Chatroulette: contextualize or die
Beyond Chatroulette’s well deserved, deviant reputation as an online Mos Eisley Cantina (now with more male nudity!), there is an undeniable value to randomly interacting with people, one on one from around the world. The instantly intimate connections matter and if the service is alive five years from now it will be because they are known for the tech that make those possible.
On the eve of their first major overhaul, I believe Chatroulette v2.0 will fail unless their biggest upgrade is context to conversation. Thankfully, the solution is already right in front of us: high traffic blogs.
Chatroulette Prime showed us The Internet. Not how we imagine it, not how we partition it and not what we wish it would be. The truth, warts and all. Users quickly learned a tumescent lesson, The Internet at large is gross. It’s why we retreat to be amongst those who share our basic interests, which in most cases includes an agreed ban on random dong shots.
Instead of showing us the entire scope of humanity, what if it offered you a connection to naturally formed groupings that are already of interest to you? Beyond general rooms, what if you were able to connect to people currently reading a specific website. Drilling down further, what if you were able to discuss a specific post with an informed stranger.
For example, if you read The Onion’s AV Club review of Arcade Fire’s new album The Suburbs instead of leaving a comment, you could have the option of clicking through to a pool filled with people who have clicked through to the same page. You are paired with a random person who is also primed to chat about that specific topic. Automatically, you have a very rare pleasure presented on demand, an informed discussion about exactly what you want to talk about.
This would not be a replacement for those who use blog comments to get the attention of the post’s author or as their own broadcast platform. Those will always be the domain of the indelible text. It’s also not the same experience as a instant video chat tool like TinyChat. There you are again part of a scrum, the loudest will get heard, the intimate conversation is over before it begins.
For high traffic blogs with specialized audiences and a rabid readership a Chatroulette comments section could be the perfect context to start a conversation you’re ready to have at that very second.
Imagine discussing Ebert’s stodgy review of Kick-Ass throughout opening weekend with those who also saw the film or have an opinion on his thesis. Or Matt Ridley’s latest post on why health panics are often wrong. Or the Pittsburgh Penguins ‘09 Stanley Cup victory minutes after they won on a niche site the ThePensBlog.
Trolls would either behave themselves or get “next’d” and flame bait would be tempered by ones desire to spit their screed to a strange face instead of cluster bombing a conversation and waiting for a reaction.
As for the dongs? If we multiply the targets by infinity, you are bound to cut down the odds of seeing one. And hey, maybe the junk bearers will find a qualified post where they can have conversations that focus exclusively from chest to upper thigh.
Justin Robert Young is the co-host of the NSFW Show on the TWiT Network. He is also a founding partner of Blurbtastic.com. His personal blog can be found at JustinRobertYoung.com.
