Hmm. Can website acceptable use policies really prevent you from distributing/using browser extensions?
Do we really not control our own browsers anymore?
Bye bye BetterSlack
191–200 of 392 posts
Re: Bye bye BetterSlack
#192Slack desktop app is Electron, right? This might be a stupid question (it's been downvoted before), but can a user run chrome extensions within Electron apps? Or a debugger? If not, could a simple website wrapper electron app therefore be much more favourable for a company to run whatever scripts, tracking, and adverts than the same website? Can the same be said for Progressive Web Apps for mobile?
I was able to attach a debugger on any app that I’ve tried.
I’ll share how to do it in an upcoming blogpost... all you need is asar and open the debugger after a reasonable timeout.
Re: Bye bye BetterSlack
#193"we prefer that you do not include the word “Slack” in your product’s name." From the people who had no problems naming their product identical to the colloquial name of the oldest maintained GNU/Linux distribution, thereby confusing the hell out of actual technical people for the longest time with press releases. Also, Bob Dobbs called... (Edit: you can take away my upticks, but you will never take away my slack. "H…
I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess you're in the extreme minority if you honestly confused Slack the chat client for Slackware the Linux distribution. That's...a leap.
Frankly the origin of Slack's name has nothing to do with Slackware Linux (or Linux in general) so I'm having difficulty following your grievance here.
Re: Bye bye BetterSlack
#194Slack desktop app is Electron, right? This might be a stupid question (it's been downvoted before), but can a user run chrome extensions within Electron apps? Or a debugger? If not, could a simple website wrapper electron app therefore be much more favourable for a company to run whatever scripts, tracking, and adverts than the same website? Can the same be said for Progressive Web Apps for mobile?
I was even thinking about shipping an app that tweaked the Slack app for you, but after this experience (and since I don’t really use it) it’s not worth the effort.
Re: Bye bye BetterSlack
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I think you can safely ignore this cease and desist Will you cover his legal costs for choosing this decision? Right matters less than resources if it's expensive to even be right. You can state your case here on HN without repercussion, not so when being sued (it costs to even state your case reasonably due to hazards of self-defense and it costs dearly if you lose).
There isn't even a threat to sue yet. I'd at least wait until they escalate and post everything publicly as we go.
It's implied. Unwillingness to abide by a request from a company's legal team, especially after acknowledging receipt, can be used against you in court. Court cases about web scraping and other site ToS violations have referenced received stop requests when considering willful violation.
Re: Bye bye BetterSlack
#196If someone made a Chrome extension which enhanced our users experience of SabreCMS I'd send them a wholehearted thankyou and probably try to hire them.
Re: Bye bye BetterSlack
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
I worked at a medium-sized company during the transition from IRC to Slack. The problem the company had was a split in comms networks. There was a lack of will on the part of engineers to move to GChat, and non-engineers were unwilling to respond/engage on IRC. Marketing, Sales, and Admin were using GChat, while engineering used IRC. Getting everyone on the same comms platform was a major improvement. I'm not saying…
I worked at Cisco, who had their own awful IM client. Our team used Hangouts instead with great success. Company-wide conferences were a ball-ache. The corporate solution didn't mute by default, so with 40000 people in a conf it devolved into a "TURN YOUR MIC OFF" shouting match for the first 10 minutes.
> I worked at Cisco, who had their own awful IM client.
Which one? Webex, Jabber or whatever they use for their 50k€+ videoconferencing systems? I have only had the honor with the first two and, jeez, it's a nightmare...
Re: Bye bye BetterSlack
#198How is an acceptable use policy even relevant to the developer of this application? Its the users of the app who would be breaking the policy. At worst they can argue that he broke it while developing it... so they can go ahead and shut down his Slack account. Totally fair. Change the name, obviously. But fuck these companies like Slack who think they run the world and that gives them the power to control what code y…
IANAL but there's case law around maliciously causing a breach of contract. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortious_interference
IANAL either, but it seems like that only applies in the case of malicious action on behalf of the accused toward the contract signatory; essentially coercion.
Re: Bye bye BetterSlack
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
this was a bunch of Tampermonkey scripts... but I don't want to ignore their cease and desist. I... just don't do it. changing the name is not an issue... however, if I have to take it down, that's moot.
@g3rv4, I understand it really sucks and feels terrible. But I also understand their reaction. Don't be surprised about legal writing. He/She as a legal person is responsible for writing in a very clear and explicit way since any misunderstanding might cost the reader or themselves in the future. It just shows their accountability. You don't want a misunderstanding cost you trouble. I have colleagues working in the l…
> Don't be surprised about legal writing. He/She as a legal person is responsible for writing in a very clear and explicit way since any misunderstanding might cost the reader or themselves in the future.
Ok, then he/she can be called out since we are on the front page of HN and there is a lot of noise and harm done. I honestly can’t see a single reason why slack legal department, probably worth millions per year, in a company worth several billions, can write such things just to kill a free chrome extension built by a single person for non profit reasons. I never used slack but from now on I will actively advice against using it. When you arrive at the point that you can’t even modify your browser to see whatever you like I think that we are almost at the brink of total destruction/anarchy/“choose your not so preferred destination”. Disclosure for slack layers: I never used your product, so I never agreed to your TOS and I would never use it hopefully. I am not associated in any way with any of your competitors. I sadly have to admit that sometimes I play with JSFiddle in my browser just for fun. If you want to sue me please go on, there is not much difference compared to what you are suing g3rv4 for.
Re: Bye bye BetterSlack
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
this was a bunch of Tampermonkey scripts... but I don't want to ignore their cease and desist. I... just don't do it. changing the name is not an issue... however, if I have to take it down, that's moot.
@g3rv4, I understand it really sucks and feels terrible. But I also understand their reaction. Don't be surprised about legal writing. He/She as a legal person is responsible for writing in a very clear and explicit way since any misunderstanding might cost the reader or themselves in the future. It just shows their accountability. You don't want a misunderstanding cost you trouble. I have colleagues working in the l…
But they are risking something. As a Slack user, I find the temerity of this extremely annoying. I imagine that I'm not the only one.
If those enterprise customers are worried, they're free to lock down browser extensions on their employees' systems if they want. If they're worried about this, they should be just as worried about extensions acting on webmail, internal sites, etc.