<li>Every message has a <b>stream</b> and a <b>subject</b></li>
<li>A stream is kind of like a mailing list -- it represents a group of people -- and anyone can <i>subscribe</i> to a stream and start getting traffic there</li>
<li>A subject, on the other hand, is what the message is <i>actually about</i></li>
<li>(You can, of course, send private messages.)</li>
<li>All of these are displayed simultaneously, in an interleaved way, chronologically</li>
<li>Time flows down, and the page does not automatically scroll</li>
</ul>
<p>This means we can have a conversation about git, jQuery,
fundraising, where to go to lunch, and a message from your commit bot
all simultaneously--without it getting unmanageable.</p>