is ng-init necessary? #6

https://github.com/commonHR/commonApp/blob/master/www/templates/conversations.html#L1

angular docs say ng-init should only be used to alias properties in an ng-repeat. any reason you can't do what you're doing here in a controller?

reason being that if you can do the same thing two ways, pick the one that is the most familiar or otherwise widely used in order to reduce cognitive overhead for new developers.