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Comment by jimkleiber | Hacker News Reader

I looked at it a bit and am pretty stoked. Not sure how the reliability will work across different internet speeds and countries but will definitely try.

Main desire: ability to name tables.

In running workshops, sometimes each table will have a theme and then people who want to talk about that theme can join the table. Would make it easier for people to know what is being discussed at a table before joining. One facilitation example is the World Cafe method [1].

Any way to do this now as a host or plans to include it?

[1]: https://therightquestions.co/the-world-cafe-workshop-facilit...

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It's probably one of our top 5 or top 10 most requested features. All I can say is coming soon. Any way we can let you know when we release it?

Excellent! Glad to hear. Yes, what's the best way to sign up? I already registered, I think, so sending a message thru the help function?

Named tables would also lead to tribal separation, which may not be the best.

What if the table names were generated automatically instead of allowing you to specify them? That way the "lupiform" table is talking about Javascript while the "wortle" table is all about cooking.

I think that would work as long as the table names were somewhat ephemeral. Otherwise, people would eventually form identities as lupiforms and wortles and you'd end up with the same tribal conflicts.

I'd say could lead to tribal separation, which does happen sometimes at in-person events: people sit with their friends.

However, I think having the ability to take the stage and speak to all participants can help to reduce that, by requesting people to try to mix it up a bit, sit with someone new.

Also, I think the dynamics would be different based on who gets to name the tables. If just the host of the room, then maybe more control. If table hosts can name their table, maybe it has a higher likelihood of people sticking with people like them.

Even if it does lead to tribal grouping, sometimes that's not a bad thing. For example, if I'm running a session where I want people to reflect deeply about some topic, sometimes it's nice to have the built-in trust that comes from being of the same group.

I could talk about this stuff for days :-)

interesting point

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