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I agree. I am dismayed when I see open source projects using Slack in lieu of IRC or a mailing list. It means I'd be forced to use their awful client (which is

I agree. I am dismayed when I see open source projects using Slack in lieu of IRC or a mailing list. It means I'd be forced to use their awful client (which is slow, buggy, and far too resource intensive for a chat application) or use their awful IRC integration. This is all in addition to the issue you raise of Slack being a black hole beholden to a profit motivated entity. Just use IRC. It's practically impossible to avoid Slack at any startup now, but I'd love to be able to avoid it in FOSS.

scrollaway 10y ago
I've been a die-hard defender of IRC and yet, I have been using it less and less since I started using Discord. I can finally have a single platform for communication. Voice chat, text chat, group chats, friends list, async communication, unlimited logs (no 10k max msg nonsense), webhooks/integrations that let me do far more than IRC bots ever did. All of it under one account. Oh and the client doesn't suck, unlike Slack's. It's fast. The voice quality is superb. As far as productivity goes, I get far more done with it than I ever did with IRC. The addition of being able to hop on voice very quickly is insanely good. Screensharing and video chat coming this year as well, I'm pretty excited. It's to the point that I bought Discord Nitro (their premium offering) the day it was released, for no other reason than to give them money. I hope the question of protocol openness gets resolved; until then, IRC just doesn't cut it for me anymore. IRCCloud.com helps, but their interface is super slow with lots of channels and IRC itself simply has no support for the thousands of improvements that have been made in communications the past 30-something years.
- subpixel 10y ago
  Discord looks amazing but it's marketing materials says it's aimed at gamers and compares the product to Skype, not Slack. I actually joined Reactiflux on Discord today and was pretty confused as to what I had gotten myself into and why the messages where being read aloud in a computer voice.
  - scrollaway 10y ago
    Hehe yeah they sure are playing the "targeting gamers" card really well. I think it's kind of obvious they're shooting for far more than that. They're competing with Slack without competing with Slack, it's very clever. Short of video calls though, Discord is essentially a drop-in replacement to Slack. We've been using it at my company, it works so damn well. I moved to it for our open source community as well. I use Matterbridge for a three-way mirror between IRC and Gitter as well: https://github.com/42wim/matterbridge/ https://github.com/42wim/matterbridge/
    - mahyarm 10y ago
      I do wonder when they will make a business edition.
  - rudolf0 10y ago
    They're marketed towards casual users but Discord is probably the best chat and collaboration software I've used so far. I definitely prefer it to Slack for professional-type stuff. You can use Discord any want you want. If you join some popular Discord server, odds are it'll be full of spam and Internet humor, but obviously you can do whatever like on your own server(s).
- jakebasile 10y ago
  I like Discord a lot, it's far and away better than TeamSpeak and Vent. It's also better than Slack for private group conversations. But it is still a closed system owned by a for profit company.
rodionos 10y ago
The consensus on our team (40% macos/60% linux) that the Slack client is too slow. Usability around search can be improved as well. To the extent that we've started looking at alternatives.
- astronautjones 10y ago
  We use Windows and have found that version of the client. to hang sporadically at least once a day. Pretty frustrating, i've just given up on it and solely use the web app
- rrdharan 10y ago
  > Usability around search can be improved as well. Curious if this statement is about the most recent experience post improvements mentioned in tfa?
bpicolo 10y ago
Or Discord, despite it being intended for something else.
emidln 10y ago
The client might be a legitimate issue, but being an information black-hole is no different than IRC. If you wanted a history, you should have made your client or a bot log that history.
- subpixel 10y ago
  If IRC was as simple and elegant and extensible as some would suggest, there wouldn't be a posse of persistent chat companies worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.
  - jakebasile 10y ago
    IRC is simple enough for developers of and those using open source projects. Slack and their ilk have more of a place handling internal communications where non-technical people need to be involved.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
stymaar 10y ago
I agree with your concerns of open source projects using slack, but: > I'd be forced to use their awful client Who forces you ? You can use slack on the web can't you ? You don't need to have yet another browser engine running on you computer. > Just use IRC. Please don't … IRC is the opposite of user friendly: it has no good web interface so the casual user won't come in because he doesn't want to install and learn a new software (IRC client). But slack isn't the only option here, it's not even the best open by far, Gitter[1], Mattermost[2] and Discord[3] are alternatives to IRC which aren't Slack. [1]: https://gitter.im/ https://gitter.im/ [2]: https://about.mattermost.com/ https://about.mattermost.com/, they don't provide chat hosting but several organisation do host mattermost servers (Framasoft for instance https://framateam.org/ https://framateam.org/) [3]: https://discordapp.com/ https://discordapp.com/ targeted at gamers, which is a good sign of quality, but fine for general purpose use.
- jakebasile 10y ago
  > Who forces you ? You can use slack on the web can't you Slack's web client is still slow. Their "native" client is just a Chrome wrapper over their web app, with some glue code to hook up notifications. > it has no good web interface so the casual user won't come in https://webchat.freenode.net https://webchat.freenode.net works fine. If you need or want help with a project and can't be asked to spend a few moments opening up an IRC client (native or web), then I don't know what to tell you. > Gitter, Mattermost, and Discord Gitter and Discord are both closed source, proprietary systems made by companies who want to make money. Open source projects shouldn't rely on them if possible. Mattermost is OK, but requires running your own server. IRC is free, and there are public servers specifically made for open source projects.
johnchristopher 10y ago
Have you considered mattermost ?
- engelgabriel 10y ago
  Please also consider Rocket.Chat, you can test our SaaS version at https://rocket.chat/deploy https://rocket.chat/deploy for free.

scrollaway 10y ago

I've been a die-hard defender of IRC and yet, I have been using it less and less since I started using Discord. I can finally have a single platform for communication. Voice chat, text chat, group chats, friends list, async communication, unlimited logs (no 10k max msg nonsense), webhooks/integrations that let me do far more than IRC bots ever did. All of it under one account. Oh and the client doesn't suck, unlike Slack's. It's fast. The voice quality is superb. As far as productivity goes, I get far more done with it than I ever did with IRC. The addition of being able to hop on voice very quickly is insanely good. Screensharing and video chat coming this year as well, I'm pretty excited. It's to the point that I bought Discord Nitro (their premium offering) the day it was released, for no other reason than to give them money. I hope the question of protocol openness gets resolved; until then, IRC just doesn't cut it for me anymore. IRCCloud.com helps, but their interface is super slow with lots of channels and IRC itself simply has no support for the thousands of improvements that have been made in communications the past 30-something years.

subpixel 10y ago
Discord looks amazing but it's marketing materials says it's aimed at gamers and compares the product to Skype, not Slack. I actually joined Reactiflux on Discord today and was pretty confused as to what I had gotten myself into and why the messages where being read aloud in a computer voice.
- scrollaway 10y ago
  Hehe yeah they sure are playing the "targeting gamers" card really well. I think it's kind of obvious they're shooting for far more than that. They're competing with Slack without competing with Slack, it's very clever. Short of video calls though, Discord is essentially a drop-in replacement to Slack. We've been using it at my company, it works so damn well. I moved to it for our open source community as well. I use Matterbridge for a three-way mirror between IRC and Gitter as well: https://github.com/42wim/matterbridge/ https://github.com/42wim/matterbridge/
  - mahyarm 10y ago
    I do wonder when they will make a business edition.
- rudolf0 10y ago
  They're marketed towards casual users but Discord is probably the best chat and collaboration software I've used so far. I definitely prefer it to Slack for professional-type stuff. You can use Discord any want you want. If you join some popular Discord server, odds are it'll be full of spam and Internet humor, but obviously you can do whatever like on your own server(s).
jakebasile 10y ago
I like Discord a lot, it's far and away better than TeamSpeak and Vent. It's also better than Slack for private group conversations. But it is still a closed system owned by a for profit company.

rodionos 10y ago

The consensus on our team (40% macos/60% linux) that the Slack client is too slow. Usability around search can be improved as well. To the extent that we've started looking at alternatives.

astronautjones 10y ago
We use Windows and have found that version of the client. to hang sporadically at least once a day. Pretty frustrating, i've just given up on it and solely use the web app
rrdharan 10y ago
> Usability around search can be improved as well. Curious if this statement is about the most recent experience post improvements mentioned in tfa?

bpicolo 10y ago

Or Discord, despite it being intended for something else.

emidln 10y ago

The client might be a legitimate issue, but being an information black-hole is no different than IRC. If you wanted a history, you should have made your client or a bot log that history.

subpixel 10y ago
If IRC was as simple and elegant and extensible as some would suggest, there wouldn't be a posse of persistent chat companies worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.
- jakebasile 10y ago
  IRC is simple enough for developers of and those using open source projects. Slack and their ilk have more of a place handling internal communications where non-technical people need to be involved.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

stymaar 10y ago

I agree with your concerns of open source projects using slack, but: > I'd be forced to use their awful client Who forces you ? You can use slack on the web can't you ? You don't need to have yet another browser engine running on you computer. > Just use IRC. Please don't … IRC is the opposite of user friendly: it has no good web interface so the casual user won't come in because he doesn't want to install and learn a new software (IRC client). But slack isn't the only option here, it's not even the best open by far, Gitter[1], Mattermost[2] and Discord[3] are alternatives to IRC which aren't Slack. [1]: https://gitter.im/ https://gitter.im/ [2]: https://about.mattermost.com/ https://about.mattermost.com/, they don't provide chat hosting but several organisation do host mattermost servers (Framasoft for instance https://framateam.org/ https://framateam.org/) [3]: https://discordapp.com/ https://discordapp.com/ targeted at gamers, which is a good sign of quality, but fine for general purpose use.

jakebasile 10y ago
> Who forces you ? You can use slack on the web can't you Slack's web client is still slow. Their "native" client is just a Chrome wrapper over their web app, with some glue code to hook up notifications. > it has no good web interface so the casual user won't come in https://webchat.freenode.net https://webchat.freenode.net works fine. If you need or want help with a project and can't be asked to spend a few moments opening up an IRC client (native or web), then I don't know what to tell you. > Gitter, Mattermost, and Discord Gitter and Discord are both closed source, proprietary systems made by companies who want to make money. Open source projects shouldn't rely on them if possible. Mattermost is OK, but requires running your own server. IRC is free, and there are public servers specifically made for open source projects.

johnchristopher 10y ago

Have you considered mattermost ?

engelgabriel 10y ago
Please also consider Rocket.Chat, you can test our SaaS version at https://rocket.chat/deploy https://rocket.chat/deploy for free.