I hate it. I really enjoy programming, and don't enjoy social niceties. And I definitely don't enjoy someone looking over my shoulder all the time.

So that leads to 2 situations: I'm programming, but someone is looking over my shoulder and stopping me constantly (or doing nothing), or I'm watching someone else program and constantly frustrated that it's not me.

Even during an emergency I'm often better off just doing my thing solo, and the other person using their own methods to investigate and fix the problem. Chat is still available to share information and progress without it being a constant annoyance.

The only thing I think it's really good for is learning to program, and unless the people are the same level, it's probably only good for 1 of them.

I think this is a well-intentioned but horrible idea. I'd much rather have a benevolent dictator who is willing to listen to suggestions than someone who is controlled by whatever majority of users is voting today.

I like the color of the first one, but the second one has a lot of atmosphere that the first doesn't. Hopefully neither of them are final, or that's just a bad screenshot for the second one.