box (in the browser) that I have to close and the Return key to send a message doesn't work at all. I also don't see any other cursors though that may just be that no-one else is on the site. edit: works fine in Safari.
- com2kid 2y ago
  Backspace goes back a page on Windows in Chrome, so it barely works there either. I also wasn't sure if return was supposed to do anything. Also no idea why the X is there, since the bubble follows my mouse and I can never click it. Cool idea, needs a lot of cross-plat support work.
- bckr 2y ago
  Yeah not sure if there’s a way to activate chat on mobile either. Some said hey “to me” but all I could do was tap around and hope they could see I was acknowledging them
jakelazaroff 2y ago
The cursors don’t move on iOS Safari for me, but I love that people are trying things like this! Maggie Appleton has explored some ideas about how to make the presence indicators feel less intrusive: https://maggieappleton.com/ambient-copresence https://maggieappleton.com/ambient-copresence
- paulryanrogers 2y ago
  Flashbacks of ScreenHero and even earlier Linux experiments have brought me a wave of nostalgia. Or even Mumble servers and when proximity voice chat came to games. So, yes please, I'd love to try that world again.
  - HenryBemis 2y ago
    I had flashbacks of the movie "The Others" (2001) (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0230600/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0230600/), just like when I came across Google Wave for the first time back in the day!
scyzoryk_xyz 2y ago
This is wonderful. How would this work with more than, say 100+ users? Is there some cut off?
dvt 2y ago
People don't want this. It was tried endless times during the web2 craze (when tech like AJAX and WebSockets picked up steam). At best it's a cute gimmick, at worst it's distracting and annoying. There have been browser extensions, website plugins, and many, many startups that tried to make this a thing. It's not a thing. Social elements have moved from the comments section to Slack or Discord or WhatsApp or Twitter.
- bbor 2y ago
  Interesting — do you happen to remember any names? I was just a wee lad, so this is new to me. Wouldn’t make a great startup, but I thought it was a pretty smart blog feature!
  - egypturnash 2y ago
    IIRC, the lyrics site Genius started life as one in the long line of “hey let’s let people share annotations on arbitrary web pages around the world” projects that went nowhere. They pivoted to using their annotations to let people provide extensive footnotes on song lyrics. “_why the lucky stiff” had one of these for a while too, I can’t remember the name.
    - re 2y ago
      Annotating other websites was a side quest along the way for Genius, but its original creation was focused on annotating rap lyrics. It took them 5 years to drop "Rap" from the name "Rap Genius". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genius_(company)#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genius_(company)#History
      - egypturnash 2y ago
        I am incorrect! Though Wikipedia makes it sound like there was a lot of pressure from investors to pivot into that side quest: In 2012, the company received an additional $15 million investment from Silicon Valley–based venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (also known as a16z),[1][3][11] prompted in part by partner Marc Andreessen's own past effort to build a group annotation feature into a web browser.[1] Ben Horowitz described Genius as "one of the most important things we've ever funded"
xyst 2y ago
bro is nudging me to get up from bed and use his site on my laptop or desktop.
dSebastien 2y ago
That's cool. I love ideas that make the Web come alive. But I also feel like many more people need a fourth place, somewhere to think: https://www.dsebastien.net/you-need-a-fourth-place-a-place-to-think/ https://www.dsebastien.net/you-need-a-fourth-place-a-place-t...
dzink 2y ago
This page is unreadable on mobile - safari on iphone.
7373737373 2y ago
There was (is?) a VR app/"social browser" called JanusVR once, that rendered every website as a room (either how it was explicitly defined through an extended HTML language on the website itself including custom 3d objects (https://janusvr.com/docs/build/introtojml/index.html https://janusvr.com/docs/build/introtojml/index.html, exportable from 3d software, or by some default 3d layout process for those sites that don't) and other users visiting it in it - and you could walk seamlessly from room to room like in the game Portal, and see/talk/interact with others! https://youtube.com/watch?v=O4rstRgUsBs https://youtube.com/watch?v=O4rstRgUsBs Never took off unfortunately (yet? maybe due to a lack of social/avatar/rendering features?)
- alex1138 2y ago
  Not quite the same thing, but Matrix had (it's come upon financial hardship, unfortunately) "Third Room", where a chatroom became an actual room you can edit
larsrc 2y ago
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa<breath>aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!
poopsmithe 2y ago
Needs a dark mode, or at least Dark Reader browser extension compatibility. As it stands, the bright BG hurts my eyes.
mettamage 2y ago
This is really cool actually. It also makes me think that more places should have like a chatroom or something. Just brainstorming here, maybe it needs to be fleshed out more than that.
boo-ga-ga 2y ago
Doesn't work on FF on mac sadly. But the idea of togetherness and shared place on each URL is very curious to think about.
vanjajaja1 2y ago
love the concept, i want to be able to chat to the people on all pages I visit. why do i have to socialize OVER THERE when I could do it right here?
rachofsunshine 2y ago
This feels ripe for a browser extension moreso than code on a page itself.
slater 2y ago
Firefox can’t establish a connection to the server at wss://disco-party.genmon.partykit.dev/parties/page/[random-string] Uncaught TypeError: CSS.highlights is undefined Or https://cursor-party.genmon.partykit.dev/cursors.js:19 https://cursor-party.genmon.partykit.dev/cursors.js:19
thomashop 2y ago
I added it to our page https://pollinations.ai https://pollinations.ai :) I've always liked the idea but found it a little gimmicky. I would love to find a good use case for it, like in Pollinations' case, it could be a collaborative art-making game.

164 points by herbertl 2y ago

It’s a fun idea, though generally I want all my web activities to be solo, not multiplayer, so I’m clearly not the target audience for this feature.

apitman 2y ago

It took me a solid minute to be 100% sure the background color was, indeed, slowly changing.

Fauntleroy 2y ago

I like the general idea, but the execution here is lacking. The inclusion of the "type to reply" feature quite terrible turn off, because it's abused by other users immediately. Further, these cursors are really distracting—ideally they'd be less intrusive and more ambient in nature, at least by default.

joemi 2y ago

I thought it was broken until I decided to try it in another browser. I guess it works in Chrome on Windows but not Firefox on Windows. Not sure if it works in Safari or not since I don't have my macbook handy right now.

patrickmay 2y ago
It works on Safari. Neat idea.
RobotToaster 2y ago
Seems to be a lot of console errors in firefox
shinryuu 2y ago
On mac and firefox here. Sad that it doesn't work on FF.
account42 2y ago
Get used to more and more websites not working in FF.
- joseda-hg 2y ago
  Why? What changed?

CM30 2y ago

It's a cool concept, though distracting as all hell. Might work okay for something special like an /r/place successor, but I sure hope this doesn't become the norm for web pages in general.

tompetry 2y ago

Cool concept. Anybody know of a project with realtime spontaneous interactions like this that fits a defined use case?

konklone 2y ago
On isitchristmas.com, this happens for several days surrounding Christmas. The defined use case is informing you of whether it is Christmas.
Timwi 2y ago
Google Docs.

nsonha 2y ago

This is not the same but reminds me that every piece of writing deserves annotations and discussion. I don't care much for the "live" part. I wish there was some social network built around that idea, kinda like reddit and twitter, but with in-place comments and side annotations.

janalsncm 2y ago
I agree, it would be a great feature. Medium kind of has this. There was another tool that I found with much better functionality, I will try to find it.

broses 2y ago

That's so cool! Is there a way to talk on mobile? Maybe we could add a talk button in the bottom right. I might add this to my website!

naming_the_user 2y ago

The keys used mean that it doesn't work properly for me on Firefox, hitting / opens a search box (in the browser) that I have to close and the Return key to send a message doesn't work at all. I also don't see any other cursors though that may just be that no-one else is on the site. edit: works fine in Safari.

com2kid 2y ago
Backspace goes back a page on Windows in Chrome, so it barely works there either. I also wasn't sure if return was supposed to do anything. Also no idea why the X is there, since the bubble follows my mouse and I can never click it. Cool idea, needs a lot of cross-plat support work.
bckr 2y ago
Yeah not sure if there’s a way to activate chat on mobile either. Some said hey “to me” but all I could do was tap around and hope they could see I was acknowledging them

jakelazaroff 2y ago

The cursors don’t move on iOS Safari for me, but I love that people are trying things like this! Maggie Appleton has explored some ideas about how to make the presence indicators feel less intrusive: https://maggieappleton.com/ambient-copresence https://maggieappleton.com/ambient-copresence

paulryanrogers 2y ago
Flashbacks of ScreenHero and even earlier Linux experiments have brought me a wave of nostalgia. Or even Mumble servers and when proximity voice chat came to games. So, yes please, I'd love to try that world again.
- HenryBemis 2y ago
  I had flashbacks of the movie "The Others" (2001) (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0230600/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0230600/), just like when I came across Google Wave for the first time back in the day!

scyzoryk_xyz 2y ago

This is wonderful. How would this work with more than, say 100+ users? Is there some cut off?

dvt 2y ago

People don't want this. It was tried endless times during the web2 craze (when tech like AJAX and WebSockets picked up steam). At best it's a cute gimmick, at worst it's distracting and annoying. There have been browser extensions, website plugins, and many, many startups that tried to make this a thing. It's not a thing. Social elements have moved from the comments section to Slack or Discord or WhatsApp or Twitter.

bbor 2y ago
Interesting — do you happen to remember any names? I was just a wee lad, so this is new to me. Wouldn’t make a great startup, but I thought it was a pretty smart blog feature!
- egypturnash 2y ago
  IIRC, the lyrics site Genius started life as one in the long line of “hey let’s let people share annotations on arbitrary web pages around the world” projects that went nowhere. They pivoted to using their annotations to let people provide extensive footnotes on song lyrics. “_why the lucky stiff” had one of these for a while too, I can’t remember the name.
  - re 2y ago
    Annotating other websites was a side quest along the way for Genius, but its original creation was focused on annotating rap lyrics. It took them 5 years to drop "Rap" from the name "Rap Genius". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genius_(company)#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genius_(company)#History
    - egypturnash 2y ago
      I am incorrect! Though Wikipedia makes it sound like there was a lot of pressure from investors to pivot into that side quest: In 2012, the company received an additional $15 million investment from Silicon Valley–based venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (also known as a16z),[1][3][11] prompted in part by partner Marc Andreessen's own past effort to build a group annotation feature into a web browser.[1] Ben Horowitz described Genius as "one of the most important things we've ever funded"

xyst 2y ago

bro is nudging me to get up from bed and use his site on my laptop or desktop.

dSebastien 2y ago

That's cool. I love ideas that make the Web come alive. But I also feel like many more people need a fourth place, somewhere to think: https://www.dsebastien.net/you-need-a-fourth-place-a-place-to-think/ https://www.dsebastien.net/you-need-a-fourth-place-a-place-t...

dzink 2y ago

This page is unreadable on mobile - safari on iphone.

7373737373 2y ago

There was (is?) a VR app/"social browser" called JanusVR once, that rendered every website as a room (either how it was explicitly defined through an extended HTML language on the website itself including custom 3d objects (https://janusvr.com/docs/build/introtojml/index.html https://janusvr.com/docs/build/introtojml/index.html, exportable from 3d software, or by some default 3d layout process for those sites that don't) and other users visiting it in it - and you could walk seamlessly from room to room like in the game Portal, and see/talk/interact with others! https://youtube.com/watch?v=O4rstRgUsBs https://youtube.com/watch?v=O4rstRgUsBs Never took off unfortunately (yet? maybe due to a lack of social/avatar/rendering features?)

alex1138 2y ago
Not quite the same thing, but Matrix had (it's come upon financial hardship, unfortunately) "Third Room", where a chatroom became an actual room you can edit

larsrc 2y ago

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa<breath>aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

poopsmithe 2y ago

Needs a dark mode, or at least Dark Reader browser extension compatibility. As it stands, the bright BG hurts my eyes.

mettamage 2y ago

This is really cool actually. It also makes me think that more places should have like a chatroom or something. Just brainstorming here, maybe it needs to be fleshed out more than that.

boo-ga-ga 2y ago

Doesn't work on FF on mac sadly. But the idea of togetherness and shared place on each URL is very curious to think about.

vanjajaja1 2y ago

love the concept, i want to be able to chat to the people on all pages I visit. why do i have to socialize OVER THERE when I could do it right here?

rachofsunshine 2y ago

This feels ripe for a browser extension moreso than code on a page itself.

slater 2y ago

Firefox can’t establish a connection to the server at wss://disco-party.genmon.partykit.dev/parties/page/[random-string] Uncaught TypeError: CSS.highlights is undefined Or https://cursor-party.genmon.partykit.dev/cursors.js:19 https://cursor-party.genmon.partykit.dev/cursors.js:19

thomashop 2y ago

I added it to our page https://pollinations.ai https://pollinations.ai :) I've always liked the idea but found it a little gimmicky. I would love to find a good use case for it, like in Pollinations' case, it could be a collaborative art-making game.