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Can Slack-mania be cured with systemized discipline?

brandur.org

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Re: Can Slack-mania be cured with systemized discipline?

#171

Post by nerdponx »

d4rkp4ttern wrote: post #170

One thing I have not seen mentioned here is the “slack status”. I find that it has a subtle stress inducing effect: * if it’s green are people expecting me to reply right away? And if I don’t respond do they feel anxious? * do employees feel pressure to keep it green to show they are working? I told my team that I will keep my status to AWAY always, and they can feel free to do the same. Just because slack provides a…

I am fully remote at my current job, and I actually rely on the Slack status to indicate whether I am "in the office" or not, because obviously my physical presence is not a useful indicator of my availability.

But you are right, it also sets an expectation that messages can only be asynchronous up to a point. Maybe this is one downside to remote work: there is no way to distinguish between "performatively demonstrating that I am actually working" and "currently available for active discussion".

I have noticed that some people actually schedule "heads down" time on their calendar and set their Slack status accordingly. I could try that and see if people respect it.

Re: Can Slack-mania be cured with systemized discipline?

#172

Post by Aeolun »

geewee wrote: post #164
Jiejeing wrote: post #160

Microsoft has a solution to that problem: Teams. It is so painful to use and to do anything in it that it encourages people to actually use the bug tracker or other venues to discuss any serious topic.

I honestly don't think it's that bad. I've used both Slack and teams simultaneously for a few years, and I honestly don't see a lot of differences.

Have you ever tried discovering a team you were not already part of? Or tried having any reasonable conversation outside a chat room?

I figured I could get used to teams, but it’s just so useless compared to Slack it isn’t even funny.

Re: Can Slack-mania be cured with systemized discipline?

#173

Post by goodpoint »

hackandtrip wrote: post #20

To me, it is incredible that Slack is used WITHOUT threads. There is no way that information and discussions can be effective without a threaded conversation - it would just be pure cause otherwise. Also, I find feature-specific channels to be such a pleasure. It's easy to have everyone focused on the same topic in a given channel, without any confusion or missing information between different channels or private mes…

The threading is a mess, especially if you are using the web UI.

Re: Can Slack-mania be cured with systemized discipline?

#174

Post by iso1631 »

Gigachad wrote: post #71
philip1209 wrote: post #47

I'm tired of constant chatting. Slack encourages quick, stream-of-consciousness, short responses. Plus, it's hard to find past discussion, and it's hard to jump in after being gone for a few days (or, even a few hours). Threads are absolutely the answer. But, the defaults matter - Slack isn't encouraging threaded, long-form messages. Instead, it makes all messages feel urgent - and it makes the cost of sending a mess…

I never bother reading slack backlogs. I use slack to get quick answers to questions and then for any kind of design decisions, they go in to a diagram or wiki page which will be discussed in the next meeting.

Quite, slack is the equivalent of an office conversation, you can join in or ignore it. If someone wants you specifically they can @ you, and you can briefly glance at the context over the last few lines. Usually at that point you'll jump into a huddle / call, maybe you'll have to go back over it, but it only takes a few seconds to get the gist of what's being talked about, far easier than getting the gist of an office meeting that you've just been pulled into.

I don't see much point in having more than a few kilobytes of text in the scrollback. If it's persistent, put it in jira.

Re: Can Slack-mania be cured with systemized discipline?

#176

Post by iso1631 »

lmarcos wrote: post #16
dhbradshaw wrote: post #7

In the main article Slack communication is assumed to be synchronous. I find life to be a little happier when it's assumed to be asynchronous. That means turning off some channel notifications. When I really want effective synchronous communication I tend to escalate from Slack to audio or video a screen share -- it seems like there's an extra layer of collaboration that you can have with a bit higher bandwidth. For…

Slack would become the best chat app for every company out there with just one simple feature (or the lack of it): - remove the "user is online" green dot. Really, it's not needed. Once it's removed then everything becomes async by default (and so everything slows down a little bit =>everyone is happier)

I've never noticed that dot before. Just because I have slack open doesn't mean I'm available, and that's what I'd expect from anyone.

Re: Can Slack-mania be cured with systemized discipline?

#177

Post by hdjjhhvvhga »

AlecSchueler wrote: post #169
hdjjhhvvhga wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the options you mention are designed in order to reduce the main problem: that it requires synchronous communication. That is, after you "come back" from a meeting or being away, you can't just work in peace and when you want just send a reply: no, you are expected by design to engage in a conversation. I'm not interested in engaging in a conversation at all unless there is something really extremely important th…

I don't understand the attitude where it's lazy not to write an email but it's an unreasonable chore to respond to a question on Slack? In mind Slack is preferable to email for many things because the issues are resolved in public and I can later look back on what questions have been asked etc.

For the simple reason that in my opinion it's never "answering a simple question" but more often than not having a chat, with multiple messages and the expectation of responding quickly. The worst offenders are the ones who don't even ask a question but instead write "Hello?... Dude?... Are you there?..." Just state what you want and this will allow me to answer your question in a more efficient way.

Re: Can Slack-mania be cured with systemized discipline?

#178

Post by philip1209 »

gverrilla wrote: post #168
philip1209 wrote: post #47

I'm tired of constant chatting. Slack encourages quick, stream-of-consciousness, short responses. Plus, it's hard to find past discussion, and it's hard to jump in after being gone for a few days (or, even a few hours). Threads are absolutely the answer. But, the defaults matter - Slack isn't encouraging threaded, long-form messages. Instead, it makes all messages feel urgent - and it makes the cost of sending a mess…

The name is not great. The photo on first page is bad. And I couldn't find a demo at all. I was curious because forums where my go-place for online discussions growing up.

All valid feedback - and things I'll address. Thanks!

Re: Can Slack-mania be cured with systemized discipline?

#179

Post by philip1209 »

tourist2d wrote: post #123
philip1209 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been posting updates here, where you can see a demo: https://bookletupdates.substack.com I'm working on "public" groups, so that I can link directly to a meta group about the project from the homepage. It should be live early next week! -- I'm using phone number as primary login for these reasons: 1. I want passwordless login 2. Passwordless login with email is confusing because most people have multiple emails.…

Let me share with you, this one quick, easy trick on how to lose 90% of sign ups.

Unfortunately, the data reflects this. I'll reevaluate phone-based login!
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