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I've been thinking about Paul Graham's idea of Twitter as a communication protocol https://www.paulgraham.com/twitter.html and wanted to experiment with a different kind: location-based chat.
I built Pintalk: https://pintalk.onrender.com
It's a simple web app that lets anyone start or join public text conversations tied to specific latitude/longitude coordinates on a map.
How it works:
Visit the site – the map tries to center near you using browser geolocation or falls back to IP lookup.
Click anywhere on the map to open a chat panel for that location.
Type your first message and hit send – this creates a persistent pin and conversation room at that spot.
Click an existing pin to view the conversation and join in.
No login or registration required. You get assigned a temporary username like User_1234. Messages and pins currently stay indefinitely.
The goal was minimal time-to-value – just click and chat. It's an experiment in discovering real-time, hyperlocal public discussions. What happens when conversations are anchored to places?
Tech: Node.js/Express, WebSockets, MongoDB/Mongoose, and Leaflet.js on the frontend. Deployed on Render.
It's basic right now but functional. I'd love to get your feedback, bug reports, or thoughts on the concept.
Try it out: https://pintalk.onrender.com
Thanks!