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On the free slack plan, you don't get history beyond its 10k message limit (or whatever the number is), unless you start paying per head. Even on small teams,

On the free slack plan, you don't get history beyond its 10k message limit (or whatever the number is), unless you start paying per head. Even on small teams, that limit is hit surprisingly quickly. For the medium-to-large sized open source project slacks -- the history is basically completely useless. Free slack is on par with IRC here -- you need someone nerdy enough to run a chat history bot to get a full searchable history.

freefal 7y ago
That's not necessarily true. If you're a certified non-profit, you can get free Slack with unlimited message history for up to 250 users (https://slack.com/help/articles/204368833 https://slack.com/help/articles/204368833).
- SmirkingRevenge 7y ago
  Interesting, I didn't know about that. What happens if you get 251 users though? EDIT: Answered my own question: up to 85% discount, which is very nice, but still might be infeasible for many projects/communities.
  - rumanator 7y ago
    > Answered my own question: up to 85% discount Isn't Slack's cheapest plan around 8$ per user per month?
- rumanator 7y ago
  > for up to 250 users The thesis defended in the article is that Slack is not suited to communicate with the userbase of open source projects. Capping a basic feature such as collecting message history at 250 users is a limitation that supports the author's thesis, as clearly it demonstrate that Slack is unable to handle the communication needs of a moderately popular open source project.
  - chrisseaton 7y ago
    Many projects prefer a limited history for interactive chats.
    - rumanator 7y ago
      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fox_and_the_Grapes https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fox_and_the_Grapes
      - chrisseaton 7y ago
        I think it’s a bit snide and snarky to just post a link like that. And I don’t even think it’s applicable - in the community I’m in we decided we didn’t want an eternal log of everyone’s discussions. More formal discussions in PRs and emails are recorded, but we rather let conversations fade away after some time.
        lidHanteyk 7y ago
        It's pretty tone-deaf of you, though, and suggests limited connection to FLOSS communities. Freenode, for example, has a policy that channels disclose in their /topic if there are public logs. Many mailing lists have the property of being viewable forever, and contributors understand that property, building discussions that last for decades and taking matters off-list when privacy is needed. This is not a new problem, and FLOSS communities tackle it already.
      - Nicksil 7y ago
        Non-mobile: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fox_and_the_Grapes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fox_and_the_Grapes

freefal 7y ago

That's not necessarily true. If you're a certified non-profit, you can get free Slack with unlimited message history for up to 250 users (https://slack.com/help/articles/204368833 https://slack.com/help/articles/204368833).

SmirkingRevenge 7y ago
Interesting, I didn't know about that. What happens if you get 251 users though? EDIT: Answered my own question: up to 85% discount, which is very nice, but still might be infeasible for many projects/communities.
- rumanator 7y ago
  > Answered my own question: up to 85% discount Isn't Slack's cheapest plan around 8$ per user per month?
rumanator 7y ago
> for up to 250 users The thesis defended in the article is that Slack is not suited to communicate with the userbase of open source projects. Capping a basic feature such as collecting message history at 250 users is a limitation that supports the author's thesis, as clearly it demonstrate that Slack is unable to handle the communication needs of a moderately popular open source project.
- chrisseaton 7y ago
  Many projects prefer a limited history for interactive chats.
  - rumanator 7y ago
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fox_and_the_Grapes https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fox_and_the_Grapes
    - chrisseaton 7y ago
      I think it’s a bit snide and snarky to just post a link like that. And I don’t even think it’s applicable - in the community I’m in we decided we didn’t want an eternal log of everyone’s discussions. More formal discussions in PRs and emails are recorded, but we rather let conversations fade away after some time.
      - lidHanteyk 7y ago
        It's pretty tone-deaf of you, though, and suggests limited connection to FLOSS communities. Freenode, for example, has a policy that channels disclose in their /topic if there are public logs. Many mailing lists have the property of being viewable forever, and contributors understand that property, building discussions that last for decades and taking matters off-list when privacy is needed. This is not a new problem, and FLOSS communities tackle it already.
    - Nicksil 7y ago
      Non-mobile: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fox_and_the_Grapes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fox_and_the_Grapes