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Slack Platform Launch

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Re: Slack Platform Launch

#181

Post by ssmoot »

tomasien wrote: post #32
michael_fine wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuine question -- how how is it been a revelation? It seems to be very similar to HipChat, which was just an iteration on previous chat systems.

Hipchat is awful and Slack is phenomenal. I mean I know that probably isn't what you want to hear but it's so hard to describe it any other way. UX/integrations/apps/speed/etc might all be the answer but it was visceral for me.

Once you add history to Slack, it's performance is just awful. One of the worst performing apps I use. It can take over a second to switch rooms.

If I have to cycle through 4 rooms to get to the conversation I want, it can take seconds just to Option+UpArrow there.

Plus I can't manually reorder rooms as I like. I don't get why everyone talks about the Slack UX. Slack has snippets. Which I find mostly useless. Especially since they kill performance. But HipChat lets you reorder rooms as you see fit. Which is something I actually used and miss desperately.

At least Slack has finally gotten rid of the useless Channel vs Group distinction?

Re: Slack Platform Launch

#182

Post by thallukrish »

I feel an App ecosystem definitely helps to expand the functions. However I also feel it is opposite of a nimble app which does one thing clean. In general we have always had this conflict and it is difficult to choose to stay lean and simple especially when you decide to grow and scale to engulf everything. Its almost like 'Let me grab as much as I can before some one comes' sort of thinking. Only the market can prove if this is the right thinking in the long run. But when you see it in the short span, you do not have much choice.

Re: Slack Platform Launch

#183

Post by oddvar »

1stop wrote: post #163
wodenokoto wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A big part of a good chat UI is the knowledge of how things looks in the other end. Real world friendships have ended because of how emoji are rendered differently on different phones.

... Did you just make that up? Slack could still have an awesome UX and be open, people would use it out of choice because it has the best UX.

I agree. We're building https://matrix.org (a free and open communication protocol) and we've realised that until we have a client with better UX than proprietary offerings, people just won't switch.

We hope that a Matrix-enabled client (https://vector.im is looking promising) will get the UI/UX right - and thus actually offer an open and free solution where you can run your own server (should you choose) and own and control your own data!

Re: Slack Platform Launch

#184

Post by tootie »

brightball wrote: post #178

I summarize Slack this way generally: - If you've never used Hipchat, Slack is completely revolutionary. - If you've used Hipchat, Slack is still cool...and then you see the price comparison and ponder...WHY?

My company has both! Why buy one when you have two for twice the price!

Re: Slack Platform Launch

#185

Post by Killswitch »

wodenokoto wrote: post #155
cromwellian wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand why slack is popular, I use it. But Slack's success is it's UI, and that is not dependent on a centralized close protocol. We could have a rich ecosystem of competing chat clients over a distributed messaging bus, it's just that there's no economic viability in it. If SMTP were re-invented today, it would never be open and federated.

A big part of a good chat UI is the knowledge of how things looks in the other end. Real world friendships have ended because of how emoji are rendered differently on different phones.

> Real world friendships have ended because of how emoji are rendered differently on different phones.

What's sad is that's so true. I overheard the other day my 13 year old niece saying she didn't like a certain girl hanging out with them anymore, because she's the only one "with green chat bubble".

Yes. They excluded a girl from their group, because she didn't have a blue chat bubble. (Essentially an iPhone).

Re: Slack Platform Launch

#186

Post by wdmeldon »

1stop wrote: post #163
wodenokoto wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A big part of a good chat UI is the knowledge of how things looks in the other end. Real world friendships have ended because of how emoji are rendered differently on different phones.

... Did you just make that up? Slack could still have an awesome UX and be open, people would use it out of choice because it has the best UX.

Not OP but my girlfriend and I are long distance and the 6.0.1 update for Android is causing serious strain on our relationship. I keep sending her taco emojis but all she sees are little boxes with x's in them. If Samsung doesn't push this update to Galaxy 6S soon, I don't know how much longer we'll be together...

Re: Slack Platform Launch

#187

Post by FatalBaboon »

yoz-y wrote: post #172
FatalBaboon wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're missing cromwellian's point: you could have made the same thing while upholding open values. For example if it was a rich client based on IRC, I could join in on a chat without being a slack customer. I could also be a customer of a competitor that would offer something similar, but more tailored to my usage. Now that would move the chat ecosystem further. But that is not happening, because Slack's bus…

But then you would need to handle all the trouble that come from multiple clients. What if somebody makes a CLI client that does not support file transfers? The experience of official client's users would be worse because now they can't be sure that the other side can do the same things they do. If the protocol were to be upgraded then one would have to wait for all of the vendors to support the new features or we wo…

Additional features that can't gracefully degrade would be a selling point for slack. "Your client does not seem to support video calls, we do, purchase an account here". When it comes to file transfers, a simple link to download the file from slack.com is a good degradation example.

Once Slack is installed and the norm, you lose some choice. You're prisoner of the way they want chat to be.

I'm sure glad Firefox exists, because otherwise I'd have to hop in the Chrome bandgwagon and sell my data and habits to Google without a choice. The competition there goes further of course, as Mozilla upholds different values, and competing teams try to make their products faster and better.

And then, they fall. Look how Microsoft used to sell a product but now capitalizes on users' data. What will happen when Slack falls? What if I don't want my chat data hosted by some company, but in house, and my business partners use Slack? Where will the choices go?

Re: Slack Platform Launch

#188

Post by [deleted] »

Nowyouknow wrote: post #45
adamseabrook wrote: post #34

No need to build your entire startup on Slack but a solid integration can drive serious initial revenue for your startup especially if you do not get a lot of direct traffic. "One click install" is what helped Woocommerce and others get massive growth on the back of Wordpress through top exposure in the plugin directory. Slack is still very much at the bottom of the growth curve. I have seen electrical contractors wh…

I'm sure I can accomplish this with a simple Google search (and I'm going to do that next) but I do want to put a request out there. I'd love to see some use cases of successful, complex Slack integrations and how the organization has saved time/money by making Slack a part of their workflow. It seems to be a tool built for developers, at least I see a lot advocates that are developers. I want to know how personnel a…

[deleted]

Re: Slack Platform Launch

#189

Post by jchoong »

Xylakant wrote: post #140
stanleydrew wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know whether it's important for Slack's marketing to claim they are replacing email. What I can tell you is that it factually has wiped out internal email for our team at Charge. And I think that's pretty common for most teams that have used it. Why write a slow clunky old email when a Slack message will do?

> Why write a slow clunky old email when a Slack message will do? Because email is threaded conversations, while slack is not. I can write 5 different emails and respond to each thread individually, but I can't do that in slack: I can write 5 messages, but my peer(s) can't answer each one individually - they can just write 5 messages and I have to figure out what they respond to. Email has the added benefit of workin…

We have a prototype threading implementation for Slack. Drop a line to @gmail.com if interested to test.

Re: Slack Platform Launch

#190

Post by oddvar »

stanleydrew wrote: post #128
cromwellian wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consumers pay for iOS, but Apple still bans you from selling your app in the store. The gatekeeper function of the platform means they can shut you off at any time. If instead, Slack published a protocol so anyone could author a client, then bots would just be normal chat users, for the most part, on par with regular users, and a bot would simply be something you deploy somewhere to sit in your channels, just like IR…

Yeah it's a shame XMPP turned out to be unable to keep up with the shift from desktop to mobile. Maybe we should take a crack at a more modern alternative?

that's exactly what https://matrix.org is trying to do!
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