Show HN: TownSquare, a tiny presence layer for websites

(townsquare.cauenapier.com)

97 points | by cauenapier 15 hours ago

24 comments

  • freakynit 45 minutes ago
    I made something similar last year: A p2p chat popup (that sits on bottom right of the page as a bubble) that allows all visitors to chat with each other. It had simple keyword based moderation in-built (can be easily bypassed though).

    Was planning to add github oauth to get a known identity and persistent messaging so visitors can chat with each other across sites.

    Instead of a webmaster adding script to their site, it was a browser extension.

    The intent was two folds:

    1. Get to know other people having similar interests,

    2. Try something on the lines of a decentralized chat/messaging system.

  • zdc1 7 minutes ago
    This was actually a lot of fun. Not as much trolling as I anticipated. Surprising amount of normal chit chat.
  • purple-leafy 20 minutes ago
    Moderation moderation moderation . It’s a big problem

    I have similar moderation concerns in my browser game/engine but I only ban offensive slurs not swears, but I give no visual affordance that the word is not allowed

    The only surface where players see the input content is in a share card, and if they finish a game and get to the share card they will find the offensive word has been REDACTED lol

    So it’s a long feedback loop just to find out your hijinks lead nowhere

  • lambdaone 3 hours ago
    I just took a look at the page's own 'town square'. At the moment, it's largely full of people saying offensive things for the sake of it.
    • trollbridge 2 hours ago
      Within about 300ms I thought “moderation is going to be a problem”.
      • wwind123 54 minutes ago
        Yeah, I had exactly the same thought.
    • dools 2 hours ago
      So it’s a twitter plugin?
  • afpx 1 hour ago
    There was a thing from the 90s kind of like this called Third Voice. It was a cool idea, but I remember there being a lot of backlash from brands.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Voice

  • simondanerd 1 hour ago
    Love the idea. Could use some filters and stale (sleeping) clients could get removed quicker.

    Also, it seemed to be disconnecting quite often, maybe a hug of death thing.

  • ameon 28 minutes ago
    this is a very clever concept. I'll keep it in mind for the future - when my app site has persistent amount of visitors. Are there some rules/settings for stop words to prevent some types of abuse? Or is it planned?
  • Procrastes 33 minutes ago
    This is great! Thank you for sharing it. Fun to use and already customizable.
  • hallman76 1 hour ago
    I've always wondered if we could find a way to add content website's content without it turning into a shitshow. MLS listings / Zillow is an interesting use-case. A realtor might describe something as "sun-filled" but omit that the home is next to a 24/7 dump truck repair warehouse.
  • monkeymeister 3 hours ago
    Neat idea! It's simple but very effective - and I really enjoy the detail of the benches and the tree. Very nice.

    I wouldn't add it to any of my sites due to the unmoderated nature of it - seeing some fairly unsavory things in your demo - but that's just a little tweak, I'm sure!

    • wahnfrieden 3 hours ago
      openai has a free moderation endpoint. no reason to not use it.

      edit: downvoters either know something I don't about its unsuitability, or have outdated info on it and think it's against terms to use it for reasons unrelated to GPT. it's not against terms.

    • sourcegrift 3 hours ago
      If your website attracts such elements perhaps there's a reason?
      • DougN7 2 hours ago
        The demo is attracting the HN crowd and it’s getting… well, let’s just say this crowd is about as good as it gets online.
  • oraziorillo 3 hours ago
    I love the idea! The next step is to add role play games in town squares.
    • Procrastes 34 minutes ago
      I was thinking the same thing, or even just little minigames and Easter eggs for people to find.
  • patcon 2 hours ago
    I've been playing with presence too...! I def am thinking about using it more for real-time motion communication (which is largely missing from web) rather than text (which is very overrepresented, and where most moderation comes in).

    I was toying with the idea of making a little crowd representation sticky at the bottom, like watching a screen together :)

    Regardless, I love concepts like this. Thanks!

  • ArcaneMoose 1 hour ago
    Really cool but should limit # of people shown when there are too many. Currently it gets really laggy
  • winddude 1 hour ago
    interesting. i'm appearing as a grey guy not the orange guy like your blog says
  • loloquwowndueo 3 hours ago
    > NOTE: This project has been mostly vibe-coded

    I deeply appreciate the honesty here. I’ll pass based on the vibecodedness of it but perhaps it won’t be a dealbreaker for others.

    • lolptdr 3 hours ago
      Is it the philosophical reason you refuse to engage or is it because you don’t trust the security of this project?
      • brody_hamer 3 hours ago
        Easy come, easy go. I find most vibe coded projects are abandonware.

        Also, in this context, security.

  • mirkofr 2 hours ago
    Maybe adding rooms will be a good move
  • vitorbaptistaa 4 hours ago
    This is amazing! Congratulations on the launch. Repository link somewhere?
  • zhxiaoliang 1 hour ago
    I enjoyed the design.
  • amatecha 2 hours ago
    Oh what the heck? That's super cool! Awesome idea. Possible future enhancement: some basic day/night (or even weather?) design elements that match the timezone of the person whose site it is? Still, doesn't even need it, it's really cool as-is!

    I could see it being used as some avenue for saying toxic stuff, so I'm suddenly feeling like the only allowed actions should be ones that can never be harmful (like text interactions are just choosing from a pre-set list)..

    • vitorbaptistaa 31 minutes ago
      Nintendo does this on Mario Kart, just allowing text from a pre-set list. It's very limited, but works.
  • lellow 3 hours ago
    haha nice project! I stayed there for a couple of minutes and had such a good time!
  • mkl 3 hours ago
    Not really a square if it's 1D - everyone ends up on top of each other.
    • Wolfbeta 54 minutes ago
      Not really a highway if it's a series of tubes.
  • cyanydeez 3 hours ago
    would make more sense with webrtc.
  • sourcegrift 4 hours ago
    First saw this on lobste.rs . Great idea, perhaps allow for a little customisation? I'd like minimal animation, just a counter of present people and a green dot that vibrates when someone is typing. Clicking either opens a chat box with last 20 minutes.
  • melvinczyk 3 hours ago
    I like the idea of this like a town square for websites. Nice job