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This is going to be a very unpopular opinion, but if you want threading / topics, self hosted, searchable, then consider looking into NNTP (what usenet runs on)

This is going to be a very unpopular opinion, but if you want threading / topics, self hosted, searchable, then consider looking into NNTP (what usenet runs on). It is the oldest threaded messaging system. It scales really well. Most importantly, it is not a chat system. In other words, distractionless! The downside is, the number of daemons that support TLS are few. For a while, AD supported NNTP and used AD authentication. I think they may have recently dropped support for it. phpBB is great. You can delegate control of boards to different teams and there are addons for just about everything. Slack and other chat systems are very distracting and have become highly complex vendor lock-in to API integrations that essentially relay command & control between companies. Being a 3rd party, there are legal limitations about what data may flow through those systems and I predict that will be a major source of contention in the future.

martin_a 8y ago
NNTP seems to be a bit low-tech these days with dwindling support by new clients. But I might be wrong on that, will have a second look. You totally got my point: E-Mail is distracting and people feel stressed by the amount of mail they receive, while on the other hand they feel not informed enough about various topics. And you also give sensitive data into external hands and hope it will not get leaked or breached. I think self-hosted "board software" (in whatever shape it comes) might reduce distraction, you can read and write when you want and people from other departments can keep up with current developments and also chime in if they have something to contribute. And with something like phpBB you also have full and easy control of the data. I think that's an important point, especially for companies. Might be worth the discussion and a try with a small team.

martin_a 8y ago

NNTP seems to be a bit low-tech these days with dwindling support by new clients. But I might be wrong on that, will have a second look. You totally got my point: E-Mail is distracting and people feel stressed by the amount of mail they receive, while on the other hand they feel not informed enough about various topics. And you also give sensitive data into external hands and hope it will not get leaked or breached. I think self-hosted "board software" (in whatever shape it comes) might reduce distraction, you can read and write when you want and people from other departments can keep up with current developments and also chime in if they have something to contribute. And with something like phpBB you also have full and easy control of the data. I think that's an important point, especially for companies. Might be worth the discussion and a try with a small team.