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Why Slack is inappropriate for open source communications

dave.cheney.net

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Re: Why Slack is inappropriate for open source communications

#11

Post by ntaylor »

maxxxxx wrote: post #4
johnomarkid wrote: post #2

Issue #2, that slack is based on synchronous communication, is something that is always ignored. Sometimes I log in to slack and see a conversation that I want to add something to, but it is 4 hours old with 50+ new messages on varying topics. Even with Slack's new threaded messages it is hard to evolve the conversation after all the synchronous folks have moved on to other topics.

I have recently started using slack and I see the same. Once a conversation has moved on it gets awkward to move back to the previous topic.

This may be a shortcoming of the UI, more than anything else. There's definitely room for improvement here as I often miss updates to threaded conversations even as I'm looking for them.

Re: Why Slack is inappropriate for open source communications

#12

Post by delias_ »

johnomarkid wrote: post #2

Issue #2, that slack is based on synchronous communication, is something that is always ignored. Sometimes I log in to slack and see a conversation that I want to add something to, but it is 4 hours old with 50+ new messages on varying topics. Even with Slack's new threaded messages it is hard to evolve the conversation after all the synchronous folks have moved on to other topics.

If I really wanted to bring up a topic that had passed, I would break out to a separate channel and invite the relevant people and drop a note in the main channel with a "bringing things back up about $conversation in #newchannel". This works better than writing to threads in my experience.

Re: Why Slack is inappropriate for open source communications

#15

Post by rdiddly »

artursapek wrote: post #6
fiatjaf wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why people seem to thing that chats will solve all the problems. Chatting is having to write the same thing a million times.

It's easier to ask for help NOW and get customized answers NOW than to dig through a wiki/documentation for the answer.

Proving the point that someone then has to repeat the content of the docs.

Re: Why Slack is inappropriate for open source communications

#17

Post by rckrd »

ntaylor wrote: post #8

It seems to me that Slack could position itself to provide free and open access to certain types of communities like open source projects, charities, etc. Enable the "pro" features so long as the community follows the rules. The value of synchronous communication is very real and it should not be precluded, but the points are totally valid. Slack is a closed-garden and it does not contribute to the global conversatio…

I believe the Cloud Native Computing Foundation qualified for discounted pricing for the Kubernetes slack channel under this program https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/204368833

Re: Why Slack is inappropriate for open source communications

#18

Post by tetrep »

fiatjaf wrote: post #3
johnomarkid wrote: post #2

Issue #2, that slack is based on synchronous communication, is something that is always ignored. Sometimes I log in to slack and see a conversation that I want to add something to, but it is 4 hours old with 50+ new messages on varying topics. Even with Slack's new threaded messages it is hard to evolve the conversation after all the synchronous folks have moved on to other topics.

I don't understand why people seem to thing that chats will solve all the problems. Chatting is having to write the same thing a million times.

> Chatting is having to write the same thing a million times.

If you find yourself repeating the same thing a lot in chat, it would be a good idea to document it somewhere and just paste a link. With a link to the relevant documentation, a lot of people will just do the rest of the legwork on their own, and will now be able to quickly reference it going forward, and hopefully bug you less in chat (you can always be explicit and refuse to answer people, asking them to read the docs instead).

If you find you're pasting too many links too frequently, then it's time to make an FAQ with those links, and start linking to that.

Re: Why Slack is inappropriate for open source communications

#19

Post by zuron7 »

spectistcles wrote: post #14

It seems kind of funny that an open source project can't find an open source form of communication.

I might be wrong in saying this, but I suppose that most open source projects use IRC, and the larger, important ones use mailing lists.

Re: Why Slack is inappropriate for open source communications

#20

Post by piquadrat »

Is that really happening that open source communities use Slack as their primary communications channel? I haven't seen that happening in the communities I participate in (Python/Django/...). What I do see is that more and more communities switch from IRC to Slack as the primary "sync" channel (while still maintaining mailing lists, bug trackers and the like).

And as much as I hate it, the success can't be denied. Especially when looking at some conferences I've been to over the years. If they even had an IRC channel, it was mostly dead, but the Slack channels were buzzing with activity during the conference. I'm not sure why that is. Ease-of-use? The fact that many attendees are familiar with Slack from work, but not with IRC?

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