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Question
Feature Request: Transform Hangouts to Coworking space
@marc, I've been chatting with some folks here and we're all keen on a silent coworking room on WIP. It seems like Hangouts, outside of the weekly call, isn't getting much love (I've checked a few times and it's been empty). Maybe we could rename it to Coworking in the menu, or even create a new page for it. And if the Whereby API allows, showing the number of people online could be super helpful. What do you think?
coworking.png
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coworking.png
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Yep, this plus maybe add some banner at the top saying "Working alone? Join the coworking link and talk to other WIPers!"
That's really good suggestion! It could also be incorporated into emails for an extra nudge to join the coworking space.
Wait, is there a coworking button or did you add that?
Also, friendly reminder for people who don't know: I've opened my private community coworking space (open 24/7) to WIPers. :)
Link: workfrom.com/@it4rt7
It's a mockup for @marc as I'm really hoping it'll persuade him to make it a reality. 🤭 Your space is really cool I like todo features, but I'm longing for a group setting within WIP where people can work on their own projects side by side. It seems like the best shot at making my dream come true soon. 😊
Yeah I was just about to mention this but you beat me to it! Personally I didn't save the link and I kept forgetting where to find it 😅.
Yea agreed with @zellwk - I forgot the link the last time, will bookmark it now. That said, I think a better solution given that we're all on WIP is just to use the "meetups" tab which I hope gets renamed to "Coworking" with a "# users online" indicator like @screenfluent mentioned. Seems a whereby subscription is already being paid for, so we might as well use it. cc @marc
I swear I wasn't ignoring you @ben. I was only supposed to take a 1-hour break before my event but ended up passing out for 4 hours and was still in the space😹
Love the mock-up!
We do actually already have something similar on the top right, on desktop. It will show a list of everybody's who's on the hangout page. But as you've noted, there's usually nobody there 😄
It's a bit of a catch-22 problem, because I'm sure people would join, if there was somebody there. But nobody wants to be the first.
Question: if we did have a dedicated "Coworking" page, what would it look like in an ideal world?
Personally, I wouldn't want to broadcast a silent video stream of myself working, but the idea of having a virtual, shared space does seem interesting.
I'm thinking a list of avatars of who's in the session, a way to share your current "status" (task you're working on, etc), maybe a very simple, ephemeral chat, a stream of updates (completed todo's of people who are in the coworking session), an always-on lofi music stream, and the option to enable video/mic/audio for those who want.
What do you think? What would be the best possible version of this? What would be the MVP version of this?
I have no problem showing up daily and being the first one there. In fact, I'm there right now. If you create something like the mock-up I provided, I'm sure it will gradually grow over time with minimal effort on your part. Later on, you could invest more work into it. I've read the Whereby documentation, and they have a function to pull information about the number of users.
I think the mvp can just be:
1. Rename hangouts to coworking
2. Show an indicator of how many people are online on the left hand sidebar as shown in the mockup and see if it helps engagement
Just don’t display “0” and only show a number once at least 1 person enters the room to avoid the empty room looking awkward.
I like the rest of the stuff you mentioned too particularly the music + status sharing part (for that part maybe just add the clickable hashtag of the WIP project being worked on), just not sure it will get people in the room which seems like the first problem to solve - the indicator will serve as a helpful clue that someone is there and it feels like an invite to join almost, at least to me. Right now I never join because discoverability is bad, people won’t know I’m in there unless they click into meetups first. That’s where the indicator is useful
Then the extra features can be built once people are actually using the meetup/coworking room
I think the current problem with the hangouts is because we pop into an empty room without any indication of whether anyone will pop in. It also feels like a Zoom Call which is kind of awkward when you're the only person there with only your face showing up.
If the UI changes a bit like @cat's room, I think it's gonna get better.
So in my room, there's a feature where I can create events. Maybe that'd be pretty cool to have every once in a while to have scheduled coworking sessions where we know that at least other people will be there.
We actually have on WIP! wip.co/meetups – you can create a "meetup" with the event type of "hangout"
I should clarify this in the UI :D