On application Rooms, which enables the user to create discussion forums on the Internet about things that interest him, and to invite others to them, without necessarily using real names - thus reviving "heroic" old days of the Internet, with Forums, message boards and chatrooms.
Rooms, an application of Facebook Creative Labs, has been available since yesterday on iOS in the US, the UK and some other English-speaking countries.
As mentioned in a related post on the Rooms blog, "one of the magical features of the early days of the web was connecting with people you would never otherwise meet in your everyday life. Forums, message boards, and chatrooms were meeting places for people who didn't necessarily share geographic locations or social connections, but had something in common. Places where what you said mattered more than who you were and who you knew. Today, as we spend more and more time on our phones, primarily to communicate with friends and family, the role of the Internet as a 'third' party is beginning to fade."
A "room" is essentially a feed from photos, βίντεο και κείμενο, όχι ιδιαίτερα διαφορετικό από αυτά που συναντά κανείς στο Instagram ή το Facebook, με ένα κεντρικό θέμα το οποίο καθορίζεται από όποιον έχει δημιουργήσει το «δωμάτιο». Οι αρχικοί users have already created such spaces for a variety of topics, from homemade food, parkour, etc.
“The creators of 'rooms' can also control almost anything around them. Rooms is designed to be a flexible, creative tool. You can change the text and emoji on the 'like' button, add a cover photo and dominant colors, create custom 'pinned' messages, customize member permissions, and even set whether users can link to your material on the web or not. In the future we will continue to add more customizable features and ways to 'tease' your 'room'.
The creators of Rooms emphasize that one of their favorite features of the Internet is the ability it gives anyone to be whoever they want to be. "We want the 'rooms' you create to be liberating...from unique obsessions and unconventional hobbies to personal finance and health issues, you can 'celebrate' the sides of yourself you don't always show your friends." And for this reason, it is emphasized, the user can use whatever name he wants, just like the forums and message boards of the old weather. "You can still create different identities for different themes," he says.
In closing, it is mentioned in the blogpost that in the first phase there is a focus on working closely with a small set of community builders, with the aim of forming successful "communities". “If you think your 'room' has the potential to become one of these, we'd love to know how we can help. Send us an email at team@rooms.me, along with an invitation to your 'room' and a paragraph about why you think your 'room' has the potential to be an important community for certain kinds of people."
The App Store Store page is located here.
It is noted that at the beginning of the month, in a NY Times report, there was talk of a stand-alone application by the "social networking king" that would allow users to interact within Facebook without having to use their real names.
Source: naftemporiki.gr
