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Slack may regret its letter to Microsoft

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Re: Slack may regret its letter to Microsoft

#151

Post by lmm »

Mc_Big_G wrote: post #3

It's funny that Slack thinks they've perfectly balanced a unique and special snowflake on the tip of a unicorn's horn when what they've really done is added a pretty UI to IRC. It's a chat room. With channels. So, sorry to tell you guys, but it's not innovative, it's lucky. We had chat rooms back in 1995. Yes, that scrappy startup Microsoft will not have too much trouble implementing a chat room and they don't need l…

> It's funny that Slack thinks they've perfectly balanced a unique and special snowflake on the tip of a unicorn's horn when what they've really done is added a pretty UI to IRC. It's a chat room. With channels. So, sorry to tell you guys, but it's not innovative, it's lucky. We had chat rooms back in 1995.

It is kind of amazing that Slack are the only chat system out of dozens our hundreds who can make a UI that doesn't suck (I wouldn't even call Slack good), but evidence would suggest it's true.

> Yes, that scrappy startup Microsoft will not have too much trouble implementing a chat room and they don't need luck to get users.

Well they've tried four or five times and always managed to screw it up.

Re: Slack may regret its letter to Microsoft

#152

Post by marcosdumay »

apetresc wrote: post #37
test001only wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they give it away for free (as part of office365), is that not effectively anticompetitive behaviour?

Microsoft has nothing close to a monopoly in this space, so no.

In office applications? That is the one they would be abusing.

Re: Slack may regret its letter to Microsoft

#153

Post by elcct »

jerf wrote: post #55
dleslie wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adding a backlog to IRC is something that has been around almost as long as IRC. Bots to sit in channels to passively log; bots which act to send messages to people who are presently offline, at the time at which they come online again; and so on. Adding a log to IRC isn't particularly innovative. Slack's value is almost entirely in its user engagement, not its technology.

As far as I know, all the pieces to make Slack have been around for a while. But nobody ever put them together properly. So the fact that all the pieces existed doesn't count for very much in the end. Nor was it obvious that if someone put it together properly it would achieve commercial success. I was theoretically in the right place at the right time to have put together something like Slack at my job, but there wa…

That's the key - make something worth more than the sum of its parts

Re: Slack may regret its letter to Microsoft

#154

Post by geofft »

Latty wrote: post #149
geofft wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It absolutely provides value! But I don't think the commenter above is claiming that it doesn't provide value. They're claiming it's not innovative. Some of the most important work in the tech industry is highly valuable and not one bit innovative. CRUD apps that bridge data from two different parts of an organization are amazingly valuable and amazingly important, but have no innovation. There's nothing wrong with t…

Yeah, except people were saying they were hoping Microsoft would kill Slack, as though it's some cardinal sin to not be innovative. (And I contest that, Slack definitely bought things together that other people didn't. It's obvious in hindsight, but so was Dropbox, for example).

I don't see those people in this thread? Certainly I don't see 'Mc_Big_G or myself saying that (and 'Mc_Big_G says basically the opposite). Would it help if I also said I don't hope Microsoft will kill Slack?

More precisely, I hope that if Microsoft builds a vastly better product, that they kill Slack, and if Slack builds a vastly better product, that they kill Teams, and if someone else builds a vastly better product (maybe Ryver stops arguing on Twitter and focuses on product? maybe everyone realizes that Zulip has been awesome all along? maybe Mattermost builds great mobile apps?), they kill both Slack and Teams. And I hope Slack does not get complacent about the product they have built and how hard it is to build a vastly better one, because I am currently using Slack and invested in it. I hope this because competition is a good thing. Is that wrong?

Re: Slack may regret its letter to Microsoft

#155

Post by ganset »

irodoramatic wrote: post #111
SomeStupidPoint wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft has a well regarded developer network and Q&A system regarding Microsoft technologies, at least in my (limited to primarily Azure) experience. Similarly, Microsoft has already operated a widely used integrated chat, profile, and community system at scale. Given their recent pushes, it wouldn't be entirely surprising for them to bring back similar platforms for business users integrated with LinkedIn. That w…

For enterprise companies that already use a lot of MS services, and which have tight security policies on what software can be used/licensed/installed, an MS Slack clone could be a wonderful thing for employees.

Having worked for a company with security concerns and tightly coupled to Microsoft, Lynx fucking sucks and a MS Slack alternative would have made my short time there much more bearable.

Re: Slack may regret its letter to Microsoft

#156

Post by noxToken »

uryga wrote: post #135
wubalub wrote: post #87

I've been using skype for text messaging pretty constantly for the last 3 years, and I'm not sure why people hate it so. it has groups, 1-1 chat and video. Searching history can be a bit of a pain, but everything else seems to be there. Sometimes I wonder what I'm missing.

I associate Skype with being slow and heavy for some reason. However it's possible that I picked this opinion up from other people and just started repeating it.

Are you a Linux user? Skype was slow for me on Linux after a certain update. It has also become very bloated over the years, but the Windows and Android clients have always been reliable for me.

Re: Slack may regret its letter to Microsoft

#158

Post by mxuribe »

uryga wrote: post #135
wubalub wrote: post #87

I've been using skype for text messaging pretty constantly for the last 3 years, and I'm not sure why people hate it so. it has groups, 1-1 chat and video. Searching history can be a bit of a pain, but everything else seems to be there. Sometimes I wonder what I'm missing.

I associate Skype with being slow and heavy for some reason. However it's possible that I picked this opinion up from other people and just started repeating it.

No, no...you are correct: skype (for business) is slow and heavy. At least it is for me.

Re: Slack may regret its letter to Microsoft

#159

Post by dingaling »

fizzbatter wrote: post #45
Latty wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm really weirded out that people can't see the value Slack added. Having your messages stored while you are offline is hugely valuable. If I have been out of signal range on a train, I want to be able to look at history on my phone once I'm back in range of a cell tower. Beyond that, a well made UI for web, desktop and phone that is consistent is valuable. 'Adding a pretty UI' isn't a zero-effort or skill thing. No…

Hate? Everyone i know loves slack. I love slack. I've used it for my last two companies for (~many) years now. That doesn't make it innovative though, imo. I can't think of a single feature they've done that is innovative. Attaching a file to a message?. Searching history? These aren't new or special in any way shape or form. What slack did far more than UI, was UX. Top to bottom, it's a very nice UX. It's why i love…

> Top to bottom, it's a very nice UX. It's why i love Slack.

I wouldn't even credit them with that. 20 minutes ago I yet again pressed up-arrow to scroll up one line to see a message off the top of the page and yet again it dropped me into an editing prompt for my last message. What?

And then there's the click-click-click of jumping between channels to see the latest messages, instead of having some form of summary.

In my experience people tolerate the UI of Slack, they don't praise it.

Re: Slack may regret its letter to Microsoft

#160

Post by jamra »

wubalub wrote: post #87

I've been using skype for text messaging pretty constantly for the last 3 years, and I'm not sure why people hate it so. it has groups, 1-1 chat and video. Searching history can be a bit of a pain, but everything else seems to be there. Sometimes I wonder what I'm missing.

Slack gives you webhooks (post my team's commits to a chat room) and a great team-based chat. Groups in Skype can't really add the same value.

Also, people tend to use their personal emails on Skype in my organization. Slack's sign up process makes more sense for an organization.

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