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It amazes me how popular Slack is. Terrible performance, constant interruptions, horrible threads. Here's an exercise. You and your coworker discussed plans fo

It amazes me how popular Slack is. Terrible performance, constant interruptions, horrible threads. Here's an exercise. You and your coworker discussed plans for a project in a large channel 3 weeks ago. You need to get all that information and give it to someone else. How do you do it? You can't. It will be interspersed with a bunch of other nonsense from other people and isn't grouped or organized in any sane manner. This whole "chat" in workplace thing does nothing to actually get work done.

stephengillie 8y ago
It got so bad at my last job that we mandated a new channel for any discussion longer than 3 lines, between any 2 SMEs, on any topic. They still use an application's worth of Powershell scripts to create and archive dozens of channels per day, and automatically update the associated Zendesk ticket.
dewey 8y ago
What's the alternative though? I really don't like Slack but I don't see another great way of doing it. - Face to Face: No record, even harder to give to someone - Wiki: Goes stale pretty quickly - E-Mail: Same problem, slower, as distracting as Slack
- gsich 8y ago
  IRC gateway from Slack. But they closed it down because <insert random bullshit PR message here>.
  - lghh 8y ago
    How does that solve the problem the poster is describing? IRC still has that issue.
  - dewey 8y ago
    I also prefer IRC but in this case it doesn't really improve anything. The opposite really, no build-in search, no easy onboarding, no central logs,... (Yes, I know I can build all this with ZNC, ELK or by using IRC cloud but that doesn't solve the issue about chat vs. some other system)
    - gsich 8y ago
      But in Slacks case, that would all be there. With IRC. But that's in the past. Slack is now a company with a single purpose (chat) and they can't even do that right. Just look at the bloated "application" (browser).
- getrendevu 8y ago
  I think the alternative is posting important information to a feed that intelligently updates itself, rather than into channels where it gets pushed above the fold. We're building this at Rendevu (https://rendevu.co https://rendevu.co) and running an alpha right now, feel free to check it out.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - dewey 8y ago
    > where it gets pushed above the fold Isn't this where the Slack search comes in? I never had the problem that I couldn't find something that I was looking for. Usually I just need one distinct word that I know was used in the conversation and a from:person filter. A feed has the same problem that it'll get too big and things will get pushed above the fold.
    - getrendevu 8y ago
      That's definitely true. We try to solve that in two ways: 1. We'll intelligently bubble up stuff that has a lot of discussion or activity, along with the context, even if that activity is happening in other apps. (Lots of comments on a google doc). 2. I personally think the asynchronous nature of a feed stops people from spamming irrelevant garbage. In my experience, project channels always devolve at points to jokes/references/and stuff that people may think twice about posting to a wiki or feed.
    - freehunter 8y ago
      People praise Slack search so much but I've found it to be just awful. Maybe it's because my Slack organization has tens of thousands of people in it with thousands of channels, but if I don't know the person who said the thing, it's going to be impossible to find. A simple "only search in channels I am a member of and don't have muted" would go a long way towards making Slack search better. As is, I wouldn't call Slack search great or even good as I often hear from other people. I would just merely say that Slack does have search, just as a statement of fact. And then I would change the subject.
- matchbok 8y ago
  I think email being slower is kind of a benefit. The synchronous nature of slack just isn't really needed 99% of the time, at least at my job. Chat is inherently a bad tool to use for planning a project across multiple days/groups. For me, it excels at casual banter, which is what most slack channels usually devolve into. The real work turns into "Can you email that?". :/
j45 8y ago
Attaching slack chats under projects or tasks would be an improvement in some cases - use slack in the way it best fits per use case instead of one case fits all.
getrendevu 8y ago
At Rendevu (https://rendevu.co https://rendevu.co), we think the problem you're describing is due to Slack's (or any messaging app's) inherent synchronous nature. We're building an intelligent asynchronous feed that aggregates discussions from all the other apps you already use (google / jira / trello / invision), and gives your team a one stop place to find info that doesn't go stale like a wiki. We're running an alpha right now at https://rendevu.co https://rendevu.co. Feel free to check it out if you get the chance.
- matchbok 8y ago
  oof, that looks nice! Gonna poke around. Your note about the synchronicity is spot on.
  - getrendevu 8y ago
    great! let me know if you have any questions, emails in my profile
city41 8y ago
Why not use a thread in the channel? To be fair Slacks' thread implementation is rather poor, but it's better than nothing.
- philsnow 8y ago
  it's better _for slack_ than nothing. having that feature, as poorly-implemented as it is [0], ticks a box for some orgs that will keep them using slack instead of investigating other chat setups. [0] to slack's credit, threads are (very) slowly getting (a little bit) better. My list of a dozen or so things that I hate about threads got one of the issues fixed sometime in the last few months.

stephengillie 8y ago

It got so bad at my last job that we mandated a new channel for any discussion longer than 3 lines, between any 2 SMEs, on any topic. They still use an application's worth of Powershell scripts to create and archive dozens of channels per day, and automatically update the associated Zendesk ticket.

dewey 8y ago

What's the alternative though? I really don't like Slack but I don't see another great way of doing it. - Face to Face: No record, even harder to give to someone - Wiki: Goes stale pretty quickly - E-Mail: Same problem, slower, as distracting as Slack

gsich 8y ago
IRC gateway from Slack. But they closed it down because <insert random bullshit PR message here>.
- lghh 8y ago
  How does that solve the problem the poster is describing? IRC still has that issue.
- dewey 8y ago
  I also prefer IRC but in this case it doesn't really improve anything. The opposite really, no build-in search, no easy onboarding, no central logs,... (Yes, I know I can build all this with ZNC, ELK or by using IRC cloud but that doesn't solve the issue about chat vs. some other system)
  - gsich 8y ago
    But in Slacks case, that would all be there. With IRC. But that's in the past. Slack is now a company with a single purpose (chat) and they can't even do that right. Just look at the bloated "application" (browser).
getrendevu 8y ago
I think the alternative is posting important information to a feed that intelligently updates itself, rather than into channels where it gets pushed above the fold. We're building this at Rendevu (https://rendevu.co https://rendevu.co) and running an alpha right now, feel free to check it out.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- dewey 8y ago
  > where it gets pushed above the fold Isn't this where the Slack search comes in? I never had the problem that I couldn't find something that I was looking for. Usually I just need one distinct word that I know was used in the conversation and a from:person filter. A feed has the same problem that it'll get too big and things will get pushed above the fold.
  - getrendevu 8y ago
    That's definitely true. We try to solve that in two ways: 1. We'll intelligently bubble up stuff that has a lot of discussion or activity, along with the context, even if that activity is happening in other apps. (Lots of comments on a google doc). 2. I personally think the asynchronous nature of a feed stops people from spamming irrelevant garbage. In my experience, project channels always devolve at points to jokes/references/and stuff that people may think twice about posting to a wiki or feed.
  - freehunter 8y ago
    People praise Slack search so much but I've found it to be just awful. Maybe it's because my Slack organization has tens of thousands of people in it with thousands of channels, but if I don't know the person who said the thing, it's going to be impossible to find. A simple "only search in channels I am a member of and don't have muted" would go a long way towards making Slack search better. As is, I wouldn't call Slack search great or even good as I often hear from other people. I would just merely say that Slack does have search, just as a statement of fact. And then I would change the subject.
matchbok 8y ago
I think email being slower is kind of a benefit. The synchronous nature of slack just isn't really needed 99% of the time, at least at my job. Chat is inherently a bad tool to use for planning a project across multiple days/groups. For me, it excels at casual banter, which is what most slack channels usually devolve into. The real work turns into "Can you email that?". :/

j45 8y ago

Attaching slack chats under projects or tasks would be an improvement in some cases - use slack in the way it best fits per use case instead of one case fits all.

getrendevu 8y ago

At Rendevu (https://rendevu.co https://rendevu.co), we think the problem you're describing is due to Slack's (or any messaging app's) inherent synchronous nature. We're building an intelligent asynchronous feed that aggregates discussions from all the other apps you already use (google / jira / trello / invision), and gives your team a one stop place to find info that doesn't go stale like a wiki. We're running an alpha right now at https://rendevu.co https://rendevu.co. Feel free to check it out if you get the chance.

matchbok 8y ago
oof, that looks nice! Gonna poke around. Your note about the synchronicity is spot on.
- getrendevu 8y ago
  great! let me know if you have any questions, emails in my profile

city41 8y ago

Why not use a thread in the channel? To be fair Slacks' thread implementation is rather poor, but it's better than nothing.

philsnow 8y ago
it's better _for slack_ than nothing. having that feature, as poorly-implemented as it is [0], ticks a box for some orgs that will keep them using slack instead of investigating other chat setups. [0] to slack's credit, threads are (very) slowly getting (a little bit) better. My list of a dozen or so things that I hate about threads got one of the issues fixed sometime in the last few months.