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Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

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Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#641

Post by mijoharas »

I tried speaking to support to find out if I could downgrade, some of my colleagues don't have this feature. They couldn't(/wouldn't) tell me how to.

One thing that isn't mentioned is the behaviour with pressing up to edit a previous comment, it will put you into the span if the span goes to the end of the message.

I've also had numerous times where the span hasn't closed correctly leading to things in backticks not being formatted correctly (I'm guessing timing issue due to their move to react for this stuff).

It's incredibly annoying. If I didn't have to use slack for work I'd probably bin it.

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#642

Post by deergomoo »

bartread wrote: post #339
tbabb wrote: post #111

This reminds me of Atlassian's god-awful WYSIWYG editor. In both cases, I get that some users can't or don't like to use a machine grammar/markup, however simple. For some people markup is bad UX. Give them a WYSIWYG; that's fine. But don't remove the markup editor if your WYSIWYG editor is anything but a perfect one-two-one replacement for markup (and I have never seen one that satisfies that). IIRC there was a time…

> This reminds me of Atlassian's god-awful WYSIWYG editor. Oh my goodness: triggered. I've barred the use of Confluence at our company specifically because of this. "But, but, we used it at blah company." "Yes, so did I at blahblah company, and it was unbelievably crappy and made me angry every time I had to edit a document: we're not using it." I DO NOT want to have to use what amounts to an extremely buggy, caprici…

For a period, every time I saved changed to a page in Confluence, I had to completely clear cache and session data in my browser because it would just display blank pages until I did. It doesn’t do that anymore, but it’s still a slow, buggy piece of shit.

We also use Bitbucket at work, which is laughably unreliable.

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#644

Post by nikisweeting »

tiborsaas wrote: post #476

I'm maybe a superhuman, but it took me a few seconds to figure out how to paste code as normal. backtick backtick backtick command-v You can still use the create new > code or text snippet feature which I most of the time I pick to share code. It doesn't seem perfect but come on, it's isn't terrible either. I do see however it as the perfect storm for HN crowd :)

Yeah... it annoys me to no end. I cant fathom why they wouldn't support triple-backtick syntax like literally every other modern chat/notes/forums app.

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#646

Post by joepie91_ »

ascar wrote: post #594
niutech wrote: post #522

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is another argument against using proprietary SaaS solutions for such crucial purposes as business communication. There are free open source alternatives which give you full control and privacy: Mattermost, Riot.im, Rocket.chat, Let's Chat.

If you mean with "you" the operator of the tool, then yes I agree partially. But in this context it's more like "you" the user and then using open source alternatives doesn't make a big difference. Updates (which you generally want for security/good features/fixes/x) will still break your workflow regularly. It's about how the service handles change (e.g. options to use the old interface etc.) that make the differenc…

It being open-source (under your control) or not does make a difference here.

In an open-source thing, with this sort of productivity-harming breakage, you could worst-case just pay a random freelancer to fix it for you. You don't have that option with Slack.

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#647

Post by wingerlang »

tiborsaas wrote: post #588
sambe wrote: post #495

This is not one of those "oh, that's annoying, i'll have to remember that and learn to work around it" issues. It's more like "I want to immediately stop using this software but have no choice". Its driving me crazy - Slack is all text input. Don't break text input dummy!

We are different. For me it's exactly the "oh you changed it, never mind, I'll use it a bit differently from now on" situation.

I bet the majority (like 95%+++) of users are like that. I'm technical and while I've only used it for 1 day so far I still sent multiple code blocks and used formatting as usual. Maybe I'll run into problems but so far it's very much a whatever situation IMO.

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#649

Post by [deleted] »

bishalb wrote: post #630
lucideer wrote: post #624

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does anyone (tech savvy or otherwise) need to bold or italicize anything. In my mind bolding/italicizing are nice-to-haves alongside emoji. You wouldn't compromise the entire functional user experience of the central feature of your app for nicer emojis. (at least I hope not).

I myself use them sometimes to emphasize certain parts of the message. They can be very helpful. Many people like bolding certain words in an email as well to emphasize them.

[deleted]

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#650

Post by Sholmesy »

marktangotango wrote: post #632
Sholmesy wrote: post #541

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it is the primary method of communicating within your team/company, then you will find it difficult to not use it, or rather you will be left out of major decisions/changes.

You’ve described the pathology and first reason to NOT use chat for anything important. What am I supposed to do? Sit on the chat all day so I don’t miss anything? I’m on a team that does this now. I ignore the 100 to 1000 plus messages and memes a day and I have missed “important decisions”. It’s a net negative imo.

That may be so, but that's a seperate issue.

If it is the primary method, you'll miss stuff.

Whether it should, is another matter, and running a one-man rebellion from within is probably not the most effective way to change that.

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