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Don't blame the replacement. We lost USENET to spam and IRC to lack of innovation and poor UX. I stopped using both USENET and IRC long before any of these alt

by api 10y ago

Don't blame the replacement. We lost USENET to spam and IRC to lack of innovation and poor UX. I stopped using both USENET and IRC long before any of these alternatives appeared.

chrisfosterelli 10y ago
This is a very good point. Many people I know stopped using IRC quite a bit before they ever started using Slack.
Touche 10y ago
The question I have is why aren't industry leaders contributing to these specs? Why isn't Slack sending RFCs to improve IRC?
- aaronbrethorst 10y ago
  Why would they want to? Improving IRC does nothing to benefit Slack.
- api 10y ago
  There is no economic model to support free/open systems and standards. It's in nobody's best interest.
  - Touche 10y ago
    Slack's business is built on free/open standards, they don't exist without http and html. Asking them to contribute in their area of expertise is not asking a lot.
    - ams6110 10y ago
      Not just that, none of the current web economy exists without linux and gnu and other free/libre software.
- skywhopper 10y ago
  What benefit would it be to Slack to publish their protocols? Or to IRC to know about them? I think the chances are extremely slim that IRC could be improved by knowing how Slack works. Slack is not a technical marvel with mysterious underpinnings. It's a centralized chat service with a pretty interface, simple clients, and (the secret sauce that won them all the converts) seamless integrations with pretty much every other open or semi-open service out there.
  - Touche 10y ago
    IRC would benefit simply by having someone that's actually working to improve it. It doesn't matter if the improvements are superficial; humans are superficial, that stuff matter a lot.
DanielStraight 10y ago
Right. People are more than happy to use free, open source, standardized, distributed, self-owned software and services... when that software and those services offer the best solution for their needs. There's only so much ease of use and functionality people can be realistically expected to trade away. Yeah, Slack is down... but the gains made from using it outweigh the pain of having to deal with the failure. Improve the less proprietary options to where this isn't true anymore and people will stop using the more proprietary options. There are always trade-offs, and expecting people not to make them is unrealistic.

by api 10y ago

Don't blame the replacement. We lost USENET to spam and IRC to lack of innovation and poor UX. I stopped using both USENET and IRC long before any of these alternatives appeared.

chrisfosterelli 10y ago

This is a very good point. Many people I know stopped using IRC quite a bit before they ever started using Slack.

Touche 10y ago

The question I have is why aren't industry leaders contributing to these specs? Why isn't Slack sending RFCs to improve IRC?

aaronbrethorst 10y ago
Why would they want to? Improving IRC does nothing to benefit Slack.
api 10y ago
There is no economic model to support free/open systems and standards. It's in nobody's best interest.
- Touche 10y ago
  Slack's business is built on free/open standards, they don't exist without http and html. Asking them to contribute in their area of expertise is not asking a lot.
  - ams6110 10y ago
    Not just that, none of the current web economy exists without linux and gnu and other free/libre software.
skywhopper 10y ago
What benefit would it be to Slack to publish their protocols? Or to IRC to know about them? I think the chances are extremely slim that IRC could be improved by knowing how Slack works. Slack is not a technical marvel with mysterious underpinnings. It's a centralized chat service with a pretty interface, simple clients, and (the secret sauce that won them all the converts) seamless integrations with pretty much every other open or semi-open service out there.
- Touche 10y ago
  IRC would benefit simply by having someone that's actually working to improve it. It doesn't matter if the improvements are superficial; humans are superficial, that stuff matter a lot.

DanielStraight 10y ago

Right. People are more than happy to use free, open source, standardized, distributed, self-owned software and services... when that software and those services offer the best solution for their needs. There's only so much ease of use and functionality people can be realistically expected to trade away. Yeah, Slack is down... but the gains made from using it outweigh the pain of having to deal with the failure. Improve the less proprietary options to where this isn't true anymore and people will stop using the more proprietary options. There are always trade-offs, and expecting people not to make them is unrealistic.