Isn't SE already a hangout for SE?

No, 'cause google hangouts are video conferencing. It's like when we were really into tiny chat a couple years ago, except you can have more people in it at once, and we don't have to create a new "room" every time.

Right, and I thought tinychat was a stupid idea, too. If you want to socialize with SEers, what's wrong with doing it on SE?

I'm not saying it's fucking mandatory, geez. Just an option for those of us who want it.

arrowhen is having trouble disengaging negative nelly mode today. Still safely beneath sanepride levels, though.

OK, here's a positive suggestion, then. Rather than splitting SE's core social activity (talking about random shit) into two separate communication channels, let's create a new SE social activity that wouldn't be possible without real-time audio and video: let's throw an SE karaoke party.

And I'm just asking why you'd want that option. What advantage does video chat have over typing stuff on SE, and does that advantage outweigh the disadvantages of the video chat format?

It's for when you want to pretend you're a talking head on a cable news show.

You're only saying that because you haven't seen the rampant splendor of my cockk and balls yet.

But as soon as I get my webcam working you will!

NEWS FLASH: NOT EVERYONE THINKS LIKE ARROWHEN. FILM AT 11.

Never said they did. Ass.

Please, Ass was my father. Call me Assy.

Speaking of SE, there's a new squatter on sensibleerection.com

They appear to be advertising VMware ESXi 5.1, but the lack of a proper cert makes me suspicious.

Actually that is the web console for a single ESXi host. I just checked and the entire management port range is open. It should NEVER have been exposed to a public network. Someone should be getting a pink slip right about now.

Not squatting. The domain is still assigned to Marck. What's probably happening, and this is a bit sad, is that the IP address that was previously assigned to SE, and thus still in the DNS records, has been reassigned by the hosting company Marck was using. What you're seeing right now is probably just a default page being served by a server or shared hosting setup that doesn't have the sensibleerection.com domain assigned in its settings. The old SE domain is basically just pointing to an unrelated server. I get the feeling SE went down because Marck stopped paying the bill for it. I'm not going to speculate why, but this does seem to be the most likely cause for the site's disappearance considering everything we know so far.

That sucks :(

I click the button but it don't go.

Weird. It works fine for me. I've opened it from the link 3 times.

I just get please wait for EVER!!! ;)

I have no idea, then. You're the bigger programming person out of the two of us, by far.

Yeah, it's probably just Firefox being a butt.

Tried it with my tablet, says the call is over :-

I'd rather not create another account.

I'd rather not buy a web cam and carve out a block of free time in my schedule just so I can sit and watch a conversation get dominated by the loudest extrovert douchebag in the room when avoiding situations like that is the whole reason I'm on the goddamned internet in the first place.

Having a bad day, arrowhen?

Wait, you mean you're not like that in person?

Look. If you don't want to use it, don't. Just figured it'd be nice for those of us who enjoy something a touch closer to face to face communication, yeesh.

Even for people who prefer that kind of communication there are significant barriers to entry:

+ You have to own a web cam.

+ You have to be able to sit in front of a computer and talk -- kinda difficult for people who SE from work or on the bus or whatever.

+ You have to live in a convenient time zone.

Right now anyone who can make it to the website and log in has an equal opportunity to participate in the community. My concern is that by taking part of the conversation away from the website and putting it somewhere else you end up dividing the community. All the "good" conversations will happen over there, and those who can't overcome the technical or geographic barriers to get there will be stuck here with the leftovers.

Face to..?

That's not how I expected that phrase to be constructed here.

I was tempted, believe me.

Bend over, I'll something, something, face to... hmm.

We need the -0 Meh mod back. I can't neg it, but I definitely can't upmod either.

It's better to come here and imagine how everyone looks based on South Park avatars. The voices in my head are surely more interesting than in real life.

Agree. I'm not gonna mod this negatively, because I totally get wanting to reach out socially. We're a community, and what's wrong with wanted to communicate? On the other hand, there's a reason I'm on the internet communicating through writing, and that's because I hate talking to strangers face-to-face. And honestly, I'd like to maintain the illusions I've created in my head of who you people are.

We ARE a community and we DO communicate. Nothing's stopping anyone from "reaching out socially" right here. In fact, it happens all the time. Why would anyone even COME here if it didn't? It's not like this is the only place on the internet to find wacky news stories and occasional porn.

No, this is the best place on the internet to find wacky news stories and occasional porn.

I totally get people wanting to reach out socially in new ways.

Is that better? Please stop reading into what people are saying, and stop being an ass about it.

If "reach out socially in new ways" is what you meant by "reach out socially", then yes, of course it's better to say what you mean. I'm not sure how my not reading the thing you meant but didn't say into the thing you did say counts as "reading into", though. Seems to me it was the opposite of that.

Anyway, I'm not against exploring new avenues of social interaction. My concern is that those new avenues tend to supplant the old ones; technological advances bring internet socializing closer and closer to "real life" socializing and in my opinion that makes the social experience worse, not better. (IMHO, the Telnet talker was the last, best place on the internet to meet new people and make friends with them. It's pretty much all been downhill from there.)

I'm having fun imagining what it would be like to have a video chat room for users of other forums, such as YouTube or Yahoo! News

Picture a million retards invading a Tea Party rally.

Picture a million retards invading a well-attended Tea Party rally.

FTFY

Man, I couldn't tell the difference between that or Chat Roulette. Just a bunch of ugly guys jackin it in front of the camera. Come on, SE, you can do better than that!

Maybe Steele could put some kind of little chat window on the page.