There’s a media darling out there that’s been hard to ignore. It’s been on South Park, the New York times, and college campuses everywhere. I’m talking about Chatroulette. The issue with it is also very obvious in the coverage. The aynomous nature of it creates some really bad behavior. Most notably, people exposing themselves on camera. While it’s part of what makes it so talked about, it’s not going to help in the long run make it a destination that people want to return.
At DownToEarth, I learned quite a bit about dealing with bad behavior. We implemented RealRatings to verify profiles, using other people to help reward good behavior. We implemented other tools that helped us kick out those bad actors. Now, we’re taking those lessons and applying them to StirChat.
To be honest, it took us a bit to get to this point. We started out with just a basic video chat with more or less the same as ChatRoulette. We had to have the basics right before we moved to our advanced version. I’m happy to say that we’re now ready to show off our video chat tool, Stirchat.com.
We’ve just launched a leaderboard on the site. During the conversation, a member can rate someone as “cool” or “fool” and this helps determine their ranking. If a person chooses to register, they can keep their rating over multiple sessions. Registration is optional, and we don’t reveal the username to the other person. This should help incent good behavior on the site, while still keeping the air of anonymity There will be more benefits for these users over time.
On the other side of the tracks, we know how to get rid of bad behavior. Early tests aren’t perfect, but they’re also promising. I’m convinced that we can solve the penis problem.
We’re excited about improving such a media darling. I’m eager to hear what other people think of our improvements.
Our slogan – More Talk, Less Cock.
Tags: chatroulette, Stirchat.com, video chat tool, webcam chat