I thought that @drbboard would be a great place to have a discussion about synchronous software, such as real-time chat applications where participants have to be present and follow the conversation at the same time.
Imagine a project bringing people of devRant together in the same room and ask yourself some questions.
- (A)synchronous?
- What good does it have over the very platform we’re coming from, devRant?
- Can it become more of a welcoming experience or it’s going to be the same chaos with bots pulling the blanket?
- Is this a new platform?
With all questions addressed, we pronounce that dR Community Channel (#drcc) is open for everyone. Announcement on devRant is also available. Here comes what I have to say.
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Think of synchronous software as a live stream. Participants need to be online to accelerate thoughts and have a natural rush to get things done without making any deliberate thread. Asynchronous software is opposed to it in a manner that you return to topics of discussion, like tickets in your bugtracker, sooner or later.
devRant is an asynchronous platform, despite having no expectation of someone ever returning to any previous conversation, because it’s by design that you create a rant before you can converse in detail. Asynchronous context will have to cater to the original thread, even if you desperately want to change the course of discussion. In synchronous software, the course itself is more important. -
devRant members always have been eager for getting to know each other well. Unfortunately, the format of threads, that newcomers get introduced to on devRant, does not give much room for error in the first impressions, leaving any social interaction on a backseat.
We seek for a fresh look on ground-level introductions, for which an online chat is almost a perfect solution. -
As long as people gathered have something to add to the on-going conversation, they can have a rewarding experience: new contacts, knowledge, empathy, feedback. Moreover, they don’t need to think about classification - chat away, plain and simple. Chat allows for a fast typing, as well as immediate moderation measures. It is expected that bad actors can get their dirty hands on our channel eventually, but we’ll elect moderators to take care of the rubbish.
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It is the Matrix room, #drcc:matrix.org. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Of course, despite this big proclamation, there might have been a number of other chats for devRant people. But our mission is to give it a long time support.
Matrix is a standardized protocol for sharing rich text and media in real time. It gives us an ample opportunity to avoid privacy hazard in direct messaging rooms and infinitely modernize the applications around our channel. Federated aspect makes it resilient to downtimes and lock-ins, given that users pick the reliable servers for themselves. Compare Matrix with other synchronous software on the messengers table.
While working on something like this, we should be transparent for the cause. So, inevitably, there will be downsides announced. All I ask is give it a chance… or two.
Icon for dR Community Channel is made especially to accentuate that we are very different from devRant, but have the same foundation of unity.
If you think that I should open more rooms or you have other suggestions, please post them in here. Good time!
Backlink to devRant: https://devrant.com/rants/9174502