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Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

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Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

#91

Post by Klathmon »

nuggien wrote: post #81
v64 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't speak for the rest, but I personally use the GitHub integration to be notified in chat when builds have failed, pull requests are submitted and commented on, etc. Otherwise I end up having to keep GitHub open in a tab and refresh every minute.

I don't understand. Why would you have to have a github tab open and refresh? There have always been email notifications for all these events. Also, why is getting these notifications in chat preferred over email?

Chat is just nicer to work with.

Emails are in their own isolated packages. If i get an email saying the build broke, there is no easy way to check the last time it happened. I wouldn't be able to glance at the last few messages and see that the build breaks every time "X" commits or the tests fail every monday. I can't easily get context on what someone was doing when it broke.

With something like slack it's all right there. The last 3 alerts, maybe a few messages from devs quickly explaining what happened (or preemptively saying that the build is going to break, and it's okay), someone taking responsibility and saying that they will handle the fix, etc...

It's just nicer.

Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

#92

Post by charlieflowers »

nakedrobot2 wrote: post #12

Skype is horrible. I'm sorry but it is such an awful tool. It crashes, it loses my old conversations, group calls never work. It is truly horrible, the codebase is a rotting pile of garbage that will never be fixed. I am glad that Slack will not be eaten by Microsoft. I hope they really do implement voice soon.

> I hope they really do implement voice soon.

They have! It's in beta, but we've been using it at my workplace for 2 days now. Audio only so far. Better audio quality than anything else we use (appear.in, lync, hangouts, among others).

Integrated into slack, so you click a button in a channel to start a call anyone in the channel can join. Nice.

Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

#93

Post by cdnsteve »

We initially used Skype on our team to communicate with others. However, the software was horribly buggy on OSX. Slack has become part of our main toolchain. It works, has the basic features you need and doesn't get in our way. The integrations are great and we'll continue to use them.

Unless Microsoft rebuilds Skype for the ground up, I don't see us leaving Slack for it. They had their chance, and they dropped the ball.

Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

#95

Post by harryh »

pcmaffey wrote: post #44

The real question is, would Stewart B. take the offer? Anyone who cares about their product knows a sale to MS is a death knell for innovation. Becoming a hit like Slack is such a rare opportunity. I mean, why are you in this business if not for a chance to build a transformative platform? Which is what Slack has right now, a chance.

My gut says that Stewart doesn't take an 8B offer. But that, of course, raises the question of what number he does take. It's very hard to know.

Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

#96

Post by debaserab2 »

ForHackernews wrote: post #72
chishaku wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ICQ, Microsoft instant messenger ... slack like tools... I think people too often overlook Slack's integrations. Yes, Slack is "just" chat or "just" a glorified IRC. Or is it? I don't know how long it would take me to integrate my Stripe, Github, Trello, and Zendesk streams into IRC to the point where I could set it and forget it. I think for business users at least, using this type of setup _effectively_ could mak…

Does a tool display clickable hyperlinks? That's all the integration I (and I suspect many other people) care about. I can't even imagine what it might mean for " Stripe, Github, Trello, and Zendesk streams" to be integrated into Slack, or why I might want them to be. Want to share a gist with somebody? Just send a link to the gist to the chat channel, and people can click it.

I'd say slack/hipchat has become the repository of alerts/notifications/etc that I would normally receive through e-mail. A lot of times these notifications aren't super mission critical and don't require immediate attention, but it's nice to have the history of them so I can investigate when necessary.

Having this outside of e-mail keeps my e-mail inbox less cluttered. That's my reason anyways.

Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

#97

Post by cheez »

cdnsteve wrote: post #93

We initially used Skype on our team to communicate with others. However, the software was horribly buggy on OSX. Slack has become part of our main toolchain. It works, has the basic features you need and doesn't get in our way. The integrations are great and we'll continue to use them. Unless Microsoft rebuilds Skype for the ground up, I don't see us leaving Slack for it. They had their chance, and they dropped the b…

Microsoft had their chance and dropped the ball on a lot of things, but they always figure it out.

Skype on OSX looks much better now and I suspect if they're focusing on Skype instead of spending $8B, then you're looking at serious competition.

Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

#98

Post by ThomPete »

Before I started to use Slack more frequently I was in a Skype chat group with some ex colleagues of mine. We simply started a group chat and just kept it consistent.

It was actually a pretty easy and great way to share links and discuss things. We even toyed with some ideas around a link grabber for alle the stuff we shared there. We only moved to Slack because of better support for link sharing and some other things.

If Microsoft can't figure out how to turn Skype into a Slack competitor they are more than welcome to contact me. I have plenty of ideas on how to to do that :)

Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

#100

Post by gshulegaard »

cpeterso wrote: post #62
gshulegaard wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seems as though slack like tools get eclipsed every 5-10 years as a new generation comes along with a new favorite tool. You've definitely got a point there. Although I do want to mention that part of the reason Slack eclipsed other tools was, in part, its Websocket based protocol. They have created a fairly complete unified messaging application because of it (IMO). They were the first movers in the area. I don…

IRC Cloud's web client uses WebSockets.

I don't think that IRC Cloud was originally based on websocket...I think it used 'keep-alive' but I could be wrong. Although it still has documentation on how to use HTTPS for stream end-points (https://github.com/irccloud/irccloud-tools/wiki/API-Overview).

Also can't find much information about WebRTC support for IRC Cloud.

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