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Slack’s free plan change is causing an exodus

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Re: Slack’s free plan change is causing an exodus

#111

Post by RileyJames »

JadoJodo wrote: post #21

It's interesting (and sad) how the forums of yesteryear have essentially gone away entirely, with no good solutions popping up to replace them. I know they were/are incredibly prone to security issues, but they were good at one thing and one thing only: community. I recall spending a crazy amount of time refreshing the index on a site called TradeGamesNow (and to a lesser degree CheapAssGamer) waiting for new posts/c…

They were also more than a community. They became massive sources of niche information.

Often incredibly detailed, and incredibly specific to a niche (1980s BJ74 landcruisers in Canada, or Halo 2 mods for Soft modded xbox 360s, or pedal steel guitar - latest favourite)

Some of these still exist. But if they disappear the world will be worse off.

Thankfully some remain in the archive, but once they’re inactive you can’t just jump in and continue the thread.

Some have been going for 10+ years, sporadically. Real time communication is not required for a community. And it’s a really poor way to create information that will remain useful for years or decades to come.

Google seemed to discount forums at some point, and what filled the vacuum is not as valuable to the user.

Re: Slack’s free plan change is causing an exodus

#112

Post by [deleted] »

aeturnum wrote: post #46

This felt like a mean spirited and cynical money play to me, especially coming years after launching free instances. For smaller groups (families, houses, etc) this effectively forces them to pay or lose months or years of history. To me, this says that I can't trust that slack cares about supporting what people are currently using their product for. They'll be looking for opportunities to reduce costs or increase re…

[deleted]

Re: Slack’s free plan change is causing an exodus

#113

Post by Aeolun »

systemvoltage wrote: post #67
layoric wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is absolutely a self hosting option with Discourse, and in fact they encourage it. [0] Here is their install guide [1] [0] https://github.com/discourse/discourse [1] https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/main/docs/INSTAL...

I much prefer the rusty old phpBB UI over Discourse. It was clunky but usually it is an indicator of high quality community that's been run for many years and a bunch of gray beards hanging out having a good time. UI was just fine. PhpBB is still alive and kicking: https://www.phpbb.com/

Reading their latest announcement makes me question how alive they are. Feels like an announcement from 5 years ago.

Re: Slack’s free plan change is causing an exodus

#114

Post by Teckla »

joshmanders wrote: post #38
SubiculumCode wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just migrate to Mattermost?

Just host your own IRC server and migrate to IRC? /s

Or just use a popular, stable, free IRC network such as libera.chat.

A lot of very good IRC clients are available for free.

IRCCloud is a good starting point for a lot of people: excellent UI/UX, a free tier, and a very inexpensive paid tier (around 4 USD/month).

Create as many channels as you like.

Re: Slack’s free plan change is causing an exodus

#115

Post by esprehn »

My wife and I have used slack for years for our personal chat. The multiple channels made categorizing the messages easy (ex. #house, #kid1, #kid2, #coding, etc). The change in free retention meant we'd lose important messages so we've given up on slack and moved to a different service.

I'm sure our small usage of it won't matter to slack, but the money grab and their insistence that this change was somehow better for me because it was "simpler" when I reached out to their support really soured my opinion of them. I wouldn't recommend them to others in the future.

Re: Slack’s free plan change is causing an exodus

#116

Post by nyanpasu64 »

Melatonic wrote: post #56
JadoJodo wrote: post #21

It's interesting (and sad) how the forums of yesteryear have essentially gone away entirely, with no good solutions popping up to replace them. I know they were/are incredibly prone to security issues, but they were good at one thing and one thing only: community. I recall spending a crazy amount of time refreshing the index on a site called TradeGamesNow (and to a lesser degree CheapAssGamer) waiting for new posts/c…

Yeah - one thing I dislike about Reddit - it has eaten up all of the small forums and killed them. On one hand Reddit can be great but on the other hand sometimes you just want to discuss some niche stuff or hobby - and too much other crap will spillover from other subreddits sometimes to make that as useful

In what way does crap spillover from other subreddits? Are you talking about the new Reddit GUI (I use the old one) or mobile app (I use RedReader) spamming posts from other subreddits, or a more cultural aspect of site-wide conflicts?

Re: Slack’s free plan change is causing an exodus

#117

Post by chrisan »

aeturnum wrote: post #46

This felt like a mean spirited and cynical money play to me, especially coming years after launching free instances. For smaller groups (families, houses, etc) this effectively forces them to pay or lose months or years of history. To me, this says that I can't trust that slack cares about supporting what people are currently using their product for. They'll be looking for opportunities to reduce costs or increase re…

Isn't slack a bit heavy for families/houses/groups of friends? Why not something like Telegram?

Re: Slack’s free plan change is causing an exodus

#118

Post by julianlam »

JadoJodo wrote: post #21

It's interesting (and sad) how the forums of yesteryear have essentially gone away entirely, with no good solutions popping up to replace them. I know they were/are incredibly prone to security issues, but they were good at one thing and one thing only: community. I recall spending a crazy amount of time refreshing the index on a site called TradeGamesNow (and to a lesser degree CheapAssGamer) waiting for new posts/c…

Not gone at all! There are a bunch of companies working on the current generation of forums.

Discourse need not be the "golden child", the other ones are pushing the envelope of what makes a good community. Discourse often steals the good ideas from the other forums actually :)

e.g. NodeBB (https://NodeBB.org), Flarum, and Vanilla are three in the space.

(Admittedly, I maintain NodeBB, so take my recommendation with a grain of salt)

Re: Slack’s free plan change is causing an exodus

#119

Post by xen2xen1 »

a1371 wrote: post #44
ethbr0 wrote: post #3

Setting aside that this is from a Slack competitor... > one would be hard-pressed to find any who are excited about it Me. You know all that bitching we collectively do about ad and tracking supported business models obsfuscating the cost of "free" products? The solution is being willing to pay for something you use and like.

I have like 7 Slacks. 2 of them are paid, 5 of them are hobby that I may use once a month. What are you suggesting? That I pay an extra $40/month just so that maybe I need an old message in one of those? I'd agree with you if Slack were indie devs but does Slack need my $40? The unhappiness comes from the fact that people want to rely on a service, even if it's free. It would make sense if this was a change for the s…

So I have to ask, why use Slack for hobby things instead of Discord? Is that driven by people used to having it at work? I'm confused by the thought of "hobby Slack channels".
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