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Why did Slack win out over IRC? (2018)

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Re: Why did Slack win out over IRC? (2018)

#2

Post by alexandernst »

Because whenever somebody asked for:

* 24/7 presence, the reply was "you can do that with a bouncer"

* backlog, the reply was "you can do that with a bouncer"

* full text search, the reply was "that's up to the client implementation"

* file sharing, the reply was "it's already possible with XDCC"

and so on and so forth.

Basically, it's not that Slack is great, it's because IRC as a whole just refused to adapt to what users actually wanted/needed.

Re: Why did Slack win out over IRC? (2018)

#4

Post by kazinator »

alexandernst wrote: post #2

Because whenever somebody asked for: * 24/7 presence, the reply was "you can do that with a bouncer" * backlog, the reply was "you can do that with a bouncer" * full text search, the reply was "that's up to the client implementation" * file sharing, the reply was "it's already possible with XDCC" and so on and so forth. Basically, it's not that Slack is great, it's because IRC as a whole just refused to adapt to what…

It's because everyone wanted a proprietary chat system, whose single client EXE for Windows chews 400+ megs of RAM.

Re: Why did Slack win out over IRC? (2018)

#5

Post by dijit »

alexandernst wrote: post #2

Because whenever somebody asked for: * 24/7 presence, the reply was "you can do that with a bouncer" * backlog, the reply was "you can do that with a bouncer" * full text search, the reply was "that's up to the client implementation" * file sharing, the reply was "it's already possible with XDCC" and so on and so forth. Basically, it's not that Slack is great, it's because IRC as a whole just refused to adapt to what…

More like nobody bothered to make a decent product that could do all the nice things slack is doing.

(although, that's not technically true since irccloud does all the things you just mentioned)

Re: Why did Slack win out over IRC? (2018)

#6

Post by lidHanteyk »

alexandernst wrote: post #2

Because whenever somebody asked for: * 24/7 presence, the reply was "you can do that with a bouncer" * backlog, the reply was "you can do that with a bouncer" * full text search, the reply was "that's up to the client implementation" * file sharing, the reply was "it's already possible with XDCC" and so on and so forth. Basically, it's not that Slack is great, it's because IRC as a whole just refused to adapt to what…

The replies really should be "no, stop wanting that." IRC is not meant for such interactions, and is built around different social expectations. If you want 24/7 presence, then you ought to justify it socially, because there is a qualitative cultural difference between folks who regularly idle on IRC vs. folks who are only connected to IRC when they actively want to discuss something. Similarly, backlogs are only marginally useful and are usually a security risk, but the typical client does offer full-text search through IRC backlogs, when needed, and I'm not sure why that's a problem for users.

It's obvious why Slack wins for businesses: Because it gives businesses greater control and legibility over their employees' work habits and decision-making. DCC or any other P2P connection is anathema to this sort of control.

Users want different things. They want both plain text and rich text, and similarly, they want both plain chat and rich chat.

Oh, and aside from all of this, there is a working group [0] which publishes proposals for modernization of the IRC protocol. Adoption rates are low, but perhaps that should tell you something about what users actually want.

[0] https://ircv3.net/

Re: Why did Slack win out over IRC? (2018)

#8

Post by josteink »

dijit wrote: post #5
alexandernst wrote: post #2

Because whenever somebody asked for: * 24/7 presence, the reply was "you can do that with a bouncer" * backlog, the reply was "you can do that with a bouncer" * full text search, the reply was "that's up to the client implementation" * file sharing, the reply was "it's already possible with XDCC" and so on and so forth. Basically, it's not that Slack is great, it's because IRC as a whole just refused to adapt to what…

More like nobody bothered to make a decent product that could do all the nice things slack is doing. (although, that's not technically true since irccloud does all the things you just mentioned)

> nobody bothered to make a decent product that could do all the nice things slack is doing.

Slack is a closed-source for-profit SaaS, ruled by a single benevolent company.

IRC is an open protocol-specification with a multitude of clients, servers and networks.

You couldn’t find better apples and oranges for comparison if you tried.

Re: Why did Slack win out over IRC? (2018)

#9

Post by mstudio »

This article is comparing apples to oranges. IRC is a protocol, Slack is a client/app that uses protocols (one of which used to be IRC). Many IRC clients, although beloved by some users, are rough around the edges.

In my opinion, Slack has "won" over other clients because of UX: it's extremely easy to sign-up, understand, and use productively. Plus, even large orgs (ours included), can use the free version if they're OK with having chat history disappear after a few days/weeks.

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