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The latest version of Slack has a setting to disable the WYSIWYG editor

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Re: The latest version of Slack has a setting to disable the WYSIWYG editor

#31
post #12

"I apologize for the disruption to your existing workflows. Our aim is to build an editor that works for all Slack users to better format their messages and clearly communicate in channels, regardless of their technical expertise. While we are taking all feedback on board, disabling the new formatting tool isn't an option that we will be offering."

Source?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21592828

Re: The latest version of Slack has a setting to disable the WYSIWYG editor

#32

In case anyone's interested, here's the Chromium bug(s) that's one of the main reasons the WYSIWYG editor has such issues in Chrome(/Electron): - https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=102937... - https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=608393 - https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=608162 The gist of it is that they "canonicalize" the DOM selection when you have two adjac…

Not sure Chromium is to blame here. All the WYSIWYGs in all the environments I've ever seen I found fiddly and unpleasant to use.

Re: The latest version of Slack has a setting to disable the WYSIWYG editor

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be 100% fine with drafts if it cloned the channel listing instead of moving it.

I wonder if there exists a single person happy with the current state of affairs other then the one who designed it

There's no reason to suspect that the people who designed it are happy with it either.

Re: The latest version of Slack has a setting to disable the WYSIWYG editor

#34
post #11

Amazing to see how Slack turned from something everyone raved about to something everyone is sort of annoyed with and critical of. Maybe that isn't that surprising for most products as they age/mature but it seems particularly acute with Slack.

People and companies alike keep forgetting that the best is the enemy of the good. They achieve success with the good and they try to get ahead of themselves with the better. Sometimes they succeed :-)

Re: The latest version of Slack has a setting to disable the WYSIWYG editor

#35
post #32

In case anyone's interested, here's the Chromium bug(s) that's one of the main reasons the WYSIWYG editor has such issues in Chrome(/Electron): - https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=102937... - https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=608393 - https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=608162 The gist of it is that they "canonicalize" the DOM selection when you have two adjac…

Not sure Chromium is to blame here. All the WYSIWYGs in all the environments I've ever seen I found fiddly and unpleasant to use.

The above demo works fine in Firefox, FWIW. I had a large hand in building a WYSIWYG email editor a few years back, using direct DOM editing, that was the most full featured available at the time. I would only recommend it to people with very high pain tolerance, as the differences between browsers are stark, undocumented and hard to work around.

Re: The latest version of Slack has a setting to disable the WYSIWYG editor

#36
post #32

In case anyone's interested, here's the Chromium bug(s) that's one of the main reasons the WYSIWYG editor has such issues in Chrome(/Electron): - https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=102937... - https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=608393 - https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=608162 The gist of it is that they "canonicalize" the DOM selection when you have two adjac…

Not sure Chromium is to blame here. All the WYSIWYGs in all the environments I've ever seen I found fiddly and unpleasant to use.

All that demo uses is a contenteditable div. The bug is definitely is Chromium.

Re: The latest version of Slack has a setting to disable the WYSIWYG editor

#37

It's pretty incredible to think that for all the billions of dollars around Slack it's still fundamentally the same product with the same value add that it was when it first launched. Sure, maybe it's faster or more efficient or whatever now, but what it is at heart is the _exact_ same thing it was on Day 1.

Does it need to change? I don't want Slack to be a different or more comprehensive tool.

Yes, in order to provide a competitive advantage over the numerous clones that are already coming along, Slack must continue to innovate.

Re: The latest version of Slack has a setting to disable the WYSIWYG editor

#38
post #10

Bring back the IRC gateway.

Just bring back IRC

Ugh no. IRC was great in its day, and I'm sure there are things today that it's still good enough for, but at work, I vastly prefer Slack (and possibly other similar tools, but I haven't power-used any of them yet.) I've been a very, very regular IRC user up until a few years ago. I wouldn't want to go back.

With IRC, there is no simple, just-works-for-non-techies way to receive messages if you aren't online; running irssi in tmux is not such a solution. No proper history to scroll through to catch up on what's happened on your day off, or search for that analysis summary someone posted back in June.

No way to embed images or code snippets in a way that makes them visible without clicking a link or DDC-sending things.

No custom emoji, e.g. for making alert messages easier to scan (like, aws icon, server icon, triple exclamation mark -> EC2 instance(s) have issues and someone should check this right now).

Security and data protection are terrible by default in all ircds I know. Last time I checked, securing channels was a very cumbersome interaction with some custom network bot.

It's harder to get alerts sent to IRC; everyone and their mother offer Slack integration nowadays, and you can literally curl some text against a webhook if none is offered. We do that a lot.

No emoji reactions, e.g. checkmark on someone else's request to say "I did this, everyone else don't bother" or for thumbsup-thumbsdown voting on lunch places or for some sometimes-much-needed comical relief. We use gifs very, very seldomly, but they, too, are great for some comical relief.

No treads, like for "I just finished this analysis, this is the summary, details in thread" – extremely useful.

No functioning way to edit or delete messages for everyone after the fact (and see the edit history if needed) – great for "oops wrong channel", "i copy-pasted the wrong numbers", etc.

Yes, some could be improvised on IRC in some way, others could be replaced by lots of redundant messages, and if everyone agrees to use the same client (like irssi in tmux), and you sink enough time into hacking your ircd, it might even come somewhat close – but I vastly prefer the ready-to-use UX candy. Well worth the cost of the Slack premium package, IMO.

Re: The latest version of Slack has a setting to disable the WYSIWYG editor

#39

Still waiting for an option to disable "drafts" (channels all of a sudden jumping to the top of the channel list)

I'd be 100% fine with drafts if it cloned the channel listing instead of moving it.

I provided that /feedback as soon as it rolled out (to me) I guess 6mo ago. I even got a reply along the lines that it was totally reasonable and eminently sensible, and yet here we are.
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