4 ms·

> I know plenty of non-technical people who chatted on IRC who were not developers > I simply don't understand where the idea of needing a technical background

by ry-n 8y ago

> I know plenty of non-technical people who chatted on IRC who were not developers > I simply don't understand where the idea of needing a technical background came from for using something like IRC. You don't have to be a developer but you do need a level of technical background higher than that of the average computer user. There are plenty of tech-savvy, non-developers who can get up and running with things like IRC. There are plenty more non-technical users who can't. Or at least wouldn't given the learning curve time commitment. I'm the only person in my family who would be able to sign on to IRC in under an hour whereas they'd all be able to have slack up and running in a matter of minutes.

u801e 8y ago
> You don't have to be a developer but you do need a level of technical background higher than that of the average computer user. Unless the technical skill of the average computer user has decreased substantially in the last 10 to 15 years, that shouldn't really be the case.
- sotojuan 8y ago
  It has. Everyone uses computers now for less technical tasks, and some pretty much only use their phone or tablet.
  - gsich 8y ago
    Time to learn something then.
    - jackvalentine 8y ago
      Sure... they learned Slack.
      - gsich 8y ago
        Nothing to learn there.
        rootkea 8y ago
        That's correct. Because it's the FLOSS devs who need to learn to empathize with the ordinary user. Disclaimer - A FLOSS dev here.
        u801e 8y ago
        > Because it's the FLOSS devs who need to learn to empathize with the ordinary user. If you were talking about using these protocols over a telnet session, then I would be more inclined to agree with that statement, but just installing an application, entering a server name and account credentials (the latter of which aren't needed for IRC), and connecting isn't any more difficult than creating an account on slack and connecting by entering the address in the browser.
        jackvalentine 8y ago
        Have you ever worked a support role for an application? Regular users have amazing blind spots. Also you’re not giving slack enough credit for their smooth onboarding process.
        u801e 8y ago
        > Regular users have amazing blind spots. Of course, but I don't think that Slack has done a better job with this compared to previous solutions. In a lot of ways, it's worse given its performance issues. For example, I never experienced UI lag in a chat application until I used Slack (comparing it with UIs like a GUI IRC application, AIM, ICQ, MSN messenger, Yahoo messenger, Skype, etc). Second, auto-completion and search do not work like they do in previous chat applications (or other applications in general) due to infinite scroll and the default of doing a global search instead of just limiting it to the chat or group. Third, the fact that you're forced to join some channels because you were invited or can't leave a channel because you're the last one in it are other issues that come to mind.

by ry-n 8y ago

u801e 8y ago

> You don't have to be a developer but you do need a level of technical background higher than that of the average computer user. Unless the technical skill of the average computer user has decreased substantially in the last 10 to 15 years, that shouldn't really be the case.

sotojuan 8y ago
It has. Everyone uses computers now for less technical tasks, and some pretty much only use their phone or tablet.
- gsich 8y ago
  Time to learn something then.
  - jackvalentine 8y ago
    Sure... they learned Slack.
    - gsich 8y ago
      Nothing to learn there.
      - rootkea 8y ago
        That's correct. Because it's the FLOSS devs who need to learn to empathize with the ordinary user. Disclaimer - A FLOSS dev here.
        u801e 8y ago
        > Because it's the FLOSS devs who need to learn to empathize with the ordinary user. If you were talking about using these protocols over a telnet session, then I would be more inclined to agree with that statement, but just installing an application, entering a server name and account credentials (the latter of which aren't needed for IRC), and connecting isn't any more difficult than creating an account on slack and connecting by entering the address in the browser.
        jackvalentine 8y ago
        Have you ever worked a support role for an application? Regular users have amazing blind spots. Also you’re not giving slack enough credit for their smooth onboarding process.
        u801e 8y ago
        > Regular users have amazing blind spots. Of course, but I don't think that Slack has done a better job with this compared to previous solutions. In a lot of ways, it's worse given its performance issues. For example, I never experienced UI lag in a chat application until I used Slack (comparing it with UIs like a GUI IRC application, AIM, ICQ, MSN messenger, Yahoo messenger, Skype, etc). Second, auto-completion and search do not work like they do in previous chat applications (or other applications in general) due to infinite scroll and the default of doing a global search instead of just limiting it to the chat or group. Third, the fact that you're forced to join some channels because you were invited or can't leave a channel because you're the last one in it are other issues that come to mind.