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Slack’s free plan change is causing an exodus

blog.zulip.com

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

#711

Post by bombcar »

madeofpalk wrote: post #673
gdilla wrote: post #663

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, and they think pissing people off is worth it (for their expected benefit). And... they're probably right. People have short term memories and other things to worry about.

What's the cost of pissing free-tier people off? None of this has really impacted paying customers, right?

Some percentage of free tier people are also paying on other accounts, and some will be lost.

But it’s probably a small amount because SaaS has figured out to basically milk slacktivism. People will complain but pay.

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

#712

Post by BeetleB »

antifa wrote: post #699
BeetleB wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could run phpBB just fine on my $5-10/mo shared hosting. It's one thing I don't like about many new tools (Slack alternatives, a lot of ActivityPub stuff, etc) - they require a lot more resources than shared hosting can provide, so you need a VPS, and all the headaches that go along with it.

Most phpBB-like forums will run fine on your $10/year shared MySQL hosts.

Yes but will Discourse?

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

#713

Post by bombcar »

rkangel wrote: post #686
Terretta wrote: post #681

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They delayed the cutover multiple times. They gave people 3 months free. They gave people a year at 1/2 off. And finally they gave anyone who declared themselves as personal/family use only back the free option, even after having migrated to a billed option. (And, if you’re affected by Ukraine vs. Russia, deferred indefinitely.)

I didn't know about the last option! They didn't exactly notify us about the option... I have now selected it, thanks!

Yeah they were very good about announcing the paid version. The backpedal was quiet.

https://support.google.com/a/answer/2855120?hl=en

For those watching at home, if you signed up to pay you may still be able to switch back.

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

#714

Post by bombcar »

atomicfiredoll wrote: post #688
kube-system wrote: post #675

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If those people wouldn’t have purchased the product, does it matter that they’re pissed off?

Who says they wouldn't have purchased the product? I've been hoping that Slack would provide communities like mine better plans or options to support them and access some of the improved features. But, this move makes it pretty clear they're never going to, so I'm finally going to bite the bullet and set up Matrix. [Just to add to this, I've had my users asking me why we're on Slack when everybody else is on Discord.…

Using X at work is the specific reason I do NOT use X at home and instead use Y. Personal and work life separate!

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

#715

Post by mooselaker »

madeofpalk wrote: post #673
gdilla wrote: post #663

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, and they think pissing people off is worth it (for their expected benefit). And... they're probably right. People have short term memories and other things to worry about.

What's the cost of pissing free-tier people off? None of this has really impacted paying customers, right?

Opportunity cost to an extent: instead of convincing them into becoming paying customers, and having them word-of-mouth promote you, they slip away to a competing service, which they may also indeed decide to pay for.

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

#716

Post by [deleted] »

hedora wrote: post #367
carom wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate slack and chat in general being temporary at basically everywhere I have worked. So often a colleague will give you instructions on some process then the next time you need it, it's gone.

I thought the only selling point of slack was that your chat history was archived and searchable. Oh well. Time for the industry to move on.

[deleted]

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

#717

Post by throwaway675309 »

icelancer wrote: post #158
Aeolun wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Discord is actually fairly annoying because so many things are on Discord and split between servers.

I agree. My experience with Discord vs. Slack is not nearly what people seem to make it out to be. I find Discord significantly more confusing and the concept of "servers" is not one that makes any actual sense; they are using that word as a stand-in for rooms/workspaces/etc, but "servers" sounds better to gamers. I can't blame them, but it's confusing to me. Oh well. I'm old.

I don't really get your source of confusion, The concept of a server makes perfect sense in so far as it's a self-contained "themed" communication space that contains many rooms a.k.a. channels.

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

#718

Post by throwaway675309 »

muppetman wrote: post #325
xen2xen1 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

Discord is so childish. It's embarassing to have open.

I feel like it's rather silly to be so concerned over something as trivial as that, like being worried over what other people think if you have a hello kitty bag. Life is entirely too short to be bothered by inconsequential external perception.

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

#719

Post by woofcat »

cortesoft wrote: post #707
mstipetic wrote: post #516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this should be outlawed. So many industries destroyed by cheap vc money, and then trying to raise prices once everyone else is gone. You can lose money doing research all you want, but the moment you start interacting with the market there should be a time limit until you can get your unit economics to work, or get out.

How would this proposed law work? I am really curious how you would word a law to enforce this.

Isn't there already laws against established companies using their market position to price under cost to cut out competition?

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

#720

Post by Ensorceled »

dabedee wrote: post #687
Ensorceled wrote: post #650

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's on their corporate blog; I'm totally unfazed by the lack of disclaimer since it's literally running under their banner. Do you have any issues with the article?

I didn't know Zulip or what they did prior to reading this, so I guess it's also contextual. I understand why they would advertize that they didn't change their plan even though Slack did and they are indeed free to post whatever they want on their corporate blog. I would just take it with a grain of salt given the underlying interests.

Oh, I agree completely that the article should be taken with a grain of salt but don’t need a disclaimer. I also didn’t really see anything in the article that made me suspicious.
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