The French Number – Connect to a random French person and talk about anything

http://www.thefrenchnumber.fr

by davinov • 10 years ago

263 119 10 years ago

danieka• 10 years ago

Seems inspired by the swedish number. http://theswedishnumber.com/

joezydeco• 10 years ago

When we were obnoxious teens we would call two numbers (like the local McDonalds and Burger King) and then conference them together while we stayed on mute and listened in.

Kind of tempted to do it again...

mkagenius• 10 years ago

One side could be a funny youtube video talking, using https://dubdial.com/ [1]

1. Disclosure: I am one of the author

k__4• 10 years ago

lol, reminds me of my teen IRC days.

Wrote a bot that generated a name and joined a big public channel.

Stuff like jenny21 tina123 etc.

Then it spammed some generic greetings and waited.

"Hello, anyone wanna private chat?"

When someone started to talk to it it would start another private chat with another person choosen randomly and copy the messages of the first person to the second and vice versa.

Then it copied the whole conversation in a different channel.

Hilarity ensued.

jen729w• 10 years ago

When I was a kid we used to phone people whose phone numbers were mathematically interesting. This was in the North-East of England (Sunderland), and we were often amazed at the responses. You'd ring some lady out of the blue and tell her that her phone number was a power of three, or something, and she'd say, "well is that right! I never knew. How interesting."

We always thought we'd just get told to bugger off. Rarely was that the case.

By some odd coincidence, I've since moved to the other side of the world but I sit and type this message in the old living room in Sunderland where many of those calls were made.

bjornsing• 10 years ago

Absolutely! But I bet François Hollande won't be taking any calls (like the Swedish prime minister Stefan Löfven did [1]). :P

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S087OHdCG8I

fastball• 10 years ago

Not really "inspired".

The website has been copied practically wholesale.

Normal_gaussian2• 10 years ago

This used to exist for Sweden, at

http://theswedishnumber.com/

BurningFrog• 10 years ago

Weird. I can't find any announcement or news article about why it closed down.

OJFord2• 10 years ago

IIRC it was only ever temporary, a month (or something) long experiment/campaign/whatever it was.

Normal_gaussian2• 10 years ago

It was just a temporary tourism campaign. I rang and one of the things we talked about was the campaign and whether we thought it would increase tourism. The guy I was talking to only signed up because it was cool.

katzgrau• 10 years ago

I'm definitely going to do this and have a little fun, although I'm not sure that's the intended purpose #cestlavie

microcolonel• 10 years ago

It really is impressive to see people making productive use of human loneliness, a sadly abundant resource.

They missed the opportunity to call it the Francophone, though.

type0• 10 years ago

They missed the opportunity to call it the Francophone, though.

Yeah, if you only had to speak french with them, but I'm sure a lot of ppl in France know English by now or do they?

trevorg75• 10 years ago

Whoever named this should be fired for missing out on calling it "The French Connection"

coherentpony• 10 years ago

That'd probably be a trademark infringement. FCCN is a pretty well established clothing company with the same name.

wyldfire2• 10 years ago

Unlikely. The standard for infringement in the US (likely similar w/EU via treaties and the like) is that it's confusingly similar and in relation to products or services similar to the products or services covered by the trademark.

collyw2• 10 years ago

They used to be FCUK in the UK (maybe they still are).

wonkaWonka• 10 years ago

The domain probably costs to much.

Squatters.

hornbaker• 10 years ago

frenchconnection.io is available: https://www.nic.io/go/newfast/frenchconnection.io

peterburkimsher• 10 years ago

If people write cards instead, it could be called the "French Letter" (but that has a different meaning to British people).

guessmyname• 10 years ago

This will be helpful for people like me that want to improve their French language skills. I started studying French four years ago or so and during the first two years the learning curve was painful because this language is not very popular in my country, so socializing in order to practice the skills gained in class was mostly between the same classmates. I wish this project was launched during that time though, but better late than sorry.

minipci1321• 10 years ago

You can probably find people on Skype to chat with in French; if not for free then for a really small money.

pbiggar2• 10 years ago

Try Tandem. It's an app that connects you to language learners. So you'd help a French person learn English, and they'd help you learn French. They have both text and video chat so if you're not ready for video chat, you can get stronger by text. It's a really well done app!

_kyran• 10 years ago

How long has this been out for? Just downloaded it and it's everything I dreamed that Chatroulette could be.

scrollaway• 10 years ago

My email is in my profile. Feel free to contact me, in french or english, if you want to talk.

anonymfus• 10 years ago

https://www.reddit.com/search?q=English+AND+French+AND+%28su...

nkjoep• 10 years ago

Cool initiative.

Btw, that blue (#000099) with white is so disturbing.

lisper• 10 years ago

Do I have to speak French?

[UPDATE] Ah, I see the answer is on the site: no.

coldcode• 10 years ago

I've always wanted something like this with full two way translation that worked. That would be a great way to learn how other people live their lives without the wall of language.

welanes2• 10 years ago

"Hello, France? Which way does the water turn in your toilet?"

oli5679• 10 years ago

Simpsons reference?

welanes2• 10 years ago

Sorry, I couldn't help it. I realize the number of people who get Simpsons references is falling into endangered territory.

vacri• 10 years ago

As an Australian man travlleing the US for a few months half a decade ago, I was genuinely puzzled by the very high water level in some of America's toilets - so high that sometimes you have to hold your undercarriage up to keep it from getting wet when sitting.

I asked several locals during my visit about how to deal with this oddity, and all I ever got was laughter. I still don't know what the supposed method is... :)

brbsix• 10 years ago

This reminds me of #CALLBRUSSELS, a Brussels tourism initiative wherein anyone could call public phones throughout Brussels via https://call.brussels and chat about anything. There were live video feeds as well. IIRC this was in January, right around the time Trump and others were making negative comments, so it was meant to dispel concerns about safety in the city.

Here's an article discussing it in detail: http://www.ibtimes.com/callbrussels-new-tourism-initiative-d...

There's also some video content: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRnybwEvQsU

po1nter• 10 years ago

FYI: That video doesn't end well. It includes footage of the airport bombing that happened there.

treehau5• 10 years ago

There is also a phone number if you feel like talkin shit to a gangsta

http://www.gangsterpartyline.com/

wtfishackernews• 10 years ago

This is the real #CALLBRUSSELS video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL7hvXeOAKw

You linked to a troll version.

ConroyBumpus• 10 years ago

"Um, bonjour. Est en cours d'exécution de votre réfrigérateur?"

lucd• 10 years ago

Apparently french ambassadors are supposed to speak english.. Maybe I'll try, just to get some english speaking training..

truth_sentinell2• 10 years ago

What's your mother tongue?

FeteCommuniste• 10 years ago

The pun actually does work in French, amusingly enough, although in French one says that working devices are "walking" (marcher) rather than "running" (courir).

Bonjour. Est-ce que votre réfrigérateur marche ? // Oui... // Ben il faut aller l'attraper alors !

vardhanw• 10 years ago

this fonctionnality is offered to you only if you call the plateform via a special number - see if your country is in the list

Classic French English "mistakes" on the page.

jobigoud• 10 years ago

It's the French touche.

r00fus• 10 years ago

I must say... touché.

forestjc• 10 years ago

French here, i don't see the mistakes, can you explain?

ritonlajoie• 10 years ago

I guess it's 'functionality' ?

eloisant• 10 years ago

functionality, platform...

rootlocus• 10 years ago

on the list (instead of in the list)?

Fiahil• 10 years ago

I'm almost tempted to try becoming an "ambassadeur téléphonique pour la France", but I would need an extra temporary number "à la google voice". I really don't trust them enough to let them have my real number, as they would probably sell it to the highest paying advertising company they can find.

jbg_2• 10 years ago

dtmf.io could be a good way to give it a go without giving away your identity.

bmsleight_• 10 years ago

dtmf.io gives errors for every option ? 'We're sorry, an error occurred. Please try again soon.'

weberc2• 10 years ago

Presumably calling this number from a U.S. number (Verizon in my case) would incur lots of long distance charges, no?

EDIT: Just read the disclaimer:

The call will be charged as an international call. Please check with your phone operator what your calling rates for France are. You may prefer to call from a special number (see if your country is on the list).

laurentoget• 10 years ago

2c a minute using google voice i think

OJFord2• 10 years ago

134 calls since July 18? (And how many of those, I wonder, occurred in the last hour for which it's been on HN and accrued 81 points..)

So far I'd say it's probably not justifying it's cost/effort. I don't really understand why the Swedish one (which I understand to be the original) was made - but I understand clones even less. Is it just PR; does the tourism company behind it really think it will be effective?

mercora• 10 years ago

As a telco you can actually take a profit from incoming calls. I am not sure if you are allowed to be the called party in this case though. I remember similar services here in Germany that regularly had to change numbers because they got blocked by the callees services provider too.

MasterYoda• 10 years ago

I would say the Swedish number was an big success and very cost effective pr campaign compared to normal advertising. And that is why France trying to do the exact same thing.

It's not easy to get peoples attention in the media noise, but the Swedish number was something different and new an got viral globally.

Over 190.000 got so interested they actually interacted and called, many millions have read about it. People called from 186 different countries, so the campaign spread to almost every country in the world. People talked combined for more than one year.

To get such attention globally and so many to interact is really worth a lot, you could not have paid for that in normal ways you do pr.

By the way… I guess the Swedish number also could have been inspired by one of the official swedish twitter accounts [1] that is curated by a new Swede every week [2]. It got alot of attention when released, so I think they got inspired on that idea. My guess tho.

[1] https://www.twitter.com/sweden

[2] http://curatorsofsweden.com/about/

WheelsAtLarge• 10 years ago

Tried this, it was lots of fun. Talked to a 19 yr old student learning English. His English was excellent. Every one should try it. I used google voice. It cost me 8 cents for about 5 mins, not sure of the time.

vbsteven• 10 years ago

I would love a service similar to this one but with a match making algorithm based on interests and/or self selected topics.

This way I could make a lonely commute a lot more interesting by calling a random person also interested in for example Ruby programming

collyw2• 10 years ago

There used to be a cool chat application Odigo I think, where you could search for random people based on Location. I used to practice my Spanish with people on that.

livatlantis• 10 years ago

wow, I never though I'd come across a casual reference to Odigo on the internet (and it isn't from me). Gosh I loved Odigo -- met so many people that I eventually lost contact with. You could even talk to other people browsing the same website as you (interesting, of course, because I wasn't on any social networks -- mostly forums and metal websites).

lagadu2• 10 years ago

Wakie (https://wakie.com/), the app that allowed you to set alarms and have random people call to wake you up, used to have this. You could choose a topic (from a set list) and get randomly connected to someone who chose it too. I haven't used it in a long time though, no idea whether it still has users.

xiii1408• 10 years ago

Neat idea!

Added ten bucks of credit to my Google account, then feverishly dialed the number... "You are about to be connected to a random French." Ooh, how charming. Upbeat hold music, then silence. "Hello?" I call out. Then, my call is dropped. DISAPPOINT.

tuna-piano• 10 years ago

When I first heard about Chat Roulette, I thought the idea was amazing. Imagine hearing about Chat Roulette in 1970, or better yet 1800! How cool. Get connected with random people anywhere in the world! The possibilities! I could talk about war with someone in pakistan, healthcare with someone in Britain, Chavez with someone in Venezuela, learn about cuisine they eat in Uruguay! Maybe I could make a new friend who'd I'd end up visiting some day.

But of course when I say Chat Roulette now, all of you probably just chuckle inside - because it's a good example of how anonymous things on the internet turn out (for those who don't know, Chat Roulette is pretty NSFW, with many nude men on it... breaking down borders, but not in the way I'd have hoped).

I hope services like this become successful as a way to break down borders and form connections across the world - but I'm not holding my breath.

Edit: Maybe I'm part of the problem because I guess I could say the same thing about having a digital personal assistant (Siri) - and I just end up just asking her things like "How many calories are in a cubic light year of butter"? (5.83 x 10^54 kcals for those on MyFitnessPal)

GuiA9• 10 years ago

You paint a wonderful vision, but it'd also include Americans telling you how great Trump is and how they can't wait for him to get rid of Mexicans, Arabic men telling you about how it's totally fine to marry a 12 year old and for her to bear their children, French people going on about how muslims should all be imprisoned, etc ...

Of course if you're black, a woman, gay, or any other minority they'll be happy to insult and harass you for their entertainment.

And not to forget all the very mundane people who don't have much to tell you about except for their mind numbing day labor job and how they can't take care of their sick children.

The world is much less poetic and open minded than many techno utopians would like to think.

kuschku• 10 years ago

Well, the reason is simple.

A lot of middle- and upper class people expect to talk to middle- and upper class people in other countries.

And in that case, you’d likely get people living by the Knigge, and you’d get awesome results.

Sadly, our society has thrown out etiquette in the recent times.

VLM• 10 years ago

One interesting long term experiment along the same lines provides the data point that if you have a couple million participants over a century or so, skew a bit older on average, eliminate anonymity, and erect a rather high IQ/financial barrier to entry, amateur radio is both much better behaved than most expect yet what little misbehavior exists is incessantly gossiped about.

Broken_Hippo2• 10 years ago

"The world is much less poetic and open minded than many techno utopians would like to think".

A short read on news stories or youtube videos reminds me of that. I'm nearly always disappointed. I'm one of those techno utopians. I had great hope for the internet 20 years ago. You know, folks broadening their minds, learning things, not being so racist, finding similarities between places, and so on. And while they have, to an extent, I'm still sorely disappointed.

libeclipse• 10 years ago

I know what you're getting at, but the generalisations in your comment are astounding.

lagadu2• 10 years ago

The world is much less poetic and open minded than many techno utopians would like to think.

The problem isn't the world, it's that you're assuming the rest of the world (including the western one) shares your values and aspirations of what should and should not be down to minute details.

auganov• 10 years ago

I've talked to plenty of perfectly nice individuals on Omegle in text mode. But it's not like people want to talk about deep topics right of the bat or at all. Perverts aren't to blame for that not happening. Given random people most won't even know as much as you do about their country's situation and whatnot. A 1 to 1 chat with a stranger is a really bad format for that kind of conversations too.

What you can do is, say, talk to a Syrian refugee about cats or pizza.

seanwilson• 10 years ago

I'm curious if this issue could be resolved by moderation and reviews so that people that want to talk about similar things are paired up and trolls are blocked/isolated.

tgarma12342• 10 years ago

Or a rating system like how Uber works. I mean the idea of getting into a car with a random stranger isn't that awesome of an idea and yet it works. Maybe like "Perv: 3 stars. Politics: 2 Stars." So that people who want to talk to perverts could find highly rated perverts easily. Otherwise, you just talk to people who want to chat about general things.

Broken_Hippo2• 10 years ago

I view the idea of chat roulette much in the same light. I think it is cool in the purer sense of the service. Too bad those haven't really worked out in that sort of sense. And I have the same hopes, honestly.

Addressing the edit: That isn't the same sort of thing. Siri gives weird access to information. The idealized version of Chat Roulette (with actual conversation as the norm) gives human interaction, experience, and viewpoint that the digital assistants just can't seem to match yet.

rando444• 10 years ago

'chat roulette' as it is now referred, actually worked reasonably well back in around 1997 when Mirabilis built the feature into their ICQ messenger

I used the feature quite a bit. I'm sure it eventually got taken over by predators and scammers, but it lasted quite some time.

Years before that there was microsoft netmeeting, which was built into windows.. and for some crazy reason it had a phone book listing of all of everyone using the app. You could open the phone book and call anyone anywhere in the world.

really it's just all about the balance of well-minded people, and perhaps as the internet grows and the barrier becomes lower for people getting online, the odds end up not working in favor of these sorts of things..

ObeyTheGuts• 10 years ago

U just wrote comment on international site. You are interactinwith people from all over the world all the time on international websites, idk what borders u tryingto break? Other than censorship and lack of iernet access.

a-l-c-o• 10 years ago

"Your call may be recorded."

Non merci.

hiimnate• 10 years ago

According to the site, they've only had 150 calls since July 18th

truth_sentinell2• 10 years ago

This is pure gold. Thanks for giving me this. I will enjoy talking to random people and improve my conversation skills, plus I will get to know more French. Again, this is gold.

campuscodi• 10 years ago

That would imply talking in French... so no, thanks.

calimac• 10 years ago

The French or doing anything they can to revive there stalled and dismal tourism Industry that is suffered from the Islamic terrorist attacks and over bearing waves of "Muslim refugees" who have harassed tourists, actually, Muslim terrorists who mowed sightseers down with a semi truck on basil day.

JMCQ87• 10 years ago

If you want to go to places where there hasn't been any terrorist attack nearby, you don't have many places to go to left.

Irrational fear, a car accident is the far more likely option to die.

richardw• 10 years ago

Reminds me of this. Brazilian kids learning English by talking to US seniors, who love the company:

https://www.cna.com.br/speakingexchange/

zwetan• 10 years ago

OK... french guy here and yep I gonna rant as french usually do

I don't really have any problem with the concept/idea (if there is an idea in the first place)

but why oh why someone in 2016 thought it was a good idea to call a phone number ?

"The call will be charged as an international call" I mean WTF?

did those guys ever heard of all the way you can connect people on the Internet for free ?

Really if I can stream live a gaming session on Twitch or whatever I should be able to, at least, use bit of that tech to talk for free without having to use an actual phone number right ?

I don't know... something like random Skype or random gtalk or random whatever chat that support voice ...

crazy idea right ? instead of using phone lines let's transfer voice over the Internet ...

so they "rely on digital innovation & UXs to promote tourism in France", so sure let's use phone numbers and pay international charges right ?

and let's make an horrible front page design while we are at it, here the concept put the french flag color everywhere: blue, white, red, simple!

It's look "cute" like that but please the clichés all over the place, like "Our Telephone Ambassadors commit themselves to speak in English (with the French accent of course!)" ...

oh and let's write "French" as a reverse hashtag eg. frenc#, that will make us French look so cool ...

The French Number – Connect to a random French person and talk about anything

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