You may or may not have heard of Clubhouse. It’s all the rage in the social media space and is being closely watched by the podcast industry. I posted about this earlier. You didn’t need that service and you also don’t need the copycat Fireside.
Let’s set aside the future lawsuit that may occur regarding fireside.fm and firesidechat.com. Two platforms similar enough to cause confusion in the market place. Fireside (chat) is much like Clubhouse with maybe a few more bells and whistles. Essentially these services are public conference tools where some headline speakers allow people into a virtual room and there is the potential for audience members to “come up on stage” to pose a question or enter the conversation. Whoopy doo.
From the app itself, which The Verge has seen in screenshots, users can “react” to conversations with emoji and sound effects. People can clap, for example, which shows up in the recorded conversations and solves for a problem Clubhouse users have run into: a silent room and no way to gauge how what they’re saying is going over.
Audience members can also choose an emoji and type a comment without jumping into a conversation directly. These comments and emoji will show up over participants’ heads as a thought bubble. Moderators or hosts can then type back or address comments during the chat.
If participants do want to join the live chat, they can request to join the stage by tapping a microphone emoji and submitting a written request.
The Verge
I don’t see why people need to join another platform from which to be de-platformed. I wouldn’t expect too many really good conversations of controversial topics from your average person. These platforms can’t risk that kind of exposure or expense. Only celebrities might want to get in on these services as the services can pay them for their appearances, much like a live in person conference.
If you are an authority on a topic you’re much better off having your own domain and web presence and follow that up with your own podcast using services such as Fireside, Blubrry or Buzzsprout. While you’re still using another’s platform to host your files you have more freedom and are less likely to be de-platformed for a view that doesn’t fit the mainstream narrative. You are also free to move around if you own your own domain and control your own RSS feed.