4 ms·

I don't think Slack is building a chat service. Based on the features they are building, they could be aiming to be The Groupware[1] of 2020's. On the web site

I don't think Slack is building a chat service. Based on the features they are building, they could be aiming to be The Groupware[1] of 2020's. On the web site they put it this way "Slack is the collaboration hub that brings the right people, information, and tools together to get work done." [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_software https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_software

_jal 7y ago
That's a surefire path to irrelevance. Nobody wants groupware. Nobody uses it unless forced. On the bright side, that would leave a hole in the market for an enterprising chat developer to fill, hopefully with something less annoying and resource intensive.
- hunter2_ 7y ago
  > Nobody wants groupware. Nobody uses it unless forced. Surely you're talking about some very specific crapware subset of groupware, because plenty of people choose to use, and very much enjoy using, all sorts of groupware. Distributed version control, issue trackers, simultaneous editing of documents... just to name a few examples of incredible groupware. But yes, generally when it claims to do all the things, it does none well. This is orthogonal.
- michaelmrose 7y ago
  You mean like an pre packaged combo of an IRC server + logging + bouncer for users that can trivially be rolled out. Like one days work for 1 person?
  - nwallin 7y ago
    The problem isn't implementing the features, the problem is making the UX/UI intuitive to people who call Microsoft's tech support when Firefox displays a "cannot connect to internet" message because they unplugged their router because they needed the socket for something else. IRC is objectively superior to slack as a distributed chat client, but goddamned if the first step into slack isn't significantly shallower than the first step into IRC.

4 ms·

I don't think Slack is building a chat service. Based on the features they are building, they could be aiming to be The Groupware[1] of 2020's. On the web site

by jpalomaki 7y ago

_jal 7y ago
That's a surefire path to irrelevance. Nobody wants groupware. Nobody uses it unless forced. On the bright side, that would leave a hole in the market for an enterprising chat developer to fill, hopefully with something less annoying and resource intensive.
- hunter2_ 7y ago
  > Nobody wants groupware. Nobody uses it unless forced. Surely you're talking about some very specific crapware subset of groupware, because plenty of people choose to use, and very much enjoy using, all sorts of groupware. Distributed version control, issue trackers, simultaneous editing of documents... just to name a few examples of incredible groupware. But yes, generally when it claims to do all the things, it does none well. This is orthogonal.
- michaelmrose 7y ago
  You mean like an pre packaged combo of an IRC server + logging + bouncer for users that can trivially be rolled out. Like one days work for 1 person?
  - nwallin 7y ago
    The problem isn't implementing the features, the problem is making the UX/UI intuitive to people who call Microsoft's tech support when Firefox displays a "cannot connect to internet" message because they unplugged their router because they needed the socket for something else. IRC is objectively superior to slack as a distributed chat client, but goddamned if the first step into slack isn't significantly shallower than the first step into IRC.