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Actually, Slack really sucks

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Re: Actually, Slack really sucks

#21

Post by jswny »

I see similar criticisms of Slack a lot, and I think a solid portion of these are general gripes with using one chat system instead of Email + other solutions.

My biggest gripe with using Slack is that teams are managed individually. I can't have one Slack account from which I can view all of my teams and interact with them. Rather, I have to create separate accounts for each one, as if each team is using a completely different service. Then I have to remember a multitude of emails, usernames, and passwords.

Re: Actually, Slack really sucks

#23

Post by 0xbadcafebee »

Email is really useful and nobody cares.

- If you need a way to discuss specific topics with specific people over time, you make a new mailing list.

- If you want to have one single conversation within a specific group and topic, and follow it logically, just reply to the thread. You can forward the thread and the conversation remains, and can continue.

- You can ignore all conversations that aren't addressed to you, or go back and read them, one thread at a time.

- You can archive all of this, hierarchically, per mailing list, and search or browse it later.

Now - if you want to have a LIVE conversation, nothing's going to beat a chat room. It really does not matter what kind of chat room. But sometimes you join the chat late - it's good to see the old conversation and catch up. And after the conversation, you might want a log of it later. Somehow, most chat services in the world seem to miss this.

IRC has kludges that support this. Jabber was supposed to fix this (I think?), in a platform-independent way. Yet nobody wants to use Jabber. (Probably because most implementations suck or are incomplete)

Here's my question:

If an entire ecosystem of software has thrived for a generation using existing tools (IRC, mailing lists, and now Jabber), why the hell is every corporation in the world dead-set on running away from them screaming? THEY'VE WORKED FOR 20+ YEARS! edit answering my own question: they don't have support contracts.

Re: Actually, Slack really sucks

#24

Post by erjjones »

I've found that Slack is a big time suck as well.

@mention which generates an email is the only way to pull me in a thread. Meaning that my email client is still the main source of communication.

Slack is good for non-work related threads with my co-workers. We have a channel dedicated just to miscellaneous non-sense which can be rather entertaining. What is nice about the channel is that it isn't a long running email thread that needs to be muted and I only check it out when I want to. However, it could just as well be an IRC channel...

Re: Actually, Slack really sucks

#25

Post by danso »

datihein wrote: post #4
danso wrote: post #2

Torn on this one. I'm sympathetic because of how the OP complains that he's been pulled into Slack because of its popularity. I don't think being virally popular is a demerit -- sometimes popular things are popular because they are good -- but the trade off comes when bystanders are forced into the hivemind if they want to do things that previously didn't require that hot-app-du-jour. And I've only used Slack as a so…

Actually, maybe you should try Slack in earnest with a project team before assuming the OP criticisms are wacked. I tried it with my team about a year ago, and all of the OP criticisms resonate with me. We don't use Slack anymore.

I think what turned me off was the headline. If it had been more well-scoped, e.g. "Slack sucks balls when it comes to doing real work", I'd be less complainy. I've enjoyed Slack for conversation in medium-ish interest groups/clubs (100 Everything in the context of work loses its allure, such as "unlimited" vacation time.

Re: Actually, Slack really sucks

#26

Post by gingerlime »

mratzloff wrote: post #10

At least for our company, Slack has been a net positive. Most issues around notifications are resolved by customizing your notification preferences per channel. Now try this in Slack. Remember, it’s one of 10 issues you’ll have in a day, so you start with creating a group chat instead of a dedicated channel. Stop. All of the problems that follow this statement are a result of creating a group chat instead of a channe…

> I've established a guideline for my group that all (non-sensitive) communication should happen in public, and that means on Slack. That alone has made a big difference in making sure people are in the loop and that bad decisions are visible to everyone.

This is one of the main challenges I'm seeing. Getting people off DM's and into public chats. I explained several times that DMs should only be for sensitive, personal conversation. Everything else should go into channels. But people seem to drift into DMs to "not disturb" others, or because it's only a question to one person etc. Our stats show around 40% public chat vs. 60% in DM (sometimes even 30/70).

I some times wish I could block DMs completely, but I don't think it's possible. Any tips?

Re: Actually, Slack really sucks

#27

Post by vannevar »

Slack and the other various IRC-reinventions start with the assumption that more communication is always better. I think it's time we challenged that assumption in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary.

Re: Actually, Slack really sucks

#28

Post by spiderjerusalem »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #23

Email is really useful and nobody cares. - If you need a way to discuss specific topics with specific people over time, you make a new mailing list. - If you want to have one single conversation within a specific group and topic, and follow it logically, just reply to the thread. You can forward the thread and the conversation remains, and can continue. - You can ignore all conversations that aren't addressed to you,…

Because economics, I guess? Examples like this one make me think that markets are really easily trapped in local optima for some scenarios. Add to that all the circle-jerking 'market making' involved in pushing ideas that are already more or less juiced out with so much money. Sigh.

Re: Actually, Slack really sucks

#29

Post by rafBM »

We (founders of ConferenceBadge.com) never enjoyed Slack nor other chat apps because they encourage immediate attention, or you just end up missing out. And we are a team of 4… can’t imagine using it in larger organizations.

We never found any tool that would completely satisfy our collaboration needs, so we created Missive: https://missiveapp.com

It’s built on the idea that conversations should be scoped and archivable, just like emails. It’s both a full-featured email client and chat app. We can share emails and comment within threads, as well as create new chats from scratch and invite only the right people to discuss specific matters. When a topic is over, we just archive or snooze it like emails.

I have written in details about our vision: https://medium.com/missive-app/building-the-team-communicati...

Re: Actually, Slack really sucks

#30

Post by xraystyle »

mratzloff wrote: post #10

At least for our company, Slack has been a net positive. Most issues around notifications are resolved by customizing your notification preferences per channel. Now try this in Slack. Remember, it’s one of 10 issues you’ll have in a day, so you start with creating a group chat instead of a dedicated channel. Stop. All of the problems that follow this statement are a result of creating a group chat instead of a channe…

I think the main takeaway here when I encounter these complaints about Slack all boil down to "you're doing it wrong".

If you set good guidelines on usage and make sure you actually police them Slack is in an incredibly useful tool. Especially if you have offices in different geographic locations or a large number of remote employees.

You can't hold the hammer by the head, try to pound nails with the handle, then complain that the hammer is no good for pounding nails.

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