I believe that YNews is supposed to be a place to quickly catch up on the latest thoughts in the start-up community. It should serve the interests of the busy start-uper and minimize the amount of time needed to get informed -- a chat room does not do this.
Additionally, chat room discussions are disorganized and difficult to properly archive. They represent a step back from threaded discussions; however, chat rooms offer real-time communication. That's their sole advantage.
I think if that's what we as a community want, we should propose some features to accomplish those goals without losing the advantages of threaded, archived discussion. How about features like thread subscriptions, reply alerts, the ability to reply to a child comment via text message, thread organization tools (some distinction between link threads and discussion threads), etc... There's no need to cannibalize the existing community system when better alternatives exist.
I don't really either. But I lurk anyway, because then I'm caught-up on all the discussions and can jump in when I'm taking a break from coding.
Personally, I like chatrooms because they're much better for networking. I'm much more inclined to visit the startup of someone I converse with (as opposed to comment with), I'm more likely to make introductions for them, recommend them for jobs, etc. Basically, I could consider someone that I spend a fair amount of time chatting with a "friend", while someone who I only talk to on message boards is a "professional acquaintance".
This is mostly because of everything you dislike about chatrooms: they're disorganized, they tend to veer off-topic, they devolve into social chitchat, they're spontaneous, and they take up lots of time. You don't really know a person until you see how they behave spontaneously, when they aren't thinking out their response. Hell, I probably seem significantly less intelligent in chats than on here. But it's that vulnerability that makes me trust folks I chat with real-time more than folks I discuss with on a message board.
BTW, I'm also in #news.yc on EFnet, along with Jey. Kinda quiet there at the moment (I think we're both working on startups), but that's just because it hasn't reached critical mass.
It's a frustration of mine when people propose technological solutions to social problems. Facebook, twitter, et al. are absolutely horrible substitutes for real human interaction. Real-life interaction can be intimidating for some but are a very real necessity. We're built to read body language and receive a strong, low-level, satisfaction from doing so.
How does this sound? I'd love to see this forum act as a networking spring-board; maybe YCombinator Cambridge would be so kind as to provide space for a meet-up?
I'm also in Boston, or rather one of the Boston suburbs. I'm pretty sure there are other Boston folks around. So if somebody could propose a time and a space...
I'm afraid that without official support any attempt to organize a meet-up would yield similar results compared to past attempts. PG -- chime in!!
I currently live in Boston close to the Mass Ave bridge, but spend a decent amount of time roaming coffeeshops in both Boston and Cambridge.
I'd propose a meetup this Thursday (the 3rd) evening or Sunday (the 6th) evening either at Diesal Cafe in Sommerville (my favorite coffeeshop to hack in http://www.diesel-cafe.com/ accessible via the T), or the Espresso Royale on comm ave.
I'll bring my cofounder, and maybe 1 or 2 friends if anyone's around and interested.
Technology is a poor replacement for human interaction, but I take what I can get.
I'm a huge Gamer and because of IRC, I got to know a lot of good gamers. So lets do a Y Comb IRC. It's a good way to get to know people, especially if you're not in the Boston Area. You really have nothing to lose as you will always have the Y Comb threads to read. For those who aren't interested, you don't need to join IRC..purely optional.
So lets pick a channel..jey's channel?