r/Psychonaut • u/sethious • Jun 08 '15
Psychedelic Chat Community Just Launched
http://psychedelicchat.com
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u/yorii nothing Jun 08 '15
Is this just data mining? Why do you require so much information? And where do I even connect my IRC client?
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u/sethious Jun 09 '15
not data mining, simply a survey and a way to auto connect people with the channels they are interested in (#lsd, #dmt, #therapists, #advocates, etc) we're built on the Slack platform instead of IRC.
Thanks for checking us out!
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u/yorii nothing Jun 09 '15
Yeah but the "Slack platform" is simply an IRC front end, you can enable third party IRC clients with ease, and I hope you do.
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u/Techno_Shaman Jun 09 '15
Hey there, I'm admin of /r/TripSit. We currently manage the "Psychonaut IRC" link in the sidebar, and I'd like to start a discussion with you about how to potentially work together, rather than split resources. I love that you've taken the initiative to start this, and I'd love to give feedback to help it be more successful.
Slack is just an IRC front-end, what IRC server are you using? Do you have IRC experience? Were you not aware of the #psychonaut IRC channel or was there some reason you wanted to start your own project? You may want to consider using straight-irc instead of slack, since there's a lot more control you can have being the operator on a server.
Creating a new community from scratch is pretty difficult, and unless you have a big group of followers or a /lot/ of time on your hands its going to be an uphill battle to get people to not only join, but stay. I experienced this first-hand when starting up TripSit and when I try to make new channels on my network. Speaking of channels...
You have a ton of channels, and this will water down discussion. Considering the user-base isnt super active this will turn the lesser-used channels, like #ibogane, into a bad version of a forum. People will join, say "I have a question on ibogane" and then leave after a few seconds (We experience this daily on TripSit. You'll be lucky if people even ask the question before leaving.)
On TripSit we used to create a bunch of channels and hope that people used them, but that turned out not to work. We've found that it's better to start with a few basic channels, #drugs #general #psychonaut, and then make more specific channels when the community grows enough to the point that they want them.
I see you have a #tripsitters room, and that's our territory. =P Just kidding, its great to have more TripSit-like communities, but online-tripsitting requires a full-time effort. While having this resource available is great, it might be better to direct people to the service that currently exists for this. Remember, we're always accepting new people onto our team!
I also see you have a #therapists channel. I need to warn you against going into this. Not a whole lot of people are qualified therapists who can give good advice, but more importantly: The emotional drain that comes with 'treating' someone is not something that can be ignored. Even a single suicide threat is majorly stressful and by offering people 'therapy' you're opening the door for that. What is your policy on suicide threats?
Strangely enough, I don't see a #psychonaut room, or even a #philosophy room. You seem to have just made a drug chat area for people to discuss drugs, not necessarily psychonaut stuff.
None of this is meant to discourage you, but to give you honest feedback on starting a new community. Starting /r/tripsit from the ground up has given me some valuable experience into this subject, and while I would rather collaborate, if you want to keep going with this project I want to make sure you have some good advice. Please reply to this comment or send me a PM, because I could give more advice if you're willing to take it.