Call Someone Who Cares

by andrewmwatson • 15 years ago

147 28 15 years ago

badhairday• 15 years ago

I can't give Twilio access to my microphone on Lion with the latest stable version of Chrome. So no, I can't really someone someone who cares.

johns• 15 years ago

http://www.twilio.com/help/lion-tamer

patrickod• 15 years ago

Thank you for this. The lack of working flash in Lion has been a really PITA.

tftfmacedo• 15 years ago

[Honest question] By doing that aren't you allowing any app that uses the Twilio API to open your mic/camera without permission?

Timothee• 15 years ago

To be noted, it sounds like it's a problem with the current Flash version and Lion, rather than Twilio themselves.

dmor• 15 years ago

Go Frank!

epanastasi2• 15 years ago

Thanks! It was just a fun little idea I implemented when I should have been doing real work. :)

suyash• 15 years ago

nice idea...(chat roulette - video)!

daten• 15 years ago

This reminds me of anicechat.net but it looks like it uses sound?

frytaz• 15 years ago

There is nobody that cares :)

ookblah• 15 years ago

"There is nobody that cares" hahahahaha. I feel sad now.

rokhayakebe• 15 years ago

Let me sign up and give an hour (of my choosing) block per week to listen to someone else. I would do it for karma.

epanastasi2• 15 years ago

Thanks for the feedback! Right now the app is pretty barebones. I can see what I can do to hack together a better user / presence system when I get some time.

bobz• 15 years ago

Just last night, I was thinking how great (and successful) a service like this would be.

JayNeely• 15 years ago

You should consider teaming up with http://compassionpit.com/

ADiMichele• 15 years ago

Good work! I've had some cool ideas for Twilio projects but so far the pricing has made them all impractical. The Twilio Client is really opening some doors in this respect, being 1/4 the cost of a phone call and a cool feature to boot!

I still hope you have some throttling in place though because 1000 concurrent users will cost you $150/hr...

neoveller• 15 years ago

"There is nobody that cares. Maybe you should be that somebody."

Okay. Waiting for someone to call... ... ...

This is the most inefficient way to rickroll anyone ever

anthonyb2• 15 years ago

The idea's coming from the right place, but it looks like a serious troll magnet to me...

Joakal• 15 years ago

The 'Call Someone Who Cares' is coming across as sarcastic too despite the original intentions.

joeyespo2• 15 years ago

This might be a good example of where karma can be useful.

Karma for listeners: Highly upvoted accounts can take precedence to talking to newcomers; they've proved that they can listen well, giving new callers a good experience. This will encouraging them to come back or even to sign up as a listener by following the good listener's example.

Karma for callers: If they ever call again, they will be able to talk with newer listeners. Perhaps you need to have enough karma to even be a listener. Why? Listening is a more important quality for the site to be successful. Starting out as a caller lets allows you to follow the top listeners by example, while keeping the trolls away from other callers.

Also, a low enough score can block the account for an X amount of time. Where X increases each time they get blocked. And I think more karma = more weight on your vote could help with regulation. Mostly because voting will take place much less often than on other social sites.

This is an awesome idea though, I hope it catches on.

anthonyb2• 15 years ago

I doubt it. It's possible to be a troll regardless of whether you're a listener or a caller. Rating individual calls might help somewhat, but that's also possible to game, and by the time you've banned someone, it's too late - the call (complete with laugh track) will already be on Youtube.

intended• 15 years ago

I would love it to catch on, but there are massive social/legal/moral issues with it.

Eg 1- someone going through a depressive phase hits up with a troll (ref: case where someone was in a chat room, streaming a video of himself just before he committed suicide, people in the chat room egged him on)

Eg 2- Someone is suffering a depressive/manic episode, but turns to this and is not directed to medical help immediately OR someone has an issue which would require them to go to a professional, but the listener is not trained/aware and hence can't give them critical advice

Eg 3- Young adult who has had a traumatic day turns to this service, gets put in touch with someone who has strong beliefs. (or even mild ones)

Eg 4- High Karma person is taping calls of people talking to them

hackly• 15 years ago

As the Reader's Digest once put it (according to Dale Carnegie): "Many persons call a doctor when all they want is an audience". This could save people if done well.

ericdschmidt• 15 years ago

Bravo!

zackattack• 15 years ago

Hey, I run CompassionPit.com and have built up a sizable, stable community.... (40,000-200,000 unique visitors/month). I would be very happy to collaborate with a like-minded individual. The app is on the node.js stack and I've funded development and hosting entirely. I've released the source for free.

https://github.com/zackster/CompassionPit--Node-/

known• 15 years ago

http://www.airbnb.com/ + http://www.call-someone-who-cares.com/ is better

johnx123-up• 15 years ago

For down voters, please refer top story http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2811080

Call Someone Who Cares

Related Stories