The four roles
Every room runs on a small, clear cast. That structure is the whole trick: it means nobody ever walks in wondering what they're supposed to do. One person holds an idea, two people listen closely and help it land, and an unlimited crowd watches and quietly feeds the conversation from the side.
Sparker
The host with the idea — they hold the floor and keep the room's energy alive.
Miners
The two active listeners the Sparker is actually talking to.
Lurkers
The silent crowd — they listen in, react, and arm the Miners with ideas.
Echoer
A live interpreter who voices a beginner Sparker's meaning alongside their own attempt.
The Sparker
The Sparker is the catalyst, and there's exactly one per room. You open the room by loading your idea's key points, then you hold the floor and carry the conversation — roughly three-quarters of the talking is yours. Your job isn't to win anything; it's to keep the room alive, the way you'd keep a good coffee chat going: explain, react, riff, draw people in.
On the stage your avatar sits up top, anchoring everything, with your key points pinned in the center for everyone to see. If you've got something you're itching to get across and you want to feel it land in someone else's head, this is your seat. See getting started to load your points and go live.
The Miners
There are exactly two Miner slots, and they're the heart of the room. Miners aren't a passive audience — they're the specific people the Sparker is talking to. A Sparker can't build an idea in a vacuum; they need real listeners reacting, asking, pushing for the clearer version. That's a Miner: an active listener who keeps the idea honest and helps it sharpen.
The two Miners flank the Sparker on the stage, one on each side. Being a Miner is the natural first step onto the mic — lower stakes than hosting, but you're still part of the real conversation. And when you're spent, you're never stuck: tap Request a Sub to hand your seat to a waiting Lurker. See In the room for the live tools.
You can only really go deep when the room is focused on one mind at a time. A single Miner would give you that focus — but one listener is fragile: if they freeze, blank, or drop, the Sparker is suddenly alone. Two keeps the attention tight enough to think hard while adding a fallback brain and a second, more reactive source of questions, so the back-and-forth never stalls. Push past two and the focus scatters — it stops being a conversation and starts being a panel.
Miners own their seats completely. There's no forced removal — no Lurker can tap you out and nobody can hijack your slot. You only ever leave a Miner seat when you choose to.
The Lurkers
Lurkers are unlimited — the crowd, headphones on, zero social anxiety. No mic, no spotlight, no pressure to perform. On the stage they appear as small, muted pips in the background. It's the most comfortable way to be in a room, and a perfectly good place to start: learn the rhythm before you ever speak.
But silent doesn't mean idle. Lurkers are the Miners' brain trust. You can send short text tips that only the Miners see — a sharp question, a counter-example, a "ask them what they actually mean" — and the Miners decide what to voice. Your idea enters a live conversation through someone else's mouth, which is the lowest-risk, highest-reward way to participate. You can also drop anonymous vibes (floating emoji) that the whole room feels, and write a one-line report synthesizing the Sparker's idea — if it's accurate, the Sparker can like it. More on all of that in In the room.
And any Lurker can stop lurking: hit Request to Mine to slide into a Miner seat the moment one opens.
The Echoer
The Echoer exists in one place only: an Audio Chat room. They're never a seat on the main stage — there's no fourth corner. Think of the Echoer as a live interpreter sitting beside a beginner Sparker: half language coach, half co-narrator. Every Sparker card in an Audio Chat room is built by the two of them together, and it carries both their voices.
The loop for a single card:
- The Sparker drafts. They type a raw take — in Vietnamese or rough English — into a private draft only the Echoer sees.
- The Echoer polishes. They rewrite it into punchy, natural English and hand the clean text back.
- Both record, side by side. The Sparker dubs the polished line in their own voice — their real attempt — and the Echoer records their own interpretation of it: a short "here's what they're getting at…" in confident English.
- The card ships only when both submit. Neither voice goes out alone. Once the Sparker's dub and the Echoer's interpretation are both recorded, the card drops onto the timeline — and listeners can play either one.
A beginner shouldn't have to choose between "say it myself" and "say it correctly." So they do both: the room hears the learner's own attempt right next to a fluent interpretation of their intent. The Sparker keeps their voice and their nerve, the room always understands what they meant, and the both-must-submit gate makes it genuinely collaborative — the Echoer can't talk over the beginner, and the beginner is never left unintelligible.
It's the same idea-sharing loop with the live stage fright removed — a place to build, check, and voice a thought before it ever meets a crowd. If you're the more confident speaker, being an Echoer is a quietly generous role: you help someone else find their words, and lend the room your read of what they mean.
How the stage is laid out
The three live roles lock into a simple, readable shape. The Sparker sits on top; the two Miners sit below, one on each side. Pinned to the center are the Sparker's key points — a gentle teleprompter for the Sparker, and a shared map for the Miners so everyone knows where the conversation is headed. Everyone else sits in the background as small Lurker pips. Active speakers can turn on webcam, because a little eye contact makes the whole thing feel like talking to people instead of into a microphone.
Moving between roles
Roles aren't permanent. Three mechanics let you climb in, drop out, and hand off cleanly, so nobody's ever trapped in a seat they can't sustain.
Climb up — Request to Mine
Lurkers are never locked out. Tap Request to Mine to get in line for a Miner seat. When one opens, you're pulled straight up into the conversation — no host approval needed.
Step back — Step Down
Any active speaker — Sparker or Miner — can hit Step Down to instantly mute and drop back into the silent, zero-pressure crowd. No negotiation, no penalty: an immediate, dignified exit whenever you need to breathe.
Hand off — Request a Sub (SOS)
When a Miner is drained or blanking on words, they tap Request a Sub. Their seat starts pulsing — visible only to the Lurker crowd — and the first Lurker to claim it inherits the seat and the mic in one smooth move. The outgoing Miner slips safely back into the crowd, and the conversation never drops a beat.
And you don't even have to be in a room to get into one. Flag yourself in the Waiting Hall and a Sparker can invite you straight into a Miner seat — you just accept the prompt. It's the calmest on-ramp of all: you sit available, doing whatever else you like, until the right room comes to you.
There's no rule that says you must speak. Begin as a Lurker, learn the feel of a room, and climb when you've got something worth saying. The way back down is always one tap away. Read the philosophy for why it's built this way.