I think CampFire is the wrong interface. It seems to me that group chat is much more likely among a diverse and loosely related population such as SO, to devolve into flames more often than not. I think you should consider something similar to FB, if anything, where you control who your friends are and offer control over communication mechanisms to the individual based on established relationships. I'm not sure if I would use it or not, but I would prefer a system that allows me to control who I interact with rather than one or more public spaces that I can either choose to enter or not.
Here are some features that I would like to see if something is done.
- Real-time interaction (chat/group chat)
- One-to-one access controlled by each individual via an mutual opt-in mechanism, or may be public.
- Ability to share files, pictures, etc.
- Use cases
- I want to collaborate with another SO member on a project.
- I want to have a conversation with one other SO member.
- Status updates (think FB wall)
- Personal update access controlled by each individual via a mutual opt-in mechanism or may be public.
- Should be able to
- Use cases:
- I want to let my SO friends know what is happening
- I want to let people know when I've answered or asked a question
- I want a place to organize an interest group or local user group based on SO
- Messaging
- Ability to send a private message to another SO user
- Ability to reject messages (permanently) from another SO user
- Groups
- Should support both real-time (chat) and non-real-time (status updates) interaction
- Real-time access should be multiparty (2 or more)
- Requires a minimal amount of rep in the system (200?) to create a new group
- Inactive groups are automatically removed
- Access is controlled by membership
- Public mode, anyone can join
- Private mode, must be invited by group creator
- Membership can be revoked/blocked in problem cases
Note -- what I'm describing sound a lot like Facebook so I'm not sure that it's actually important to provide the mechanism within SO. I'm actually ok with not having it, though, I've occasionally wanted the ability to directly contact someone that I knew could answer a question better than me to let them know about it.