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Threaded messaging comes to Slack

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Re: Threaded messaging comes to Slack

#11

Post by Sir_Cmpwn »

bluetidepro wrote: post #9
Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #7

On IRC you just take the discussion to another channel, which can be created ad-hoc and trivially disposed of when no longer necessary. Or you just become good at reading around multiple conversations at once. There's also no expectation that you need to read everything to catch up when you come back after a while - take that to email if you need to. Much better real time chat culture, imo.

To be fair, that same trivial disposed chat concept you mentioned lives in Slack, as well. It's incredibly easy to quickly make a group DM chat from a channel. > "There's also no expectation that you need to read everything to catch up when you come back after a while - take that to email if you need to." Slack doesn't require that expectation, either. You can easily change settings of Slack to just ignore messages t…

I'm not saying Slack doesn't have the features to support this. I think that the addition of threads are a response to a lack of this culture.

Re: Threaded messaging comes to Slack

#12

Post by Navarr »

johnnycarcin wrote: post #2

I'm actually a bit sad about this. To me the whole thread thing is the biggest issue with Microsoft Teams. In my opinion it really makes the channel hard to read and keep track of. I like the first part of the Slack implementation where the thread opens up in a new pane on the right but where it falls apart (for me) is how it displays in the main channel.

I feel the same way. I think the way its burried is good for the product.

You don't want EVERYTHING to be a thread, but sometimes - rarely, you do want something to be a thread for the sake of the flow of the particular channel.

Re: Threaded messaging comes to Slack

#13

Post by tabbott »

bluetidepro wrote: post #6
tabbott wrote: post #4

I've spent a lot of time thinking about the problem of how to make threading work as the lead developer of Zulip, an open source group chat application where every conversation is threaded, and I think adding Facebook-style comment threads to messages is the wrong approach. Fundamentally, what you want is to be able to read and participate in multiple conversations with a given group of people (a channel) at the same…

Your comment seemed pretty genuine, until you had the 3 paragraph plug for your Zulip product that competes with Slack.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about all the possible solutions to the problems associated with chat rooms. The issue that it's hard to talk about multiple things at the same time in a channel is common to Slack, IRC, Jabber, and just about everything else. So have spent a long time designing and building a better solution to those problems.

It's hard to talk about Slack's threading solution without also talking about what I think is the best way to solve that problem.

Re: Threaded messaging comes to Slack

#14

Post by Kiro »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #11
bluetidepro wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, that same trivial disposed chat concept you mentioned lives in Slack, as well. It's incredibly easy to quickly make a group DM chat from a channel. > "There's also no expectation that you need to read everything to catch up when you come back after a while - take that to email if you need to." Slack doesn't require that expectation, either. You can easily change settings of Slack to just ignore messages t…

I'm not saying Slack doesn't have the features to support this. I think that the addition of threads are a response to a lack of this culture.

I use Slack exactly like I'm using IRC. There is no universal culture.

Re: Threaded messaging comes to Slack

#15

Post by shawndumas »

tabbott wrote: post #4

I've spent a lot of time thinking about the problem of how to make threading work as the lead developer of Zulip, an open source group chat application where every conversation is threaded, and I think adding Facebook-style comment threads to messages is the wrong approach. Fundamentally, what you want is to be able to read and participate in multiple conversations with a given group of people (a channel) at the same…

iOS client not avail in US?

Re: Threaded messaging comes to Slack

#16

Post by jc4p »

tabbott wrote: post #4

I've spent a lot of time thinking about the problem of how to make threading work as the lead developer of Zulip, an open source group chat application where every conversation is threaded, and I think adding Facebook-style comment threads to messages is the wrong approach. Fundamentally, what you want is to be able to read and participate in multiple conversations with a given group of people (a channel) at the same…

I agree wth this comment a lot.

I work at Stack Overflow, where our company chat is split between Slack and an internal chat product we made ourselves years ago.

I think the "comments as threads" concept helps solve some specific use cases (like room clutter) but not the use cases I personally care about the most.

The "in-line method" mentioned in this other article about the change is my preferred method: https://www.fastcompany.com/3067246/innovation-agents/the-un...

My gripe doesn't stem from rooms being too cluttered, it stems from if there are 4 people talking at once and I'm in two different conversations chains with them, I'd like to explicitly reply to a specific message and carry on the convo. not hide it in a comment thread.

On our homebuilt chat product this is the difference between starting a message with `@Name` or hitting "reply" on a specific message and having `@:{Message Id}` as the beginning of your message.

It shows the same to the users, they seen `@Name`, but if it's a specific message reply when they hover over the message the one it's in response to gets highlighted (and there's a button to scroll to it if it's off-screen).

I think this Slack feature, like most features, is targeted at helping people using chat sitting in the same room or office together.

I work at a very remote company where with some people I share less than 2 hours of a work day. I want better chat tools centered around making our async communication flow better. Not out-of-room comment threads.

Re: Threaded messaging comes to Slack

#17

Post by tedmiston »

bluetidepro wrote: post #6
tabbott wrote: post #4

I've spent a lot of time thinking about the problem of how to make threading work as the lead developer of Zulip, an open source group chat application where every conversation is threaded, and I think adding Facebook-style comment threads to messages is the wrong approach. Fundamentally, what you want is to be able to read and participate in multiple conversations with a given group of people (a channel) at the same…

Your comment seemed pretty genuine, until you had the 3 paragraph plug for your Zulip product that competes with Slack.

I found it tasteful and relevant and didn't feel spammy because of the discussion contrasting a feature many people want that Slack doesn't have (or didn't until today and may not still be exactly what we want).

Re: Threaded messaging comes to Slack

#19

Post by obiefernandez »

This is annoying. I know people use Slack in different ways, but as a fan and long-time user in a variety of different contexts (from a few users to hundreds) I've never, ever said to myself... "man, I wish Slack had threaded messaging."

I worry that they're gonna start messing with what made them special in the first place.

Re: Threaded messaging comes to Slack

#20

Post by tabbott »

shawndumas wrote: post #15
tabbott wrote: post #4

I've spent a lot of time thinking about the problem of how to make threading work as the lead developer of Zulip, an open source group chat application where every conversation is threaded, and I think adding Facebook-style comment threads to messages is the wrong approach. Fundamentally, what you want is to be able to read and participate in multiple conversations with a given group of people (a channel) at the same…

iOS client not avail in US?

Not available in general. It's a long story, but the original iOS app was pretty alpha, had an obsolete codebase, and wasn't working well. We unpublished it from the app store a few weeks ago, since it was worse than just using the website on mobile.

The development community has been rewriting the iOS app in React Native over the last couple months, and the new version is working really well! It'll be in the app store in a few weeks. See https://github.com/zulip/zulip-mobile.

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