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> Using Slack as a one-line-at-a-time chat service is a choice that a user makes. Slack itself doesn't enforce it. Thats like saying you can drive your car wit

> Using Slack as a one-line-at-a-time chat service is a choice that a user makes. Slack itself doesn't enforce it. Thats like saying you can drive your car with your feet, the car doesn't enforce driving by hands. The point of this post is saying that slack has these shortcoming by the nature of its design. You can make as many arguments as you want defending it, but everything has a design that influences usage.

onion2k 9y ago
Thats like saying you can drive your car with your feet, the car doesn't enforce driving by hands. That's a slightly odd analogy, but let's go with it. You're right that you can drive a car in ways that are dangerous, and the car doesn't enforce safe driving. The law is what enforces the way you drive (by punishing you for driving dangerously). This is exactly the same as company rules to ensure Slack is used properly. So, yeah, I guess it works pretty well, and people who use Slack badly are "foot-drivers".
- urethrafranklin 9y ago
  But that's one of the hallmarks of poor design, having to create rules to accommodate for a tool's dysfunctionality.
- setr 9y ago
  Pretty sure the GP doesn't care about the law in the analogy; the design of the car itself impedes your ability to drive with your feet. In the same way, slack is frictionless to post one-liners; you have to go out of your way to post a multi-liner (and I personally have the constant worry I'll miss the shift and post half-finished in such systems). It doesn't matter if the law (company) says to drive by hands; you have to be really intent on driving with your feet to get into a car and do such a clearly unnatural thing. It's difficult to imagine someone new getting in and thinking this must be the correct position, because the car does not support it naturally. It can be done, but only while dealing with friction. Then compare slack to a bbs forum, where people naturally post paragraphs. Not coincidentally, the act of posting has more friction; CLRF is a newline, posting is a button off at the bottom of the page. To get a better ratio of value (writing) to friction, you'll simply have to write more and post less. The law (company) can enforce unnatural behavior onto its populace, but when the law is unclear or unstated (or ignored) on the particular matter, the natural activity depends on the environment. And slack is very clearly predisposed to a particular kind of posting.

onion2k 9y ago

Thats like saying you can drive your car with your feet, the car doesn't enforce driving by hands. That's a slightly odd analogy, but let's go with it. You're right that you can drive a car in ways that are dangerous, and the car doesn't enforce safe driving. The law is what enforces the way you drive (by punishing you for driving dangerously). This is exactly the same as company rules to ensure Slack is used properly. So, yeah, I guess it works pretty well, and people who use Slack badly are "foot-drivers".

urethrafranklin 9y ago
But that's one of the hallmarks of poor design, having to create rules to accommodate for a tool's dysfunctionality.
setr 9y ago
Pretty sure the GP doesn't care about the law in the analogy; the design of the car itself impedes your ability to drive with your feet. In the same way, slack is frictionless to post one-liners; you have to go out of your way to post a multi-liner (and I personally have the constant worry I'll miss the shift and post half-finished in such systems). It doesn't matter if the law (company) says to drive by hands; you have to be really intent on driving with your feet to get into a car and do such a clearly unnatural thing. It's difficult to imagine someone new getting in and thinking this must be the correct position, because the car does not support it naturally. It can be done, but only while dealing with friction. Then compare slack to a bbs forum, where people naturally post paragraphs. Not coincidentally, the act of posting has more friction; CLRF is a newline, posting is a button off at the bottom of the page. To get a better ratio of value (writing) to friction, you'll simply have to write more and post less. The law (company) can enforce unnatural behavior onto its populace, but when the law is unclear or unstated (or ignored) on the particular matter, the natural activity depends on the environment. And slack is very clearly predisposed to a particular kind of posting.