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Article URL: https://www.mikekasberg.com/blog/2025/04/13/i-fought-the-irs-for-over-12k-and-won.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43680575

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Hi HN,

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!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43680569

Points: 3

# Comments: 3

Article URL: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-14/menlo-park-based-energy-startup-nabs-258-million-to-power-data-centers

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43680568

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://dogedownloadtool.pages.dev/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43680563

Points: 1

# Comments: 1

Article URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/13/books/mario-vargas-llosa-dead.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43680303

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/11/defense_department_cancels_contracts/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43680287

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/apr/14/librarians-in-uk-increasingly-asked-to-remove-books-as-influence-of-us-pressure-groups-spreads

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43680283

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://csirt.divd.nl/2025/04/14/SicommNet-Basec-product-warning/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43680249

Points: 2

# Comments: 1

Article URL: https://plausible.io/blog/time-on-page-ga-vs-plausible

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43680242

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/lab-grown-human-teeth-scientists-dentist-b2732534.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43680240

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://omnom.zone/?src=hn

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43680232

Points: 5

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://medium.com/@GregPogorzelski/the-thing-about-the-kobayashi-maru-4d5e1e49993e

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43680231

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://news.mit.edu/2025/engineered-bacteria-emit-signals-spotted-from-distance-0411

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43680228

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://therectangle.substack.com/p/why-am-i-still-on-twitter

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43680224

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://news.berkeley.edu/2025/04/11/half-of-the-universes-hydrogen-gas-long-unaccounted-for-has-been-found/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43680222

Points: 1

# Comments: 1

Article URL: https://photoguruai.com

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43680204

Points: 1

# Comments: 1

Article URL: https://github.com/usemodel-dev/cli

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43680198

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://hackerone.com/reports/2846011

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43680177

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/13/pidgin_chat_client_uopdate/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43680170

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/11/microsoft_windows_recall/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43680157

Points: 1

# Comments: 1