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Please don't use Slack for FOSS projects (2015)

drewdevault.com

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Re: Please don't use Slack for FOSS projects (2015)

#91

Post by pieq »

It's almost 2020… what's the status of IRCv3?

We use IRC at work, but I think when you setup an open source project community, you have to think carefully. IRC is for instant communication. If parts of your community are located in a timezone that is only online when you (the maintainer of the project) are not, that will create frustration, unless you start setting up all kind of bouncers or tools to let you be online at all time. In the end, I tend to prefer forums or mailing lists, because people writing can elaborate a bit more, and receive more meaningful feedback later on... but I guess I'm old school :)

Re: Please don't use Slack for FOSS projects (2015)

#92

Post by saithir »

_sharp wrote: post #18

I've used RocketChat at a previous company, basically a clone of slack. I didn't have to manage it, but it seemed to work great.

I don't have to manage it at our company, so from a user perspective it's good enough.

Sure, there are some issues once in a while. Like with everything.

Re: Please don't use Slack for FOSS projects (2015)

#94

Post by pmoriarty »

t0mbstone wrote: post #13

Acting like IRC is equal in functionality to Slack or Discord is straight up delusional. One of the biggest problems with IRC is that there is no immediately obvious way to jump into a channel and browse or search the history. Also, because there are so many IRC clients, and so many servers out there, one person's IRC experience can vastly differ from another's. IRC also doesn't have any of the modern amenities like…

Then let's work on making IRC better instead of eagerly jumping on a closed, corporate-controlled walled garden.

Re: Please don't use Slack for FOSS projects (2015)

#95

Post by tom_mellior »

zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC wrote: post #38
t0mbstone wrote: post #13

Acting like IRC is equal in functionality to Slack or Discord is straight up delusional. One of the biggest problems with IRC is that there is no immediately obvious way to jump into a channel and browse or search the history. Also, because there are so many IRC clients, and so many servers out there, one person's IRC experience can vastly differ from another's. IRC also doesn't have any of the modern amenities like…

> Also, because there are so many IRC clients, and so many servers out there, one person's IRC experience can vastly differ from another's. How the fuck did people come to think of this as a negative? One of the stupidest things about "modern" IT services is that the public interface is a user interface instead of a machine readable iterface, so you can't build a user interface that fits your needs or preferences, yo…

> you can't innovate features independently

That's also the case with open protocols like IRC. Sure you can write an IRC client with reaction emoji support, and it will look great in your client, and anyone using a different client will just see garbage metadata. You can only innovate by getting "everyone" to agree on a new standard, and that's hard.

Re: Please don't use Slack for FOSS projects (2015)

#96

Post by ptman »

imtringued wrote: post #93

As someone who heavily used IRC in his childhood I disagree. IRC is pretty much dead. If you want opensource instant messaging then go with Rocketchat or Matrix with Riot.

Don't go with discord (closed), rocket.chat (open core) or mattermost (open core)

Re: Please don't use Slack for FOSS projects (2015)

#98

Post by tom_mellior »

saagarjha wrote: post #70

> Slack provides an IRC bridge that lets you connect to Slack with an IRC client. Which doesn't exist anymore: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16539857 . As far as I'm aware, there is no way to connect to Slack anymore without their official client, unless you use something that is either their website in an app wrapper or probably violating their ToS.

This is mentioned at the bottom of the article.

Re: Please don't use Slack for FOSS projects (2015)

#99

Post by ptman »

fouc wrote: post #74

Most FOSS projects that aren't on Slack/Discord/IRC seem to be on gitter.im gitter.im's frontend/SPA client has a bunch of glitches, but the backend seems solid.

Gitter is very much tied to gitlab/github/twitter. I for one would prefer if open source projects didn't force to accept terms of service of those services. There is a gitter bridge for matrix, but open source projects should probably just use matrix.
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