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Ask HN: How do you communicate in a remote startup?

238 points aml183 | 1 comments | 15 Nov 24 19:17 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source

We are a remote company. Everything is going well. No plans to be in person, but I’d say we can do a better job at communicating. Any tips or articles to read?
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screye ◴[15 Nov 24 20:18 UTC] No.42150474[source]▶
If you're in similar time zones, try https://www.gather.town/ ?

I've used it for remote conferences, and I like its 2D UI. Real sense of space there.

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cole_ ◴[15 Nov 24 20:57 UTC] No.42150948[source]▶
When we tried it, gather.town set an awkward expectation that team members had to stand at their virtual desk, otherwise they weren't _actually_ online / working.
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screye ◴[16 Nov 24 01:24 UTC] No.42153333[source]▶
That tracks. To me, gather.town is an attempt to replicate office dynamics in a remote setting. In an office, being AWOL is looked down upon. I can see how gather.town builds the same expectation.

In my experience, this expectation gets set either way. Whether that be a green light on slack or having your video on for all calls.

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1. vundercind ◴[19 Nov 24 17:56 UTC] No.42186306[source]▶
I used a 3d-world collaborative environment in a remote company once, and the only effect I noticed was that it brought the awkward parts of the physical world into the digital world. Where do I position myself? Where do I "sit"? Should I "sit"? Is this the right room? What's the "physical" location I'm supposed to be in?

It was like those flash/java-applet 3D navigation interfaces for websites that were semi-popular for a few years, way back: cute, but just made everything slower and harder.