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Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

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Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#941

Post by Kleinlieu »

it33 wrote: post #930
vxNsr wrote: post #917

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, have there ever been discussions about a making a truly native client? not a web wrapper? imo a fast native client, that doesn't look like a sad slack clone (which teams currently does) would put you streets ahead of the entire field. I know it means increasing code complexity. but by golly would it be nice to have a truly nice client.

Yes, there's an on-going discussion about going to native clients. One path is React Native going desktop, similar to how we've done our iOS and Android apps. We should probably do something about encouraging some early prototyping. Highly appreciate the feedback,

There’s a lot of speed you can muster out of the different platforms the closer you are to the metal. That said, I would love to help out if it’s an open source project. There are some developments at least on the iOS side, like SwiftUI, that could make writing and maintaining these native apps easier than you may be thinking.

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#942

Post by cozos »

it33 wrote: post #891

Mattermost CEO here. In my mind Slack’s target persona is no longer an engineer (if it ever was) - It is more likely a less tech savvy person who wants a WYSIWYG editor for rich text inputs. For what it’s worth, Mattermost is an open source alternative built for engineers by engineers. The interface is markdown.

At my current job everybody in the engineering org hates this change. I wonder if we can convince the company to switch!

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#943

Post by scaryclam »

_bxg1 wrote: post #912
sean0- wrote: post #901

Supposedly this feature is being walked back now. I just received the following from their support. I'm ecstatic to hear this and hope their Product Management has reassessed the importance of non-WYSIWYG inputs. >>> We really appreciate your feedback, and we hear your frustration. We're sorry for the impact this is having on your ability to communicate with your team and on your overall productivity. We made a mista…

Shocking to hear them be so responsive, given their track record. It took them five (!) years to implement dark mode from when people started publicly asking for it. I guess a walk-back is different from a new feature, but still, this isn't the first change they've made that's upset people who they've then proceeded to ignore.

I think the difference here is that paying customers have threatened to walk away.

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#944

Post by oromier »

samfriedman wrote: post #811
oromier wrote: post #771

What the F? I use it as normal I mean I use the ``` symbols as I'm used to without issues? Am I missing something ?

Seems like formatting characters are ignored in multi-line blocks (triple backticks) but not inline blocks (single backticks). Most people are upset about the latter.

There is the Aa button on the right which can disable the bar.. was that also yesterday in place ?

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#945

Post by arrrg »

lovehashbrowns wrote: post #923
sean0- wrote: post #901

Supposedly this feature is being walked back now. I just received the following from their support. I'm ecstatic to hear this and hope their Product Management has reassessed the importance of non-WYSIWYG inputs. >>> We really appreciate your feedback, and we hear your frustration. We're sorry for the impact this is having on your ability to communicate with your team and on your overall productivity. We made a mista…

First off, that's super good to hear. Secondly, I'm absolutely flabbergasted that this reaction wasn't obvious to them from the get-go. This isn't the first time some silly addition of a wysiwyg feature has ended in outrage. What's even more astounding is that I don't think there are many features as despised as wysiwyg. It's up there with comic sans. Why make your entire UI revolve around one of the most despised fe…

How did you come to the conclusion that WYSIWYG are “one of the most despised features in the UX world”?

That seems completely unfounded to me. WYSIWYG editors can be extremely bad … but millions of people use WYSIWYG editors all the time and wouldn’t ever think of exchanging them for plaintext editors with Markdown or something like that.

You comment seems completely disconnected from any semblance of reality.

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#946

Post by pwm »

sean0- wrote: post #901

Supposedly this feature is being walked back now. I just received the following from their support. I'm ecstatic to hear this and hope their Product Management has reassessed the importance of non-WYSIWYG inputs. >>> We really appreciate your feedback, and we hear your frustration. We're sorry for the impact this is having on your ability to communicate with your team and on your overall productivity. We made a mista…

Yup, I got the exact same reply. There is hope after all.

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#948

Post by Aeolun »

arrrg wrote: post #945
lovehashbrowns wrote: post #923

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First off, that's super good to hear. Secondly, I'm absolutely flabbergasted that this reaction wasn't obvious to them from the get-go. This isn't the first time some silly addition of a wysiwyg feature has ended in outrage. What's even more astounding is that I don't think there are many features as despised as wysiwyg. It's up there with comic sans. Why make your entire UI revolve around one of the most despised fe…

How did you come to the conclusion that WYSIWYG are “one of the most despised features in the UX world”? That seems completely unfounded to me. WYSIWYG editors can be extremely bad … but millions of people use WYSIWYG editors all the time and wouldn’t ever think of exchanging them for plaintext editors with Markdown or something like that. You comment seems completely disconnected from any semblance of reality.

Just because millions of people use WYSIWYG editors every day, does not mean that they don’t absolutely despise it.

I haven’t ever heard anyone comment on how enjoyable Word is to use.

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#949

Post by Aeolun »

jordache wrote: post #868
ailideex wrote: post #569

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft Teams is pretty horrible

MS Teams is free. At a previous company, we had slack and MS Teams side by side, to trial out MS Teams. Everyone preferred Slack by a huge margin. We were told to get use to Teams, because Teams is free. Guess what, it was fine.. no notable productivity lose going from slack to teams. If anything, team's sharepoint file integration is much better than slack, for keeping a single source of truth.

Teams is fine, but Slack is pleasant. I don’t really know how to qualify the difference, but I guess it’s somewhat similar to ‘death by a thousand cuts’.

Re: Slack’s new WYSIWYG input box is terrible

#950

Post by healsjnr1 »

arrrg wrote: post #945
lovehashbrowns wrote: post #923

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First off, that's super good to hear. Secondly, I'm absolutely flabbergasted that this reaction wasn't obvious to them from the get-go. This isn't the first time some silly addition of a wysiwyg feature has ended in outrage. What's even more astounding is that I don't think there are many features as despised as wysiwyg. It's up there with comic sans. Why make your entire UI revolve around one of the most despised fe…

How did you come to the conclusion that WYSIWYG are “one of the most despised features in the UX world”? That seems completely unfounded to me. WYSIWYG editors can be extremely bad … but millions of people use WYSIWYG editors all the time and wouldn’t ever think of exchanging them for plaintext editors with Markdown or something like that. You comment seems completely disconnected from any semblance of reality.

It's not necessarily WYSIWYG that is the problem. It's auto formatting markdowns in an editor.

I've never seen this done well. You constantly end up fighting the formatting. You end up having to learn obscures combinations of key strokes to make it do what you want. Or you just give up and format the text after you've written it all.

That to me is a real loss. I highly value being able to format on the fly.

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