instant message
Chris Taklis PublicSeen by 41i don't remember if someone has already said it before.
but i think it would be great idea to have instant messaging.
somethink like facebook's... in the bottom left of the page that could talk with the members you choose of those who are online and why not team messaging.
Would you like it to see that? That perhaps it could save more time to write something to a subject and wait for the other to response, and go on with that way.
If we did want something like instant chat, this open source javascript client could I guess probably be integrated without too much trouble:
https://conversejs.org/
I am strongly against adding private/instant message support for the following reasons.
Every non-core feature takes time away from making the core functionality better
Loomio has a core goal, to be a tool for making decisions as a group. Every additional feature that is not essential to this goal costs developer time. Not just to develop the initial feature, but also in maintenance and code debt (which is the real cost), even if you use external libraries. It also adds to operational cost (which is relatively high for instant messaging).
As you add more and more of these "oh this would be nice to have" type features, you lose a lot of clarity about what the real goal of the system is.
A company like Facebook with thousands of developers and billions of VC dollars can afford to waste time building these non-core features, but an open source project like Loomio with a small core team needs to focus on doing one thing really well.
My feeling is that there are still plenty of improvements to make to the core functionality before something like this would be worth it.
There are already plenty of good ways to send private messages
Email, XMPP (and other proprietary IM protocols), Skype, and IRC all solve this problem quite well already. Anything built into Loomio would never really compare in features. It would be a lot better to just link to the details of an IRC channel from the group description, or provide a profile page where people can list their contacts for instant message type discussions.
It encourages behind-the-scenes communication
Part of making a decision as a group is communicating in public. Encouraging private messages means less of that discussion happens in the public, which detracts from the central idea of Loomio.
Hi, this has been brought up a few times:
- https://www.loomio.org/d/UHAqZM01/private-message-system
- https://www.loomio.org/d/SITYzWun/contact-a-member-directly
It's an interesting idea. It's not something that's an immediate priority for the core dev roadmap, but if someone wanted to volunteer to build it we could discuss it. I think it would be important to explore design questions about how to enable one to one conversations that productively then feedback into the group discussion, and don't leave people out of where the communication is happening. Basically, how do we tie one to one chat back ultimately to high quality decisions that include everyone?
yes I'd love this too — would be a way of quick problem-solving not needing the whole group; could substitute for the so-important informal catch-ups that happen before & after formal meetings in offline groups
ps no one said this was specifically about one to one chat, I actually think group chat would be more useful in the context of loomio, but I guess @dnephin is right - there are already plenty of tools to do this. Still, would be great to have a tool that integrated - perhaps as part of the emerging open app ecosystem of which loomio is set to become a part :) https://www.loomio.org/g/exAKrBUp/app-ecosystem
One thing that is coming is real-time updating on Loomio, so if you're posting at the same time as someone else you'll see their updates without needing to reload the page.
I am interesting in real time updating because it will make learning and teaching online facilitation on loomio easy.I can imagine anyone onboarding other people and showing them round would find this really useful
Hi!
I suggest these principles:
When we need something, we look for people who already have useful code or have already created the best application of this type. (As the Internet is maturing, some applications reach a degree of excellence that is difficult to exceed.)
One example is Google Hangouts.
If we want a communication application that meets more needs and criteria, we can create it, maybe not from scratch. (For this, we need to discuss (calling application) and make a plan (collaboration application).)
One thing we can do is allow people to host a communication application where they want. As long as we use servers. But it seems that the MaidSafe team is working on software that would enable an Internet without servers (or decentralized anyway). Maybe when we sell the right to use an application we sell its hosting on many computers, too, and decentralized hosting is flexible, dynamic and more private.