I'm somewhat in the same boat in terms of not being a very sophisticated user, and thus being unaware of alot of features. (I recently started at a new company

I'm somewhat in the same boat in terms of not being a very sophisticated user, and thus being unaware of alot of features. (I recently started at a new company and am accustomed to IRC) Over time though, you get used to it, and it is imho much less cumbersome to use than any alternatives (certainly IRC). Need to send a large XML file? Hit the plus button next to where you type messages. Want to just dump it to chat? Surround in triple backticks.