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Sounds like most of the issues were due to not paying for the product. Which is fair given Slack's freemium model but I wonder if they were throttling free user

Sounds like most of the issues were due to not paying for the product. Which is fair given Slack's freemium model but I wonder if they were throttling free users after a certain point, causing performance issues. If I was this guy I would've reached out to Slack's sales team and explained the situation to see if they could offer a compelling deal. They might've seen a huge discount as worthwhile given it would get 5000+ coders using Slack regularly, many of whom would then promote in other companies.

Svip 10y ago
If you read the article, it's clear the user limit was a technical limit and not a freemium limit. So even if they did pay, Slack would still not have been able to accommodate all their users. Which leads me to my old-timer question: What's wrong with IRC?
- erelde 10y ago
  No history by default, in fact there's only text by default. I like IRC, but newer generations are used to having "full-featured" chats without setup (beauty is in the eye of the beholder). I also like being able to do some simple markdown in my messages.
  - Insanity 10y ago
    I like IRC, recently started using irccloud. That makes sharing files easier, also keeps a history of the irc channels you are in, and makes it look more pretty. It's a combination of both worlds I suppose. So far I am enjoying it.
- dagenleg 10y ago
  IRC doesn't have cool stickers?
- onion2k 10y ago
  There's nothing wrong with IRC except for the fact that the user experience in an IRC client is generally horrible. They're not pretty, there's no good account system so users can easily spoof being someone else, the logging isn't great by default, sharing files is hard, and whether or not you can do media embedding depends on the channel setup. There's a reason why companies like Slack have built billion dollar businesses doing ostensibly the same thing as IRC, and it's because IRC doesn't offer enough value even if it's free.
  - cholantesh 10y ago
    > there's no good account system so users can easily spoof being someone else Probably the big one for me; I know my previous boss was asking if there was a SSO option because that would be the only thing he saw as limitation in IRC.
  - Svip 10y ago
    I contend that my question was slightly snarky. As someone who moves from computer to computer a lot, having a unified client is quite critical. With IRC and Bitleebee, I can combine a lot of protocols in one client, keep it running in a screen, and access it via SSH. I realise my setup is hardly common, and I contend that the main issues with IRC are the clients and the account systems. However, both those issues (among other issues) could be resolved with the IRC protocol, allowing people preferring other clients to continue to user their clients. Message logging and account management can be done server-side (e.g. closing connections on users if they don't log in), and with a dedicated client to this server, the logging in-part could be done rather seamlessly, even if posing slightly more 'troubles' for other IRC clients. But as implied in the other replies to my post, but is there any money in that? Maybe licencing the servers? I dunno. I'd love to do something like that, but it would be a full time effort, I fear.
    - lmm 10y ago
      > With IRC and Bitleebee, I can combine a lot of protocols in one client, keep it running in a screen, and access it via SSH. At which point you're not really using IRC. You're using the Bittleebee-commands-over-SSH protocol. This protocol has a number of issues: it requires having a server with a unix user account running on it (which is a massive attack surface, no-one can offer a server like that for free or it will be used to DDoS other people etc). Its phone apps are poorly integrated and drain battery. Its UI in general is very undiscoverable; the logging interface is still pretty awful (e.g. tracking of how far you've read is pretty poor). Sending files or voicechatting is even harder than it is in vanilla IRC. > both those issues (among other issues) could be resolved with the IRC protocol, allowing people preferring other clients to continue to user their clients. Slack offers an IRC gateway, which gives about as good an IRC experience as any extended-IRC protocol ever could.
- csomar 10y ago
  IRC lacks a well designed UX that works cross platform (desktop cross os, mobile, web) and an easy API to integrate and play with other services like Github.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- johannes1234321 10y ago
  Aside from what others already mentioned: One key issue with IRC is the mobile or multiple device story.
  - Insanity 10y ago
    Only if you use plain IRC. If you use something like irccloud, that is prevented. Which can be thought of as a "webwrapper" for IRC. I have been using it for some time now and I enjoy it. (I'm not affiliated with irccloud in any way)
    - johannes1234321 10y ago
      Well, then you're not using IRC anymore, but some service which by chance uses IRC as Backend
    - lmm 10y ago
      IRCCloud's free plan is much worse than even Slack's, their paid tiers are more expensive per-user IIRC, and their UI isn't quite as polished.
      - Insanity 10y ago
        I was not trying to compare it to slack. I was merely pointing out that IRC does not need to mean "plain IRC". I have been using Slack for about a year now at work and I think it's great. I don't think irccloud would be a suitable replacement either :-)
  - lorenzhs 10y ago
    I use WeeChat (https://weechat.org/ https://weechat.org/, running on my server) and Glowing Bear (https://github.com/glowing-bear/glowing-bear https://github.com/glowing-bear/glowing-bear) to connect to it from wherever I am (desktop or mobile), it works very nicely. Because it's self-hosted, it has higher setup overhead than signing up to slack, of course. But it does solve IRC's mobile and multi-device problems for me wonderfully. (I'm one of the Glowing Bear developers)
- jorge-fundido 10y ago
  All the yak shaving around: room history, notifications, security.
erelde 10y ago
Slack doesn't have paid tier that isn't $x/user ? edit: https://slack.com/pricing/enterprise-grid https://slack.com/pricing/enterprise-grid
rileymat2 10y ago
This is true, but there is still no excuse for blatantly false marketing messages claiming an unlimited size.

Svip 10y ago

If you read the article, it's clear the user limit was a technical limit and not a freemium limit. So even if they did pay, Slack would still not have been able to accommodate all their users. Which leads me to my old-timer question: What's wrong with IRC?

erelde 10y ago
No history by default, in fact there's only text by default. I like IRC, but newer generations are used to having "full-featured" chats without setup (beauty is in the eye of the beholder). I also like being able to do some simple markdown in my messages.
- Insanity 10y ago
  I like IRC, recently started using irccloud. That makes sharing files easier, also keeps a history of the irc channels you are in, and makes it look more pretty. It's a combination of both worlds I suppose. So far I am enjoying it.
dagenleg 10y ago
IRC doesn't have cool stickers?
onion2k 10y ago
There's nothing wrong with IRC except for the fact that the user experience in an IRC client is generally horrible. They're not pretty, there's no good account system so users can easily spoof being someone else, the logging isn't great by default, sharing files is hard, and whether or not you can do media embedding depends on the channel setup. There's a reason why companies like Slack have built billion dollar businesses doing ostensibly the same thing as IRC, and it's because IRC doesn't offer enough value even if it's free.
- cholantesh 10y ago
  > there's no good account system so users can easily spoof being someone else Probably the big one for me; I know my previous boss was asking if there was a SSO option because that would be the only thing he saw as limitation in IRC.
- Svip 10y ago
  I contend that my question was slightly snarky. As someone who moves from computer to computer a lot, having a unified client is quite critical. With IRC and Bitleebee, I can combine a lot of protocols in one client, keep it running in a screen, and access it via SSH. I realise my setup is hardly common, and I contend that the main issues with IRC are the clients and the account systems. However, both those issues (among other issues) could be resolved with the IRC protocol, allowing people preferring other clients to continue to user their clients. Message logging and account management can be done server-side (e.g. closing connections on users if they don't log in), and with a dedicated client to this server, the logging in-part could be done rather seamlessly, even if posing slightly more 'troubles' for other IRC clients. But as implied in the other replies to my post, but is there any money in that? Maybe licencing the servers? I dunno. I'd love to do something like that, but it would be a full time effort, I fear.
  - lmm 10y ago
    > With IRC and Bitleebee, I can combine a lot of protocols in one client, keep it running in a screen, and access it via SSH. At which point you're not really using IRC. You're using the Bittleebee-commands-over-SSH protocol. This protocol has a number of issues: it requires having a server with a unix user account running on it (which is a massive attack surface, no-one can offer a server like that for free or it will be used to DDoS other people etc). Its phone apps are poorly integrated and drain battery. Its UI in general is very undiscoverable; the logging interface is still pretty awful (e.g. tracking of how far you've read is pretty poor). Sending files or voicechatting is even harder than it is in vanilla IRC. > both those issues (among other issues) could be resolved with the IRC protocol, allowing people preferring other clients to continue to user their clients. Slack offers an IRC gateway, which gives about as good an IRC experience as any extended-IRC protocol ever could.
csomar 10y ago
IRC lacks a well designed UX that works cross platform (desktop cross os, mobile, web) and an easy API to integrate and play with other services like Github.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
johannes1234321 10y ago
Aside from what others already mentioned: One key issue with IRC is the mobile or multiple device story.
- Insanity 10y ago
  Only if you use plain IRC. If you use something like irccloud, that is prevented. Which can be thought of as a "webwrapper" for IRC. I have been using it for some time now and I enjoy it. (I'm not affiliated with irccloud in any way)
  - johannes1234321 10y ago
    Well, then you're not using IRC anymore, but some service which by chance uses IRC as Backend
  - lmm 10y ago
    IRCCloud's free plan is much worse than even Slack's, their paid tiers are more expensive per-user IIRC, and their UI isn't quite as polished.
    - Insanity 10y ago
      I was not trying to compare it to slack. I was merely pointing out that IRC does not need to mean "plain IRC". I have been using Slack for about a year now at work and I think it's great. I don't think irccloud would be a suitable replacement either :-)
- lorenzhs 10y ago
  I use WeeChat (https://weechat.org/ https://weechat.org/, running on my server) and Glowing Bear (https://github.com/glowing-bear/glowing-bear https://github.com/glowing-bear/glowing-bear) to connect to it from wherever I am (desktop or mobile), it works very nicely. Because it's self-hosted, it has higher setup overhead than signing up to slack, of course. But it does solve IRC's mobile and multi-device problems for me wonderfully. (I'm one of the Glowing Bear developers)
jorge-fundido 10y ago
All the yak shaving around: room history, notifications, security.

erelde 10y ago

Slack doesn't have paid tier that isn't $x/user ? edit: https://slack.com/pricing/enterprise-grid https://slack.com/pricing/enterprise-grid

rileymat2 10y ago

This is true, but there is still no excuse for blatantly false marketing messages claiming an unlimited size.