Tell HN: Slack decides to close down IRC and XMPP gateways

#1

Post by elektron » Wed, Mar 07, 2018, 9:01 PM UTC

11:14 -!- Message of the day

Hello! We have news to share — we've decided it's time to close down the IRC and XMPP gateways to Slack.

After years of evolving, Slack is at the point where the gateways can no longer handle all of our features or security needs.

If you've been using the gateways for accessibility reasons, we're glad to let you know that it's now possible to navigate Slack by keyboard and with a screen reader — and we're making more improvements on a continual basis.

Still, we know this is a disruptive change, and we want to help with this transition in any way we can. Please follow this link to learn more about the upcoming changes:

slack.com/account/gateways

11:14 -!- End of MOTD command

Re: Tell HN: Slack decides to close down IRC and XMPP gateways

#2

Post by vletrmx » Wed, Mar 07, 2018, 9:07 PM UTC

The IRC gateway was the only thing that made slack even barely usable for me.

Re: Tell HN: Slack decides to close down IRC and XMPP gateways

#3

Post by cbm-vic-20 » Wed, Mar 07, 2018, 9:08 PM UTC

Surprising absolutely nobody, private company closes access via open protocols with 3rd party clients.

Re: Tell HN: Slack decides to close down IRC and XMPP gateways

#4

Post by Grollicus » Wed, Mar 07, 2018, 9:11 PM UTC

Is Slack the Platform where you can have multiple accounts with the same displayname? A bit surprising to hear them talk about security

Re: Tell HN: Slack decides to close down IRC and XMPP gateways

#5

Post by cortesoft » Wed, Mar 07, 2018, 9:11 PM UTC

I wonder how hard it would be to write a custom bridge with the real time api, to make your own IRC gateway?

Re: Tell HN: Slack decides to close down IRC and XMPP gateways

#6

Post by geoah » Wed, Mar 07, 2018, 9:15 PM UTC

Grollicus wrote: post #4

Is Slack the Platform where you can have multiple accounts with the same displayname? A bit surprising to hear them talk about security

Yeah they really dropped the ball on this one

Re: Tell HN: Slack decides to close down IRC and XMPP gateways

#7

Post by AndrewUnmuted » Wed, Mar 07, 2018, 9:15 PM UTC

For weechat users, there's always the wee-slack plugin [0] which runs on the Slack API, rather than the IRC gateway.

[0] https://github.com/wee-slack/wee-slack

Re: Tell HN: Slack decides to close down IRC and XMPP gateways

#8

Post by pc2g4d » Wed, Mar 07, 2018, 9:16 PM UTC

Of course they do. This is exactly the path Google took. Once you achieve enough power in the market, you can throw open protocols overboard.

It's a symptom of the centralized world the internet has become.

Re: Tell HN: Slack decides to close down IRC and XMPP gateways

#9

Post by smkelly » Wed, Mar 07, 2018, 9:16 PM UTC

Grollicus wrote: post #4

Is Slack the Platform where you can have multiple accounts with the same displayname? A bit surprising to hear them talk about security

We encountered this the other week. I didn't realize this was even a thing up until I saw it happen. It is sort of mind-boggling that they allow this. It was confusing to troubleshoot.

Re: Tell HN: Slack decides to close down IRC and XMPP gateways

#10

Post by elektron » Wed, Mar 07, 2018, 9:18 PM UTC

pc2g4d wrote: post #8

Of course they do. This is exactly the path Google took. Once you achieve enough power in the market, you can throw open protocols overboard. It's a symptom of the centralized world the internet has become.

Companies are just using Micro$oft's playbook. Oh, and spoiler alert, Microsoft still is too:

https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Microsoft/Windows...

Embrace / Extend / Expunge