Would you use audio replies on the forum?

[Melooon]

Annoying people often send me 20 second voice replies when I am texting them, and I have to take out my headphones to hear their voice when they COULD have just texted me. However I'm aware this is a popular mode of communication..

So it struck me.. why don't any websites allow you to leave voice replies?? We could do that if people wanted 

People could leave 20 second super compressed audio clips as responses to things??

Particularly for people who have a hard time typing long responses, maybe a voice reply could suit them better; or perhaps a quick voice "thanks" is an alternative to a like.

I dunno! 

[Glumpups]

Voice replies sound super fun! A new way to communicate and express urself is always a wonderful time.

PLUS, a big thing for me as a musician and sound designer would be a way to use audio in forum posts to show people snipits of songs without having to go thru video embed.

I would have a ball with audio replies!     

[larvapuppy]

If these get added in, I will not be listening to any of them, just saying. 

I think if someone really doesn't want to (or can't) type, a speech-to-text/dictation program is a better bet than a voice recording. I don't want to have to sit for a set amount of time to listen to someone breathe, stumble over their words/points, cough, etc when I could just read a paragraph. It's much more smooth, efficient and accessible (I am not willing to run and find headphones to take in 99% of the things people say online).

If you wanna talk to me with your voice, call me or come find me. If you're not willing to do that, put the effort in to write a message that makes sense.

Also, literacy is already getting worse because of AI, short form video, etc. We should be encouraging people to read and write more, not less.

Some kind of audio communication section of Melonland might be fun/expressive for the musically inclined, or the ability to have audio embeds (if we don't already have that?), but audio in place of text sounds like...

a headache

[ABlueRose]

I completely agree with larvapuppy, I really don't like audio replies. Glumpups does bring up some interesting ideas on what it could be used for, I really don't like the idea of it replacing posts. Especially since this forum works to encourage more thoughtful responses

[IndigoGolem]

Against:

On ABlueRose's note, it's true that so many responses here are thoughtful, and i really like that. Shorter stuff, simple messages like "hello", have a place in the shoutbox. So maybe there. I could see that encouraging voice messages replacing the little things like "hi" if they're made very convenient. I don't know how much of an issue storage and bandwidth are for Melon.

I also just think these are often annoying. Song snipits would be cool, but having to listen to a parts of an otherwise typed conversation is no fun. If i'm listening to music i have to pause that, if there are people around me i'm aware of how annoying it is when someone plays this stuff without headphones. I wouldn't listen to them for the above. I wouldn't make them because i don't like talking and i figure if these bug me, they probably bug other people too.


For:

I agree with glumpups that audio embeds instead of embedded video would be good for sharing music. Altho, A) people already illegally upload songs everywhere and Melon might not want that here, and B) i don't make music so i don't feel that my opinion on this should hold much weight.

It would make the forum yet more unique. I don't think features should be added just to be different, but the weird things this site does are cool.


I wouldn't use them, but it's not the end of the world if some people do.

[kurohaato]

I feel like audio replies are best for personal chats. Whenever I use audio messages, it's to explain something to one of my friends quickly that I feel would take too long to type out and/or be too annoying for them to read. Audio messages solve that problem by condensing whatever I'm talking about into a 45 second clip instead of them staring at the little jumping llls for 10 minutes while I type.

On a forum, that's not really a problem that needs solving. Longer messages are what's expected, and if there is a character limit it's in the 100k range and not 2k. Replying in a timely fashion means within the week, not within 30 minutes (or less). And people come to forums to read longer posts - it's not like Discord where reading anything more than a paragraph or two feels like the mental equivalent of mountaineering. Would it be a cool feature? Of course! It's fun and quirky and full of comedic potential. But it's there to be there and not there to solve the same problem it solves while DMing someone.

[arcus]

I appreciate the novelty of the idea, but I wouldn't use it. It has a fair few downsides compared to text. Aside from the ones already listed:
 

• It's difficult for some non-native English speakers, who find it harder to pronounce English than to write it.
• Trans members may be reluctant to use it because of dysphoria.
  
• My voice is incredibly charming and people would fall in love with me.
• It's identifying, removing an element of pseudo-anonymity to the forum.

Instead, how about one-way text replies on posts? If they're one-way, there would be no pressure to reply back. And if they're only visible to the post's owner, they wouldn't splinter off and possibly start their own discussion.

So it struck me.. why don't any websites allow you to leave voice replies?? We could do that if people wanted 

There is, or was, a social media site that used audio over text for posts. I don't remember the name off hand, but I believe it had a nautical themed name.

[Dan Q]

I love the idea of experimental non-text reply formats. A couple of years ago, I wrote some hacky code to let people reply to (specific) posts on my blog using animated drawings, and it was a lot of fun, for example.

I was thinking I might do an audio-like experience in a future iteration. Perhaps styled like a "Dictaphone"-style tape deck that you can add a message with. I'm a big fan of accessibility though so I'd want to allow transcription as well, probably. I've been playing with some ideas (stalled because of my housing situation!) this year to have a more gamified approach to allowing different media types to be used in my comments (and future guestbook!), so it could feed into that.

Anyway... all of this is to say that... I think it'd be an interesting novelty... but wouldn't add anything of particular value. I've attached an audio version of this message using the existing "attach" system: does it improve it in any way? I'm not convinced it does. If it'd be fun and interesting for you to implement, go for it! But I don't think the feature is by-itself a valuable general-purpose feature.

[myleszey]

There is, or was, a social media site that used audio over text for posts. I don't remember the name off hand, but I believe it had a nautical themed name.

The only platform I can think of that this applies to is Clubhouse. It's fairly popular among folks who enjoy trying to hold conversations with 12 different people in the same room, like music executives.