Every webpage deserves to be a place

There was (is?) a VR app/"social browser" called JanusVR once, that rendered every website as a room (either how it was explicitly defined through an extended HTML language on the website itself including custom 3d objects (https://janusvr.com/docs/build/introtojml/index.html, exportable from 3d software, or by some default 3d layout process for those sites that don't) and other users visiting it in it - and you could walk seamlessly from room to room like in the game Portal, and see/talk/interact with others! https://youtube.com/watch?v=O4rstRgUsBs

Never took off unfortunately (yet? maybe due to a lack of social/avatar/rendering features?)

The cursors don’t move on iOS Safari for me, but I love that people are trying things like this! Maggie Appleton has explored some ideas about how to make the presence indicators feel less intrusive: https://maggieappleton.com/ambient-copresence

I thought it was broken until I decided to try it in another browser. I guess it works in Chrome on Windows but not Firefox on Windows. Not sure if it works in Safari or not since I don't have my macbook handy right now.

Firefox can’t establish a connection to the server at wss://disco-party.genmon.partykit.dev/parties/page/[random-string]

Uncaught TypeError: CSS.highlights is undefined Or https://cursor-party.genmon.partykit.dev/cursors.js:19

That's cool. I love ideas that make the Web come alive.

But I also feel like many more people need a fourth place, somewhere to think: https://www.dsebastien.net/you-need-a-fourth-place-a-place-t...

It's a cool concept, though distracting as all hell. Might work okay for something special like an /r/place successor, but I sure hope this doesn't become the norm for web pages in general.

It’s a fun idea, though generally I want all my web activities to be solo, not multiplayer, so I’m clearly not the target audience for this feature.

This is not the same but reminds me that every piece of writing deserves annotations and discussion. I don't care much for the "live" part. I wish there was some social network built around that idea, kinda like reddit and twitter, but with in-place comments and side annotations.

Doesn't work on FF on mac sadly. But the idea of togetherness and shared place on each URL is very curious to think about.

It took me a solid minute to be 100% sure the background color was, indeed, slowly changing.

This is really cool actually. It also makes me think that more places should have like a chatroom or something. Just brainstorming here, maybe it needs to be fleshed out more than that.

That's so cool! Is there a way to talk on mobile? Maybe we could add a talk button in the bottom right. I might add this to my website!

I like the general idea, but the execution here is lacking. The inclusion of the "type to reply" feature quite terrible turn off, because it's abused by other users immediately. Further, these cursors are really distracting—ideally they'd be less intrusive and more ambient in nature, at least by default.

The keys used mean that it doesn't work properly for me on Firefox, hitting / opens a search box (in the browser) that I have to close and the Return key to send a message doesn't work at all.

I also don't see any other cursors though that may just be that no-one else is on the site.

edit: works fine in Safari.

Cool concept. Anybody know of a project with realtime spontaneous interactions like this that fits a defined use case?

This is wonderful. How would this work with more than, say 100+ users? Is there some cut off?

I added it to our page https://pollinations.ai :)

I've always liked the idea but found it a little gimmicky. I would love to find a good use case for it, like in Pollinations' case, it could be a collaborative art-making game.

This feels ripe for a browser extension moreso than code on a page itself.

love the concept, i want to be able to chat to the people on all pages I visit. why do i have to socialize OVER THERE when I could do it right here?

This page is unreadable on mobile - safari on iphone.

bro is nudging me to get up from bed and use his site on my laptop or desktop.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa<breath>aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

Needs a dark mode, or at least Dark Reader browser extension compatibility. As it stands, the bright BG hurts my eyes.

People don't want this. It was tried endless times during the web2 craze (when tech like AJAX and WebSockets picked up steam). At best it's a cute gimmick, at worst it's distracting and annoying.

There have been browser extensions, website plugins, and many, many startups that tried to make this a thing. It's not a thing. Social elements have moved from the comments section to Slack or Discord or WhatsApp or Twitter.