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+# Notes towards a Chat Service
+
+Now:
+
+* Chat tools divide discussion by "channel"/"room"
+* A channel is an undifferentiated sequence of remarks.
+* Social dynamics in small channels: don't interrupt the current channel discussion even if you have another discussion to raise that would be within the channel's purpose.
+    * Conversations are bimodal: short bursts of generally-interesting remarks, or long chains of interrun responses. Not much middle ground. (Think meme channels vs discussion channels.)
+    * Small groups + robots: the robots interrupt things anyways, because they're robots.
+* Social dynamics in large channels: it's moving too fast to really track, unless it's the _only_ thing you're doing.
+
+Slack specifically:
+
+* Per-social-circle UI modality makes it awkward to engage with multiple discussions at a time unless they all happen in the same place.
+* Universally poor respect for consent.
+* Pricing/business model issues:
+
+Instead:
+
+* A channel is a group of distinct discussions, plus a jumping-off point for new discussions.
+* A user viewing a channel sees an overview of the ongoing discussions (maintained automatically or semi-automatically) along with lists of their active participants, and any initial remarks that could lead to a new discussion.
+* A user can join an ongoing discussion and see the remarks to date, or duck out of it to see the summary again.
+* A user can leave an ongoing discussion to indicate that they no longer expect to participate and may not respond to things said.
+* Conversations "age out" of channels after they fall silent.
+* Aged out conversations are still visible in archives and in the participants' clients, and necroposting brings them back.
+
+* New remarks to the channel appear as "prompts."
+* Responding to a prompt creates a conversation.
+* Prompts age out (quickly) if not responded to.
+
+![A channel overview. On the left is a list of channels and groups. On the right, dominating the screen, is an area showing two converation previews, with avatar lists and a response button. At the bottom is a callout for John Doe, showing an un-responded-to prompt. Below that is a text field with the legend "Say anything!"](/media/chat/notes/channel-overview.png)
+
+![A conversation overview. On the left is a list of channels and groups. On the right, dominating the screen, is an area showing a single conversation between two participants as a list of chat lines marked by speaker. At the bottom is a callout for John Doe, showing an un-responded-to prompt. Below that is a text field with the legend "Say anything!"](/media/chat/notes/conversation.png)
+
+Why:
+
+* Allow multiple concurrent discussions within the same nominal channel with minimal crosstalk/confusion.
+* Insulate conversations from accidental interruptions, while making it easy to intentionally participate.
+* Closer model to rooms full of people.