Live data from Hacker News

Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

quuxplusone.github.io

771–780 of 1001 posts

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#774

In their defence (not the defence of the WYSIWYG box itself) - they quite likely have done lots of user testing that has shown clear desirability, improved value to user, improved usability, etc etc. You have to remember Slack's target persona is probably no longer the Engineer (If it ever was) - it's more likely a much less tech-savvy employee who finds WYSIWYG editors very handy to create rich text inputs. I guess…

It's being rail roaded now though. Why not acquiesce and provide a way to use markdown?

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#775

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that Microsoft Teams is literally an existential threat, they really want to listen to feedback internally!

Microsoft Teams is pretty horrible

It would be a great time for them to add markdown support and in the press release say we're listening.

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#776

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh, I can't stand the menu reordering for drafts!

All they needed was a highlight or an asterisk or something similar.

It wasn't always this way. There used to be a pencil icon next to the person/channel you had a draft in.

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#777

In their defence (not the defence of the WYSIWYG box itself) - they quite likely have done lots of user testing that has shown clear desirability, improved value to user, improved usability, etc etc. You have to remember Slack's target persona is probably no longer the Engineer (If it ever was) - it's more likely a much less tech-savvy employee who finds WYSIWYG editors very handy to create rich text inputs. I guess…

> they quite likely have done lots of user testing that has shown clear desirability, improved value to user, improved usability I have never worked at a company that did user testing or if they did it was always done in a way or interpreted in a way to back up the designer's opinion. I don't think I've once in my entire 40 yr career seen a designer test with users, find out something was bad, and change their design…

I've seen user testing with video game development; both in-house and contracted out.

Whether it's useful really comes down to who is personally attached to the design in question and how much institutional power they have.

I've seen games trashed in testing only to have the lead designer double down on their designs; which always goes about as well as you'd expect.

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#778

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are different. For me it's exactly the "oh you changed it, never mind, I'll use it a bit differently from now on" situation.

Funny enough, I kind of like it better - the way that the enter key changed in and out of a ``` block would always screw me up and I'd end up sending messages before I wanted to, and then instead of bugging someone for 1 message I have to send 3 with the middle being "sorry, hit enter too soon".

There was already a setting for this with markdown:

>When typing code with ```, Enter should not send the message.

>With this checked use ShiftEnter to send.

So they didn't really provide anything new here, just changed the default behavior.

edit: formatting

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#779
post #105
post #50

Specific bug gripes aside: I see this editor as emblematic of Slack's broader shift away from what I think it should be (primarily synchronous chat; irc with a friendlier ui and integrated bouncer features) towards what many people seem to want to use it as (async-heavy pseudo-replacement for email where I get to sit and watch the "...is typing" indicator flicker while somebody writes an essay at me). My rule of thum…

I personally have no problem with the hybridization of sync/async communication. That's where everything is headed. People send emails and sometimes expect them to be delivered and/or read immediately. OTOH, people send messages over these "chat" services that aren't time sensitive, simply because it's easy and available. My problem is that all these networks are proprietary and isolated. When someone comes up with a…

> I personally have no problem with the hybridization of sync/async communication.

This is how I use Slack as well. It works nicely for me personally.

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#780

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the life of me, I cannot figure out how to create two adjacent but separate code blocks. ``` one ``` ``` two ``` I've tried and tried.

You can exit a code block by hitting Command Option Shift C. I found this out by hovering over the code block icon in the bar below the editor box. The trick seems to be to add a blank final line, otherwise, it will not include the last line you typed in a code block.

You don't need the key combo, just as you said, you just need another line, with text or a blank line. I guess before now you could but them right back-to-back? This has never been my use case, but if it was, I can see how this is annoying.
Post reply on HN