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This is a good reminder that sometimes complaining about companies on social media like Hackernews and Twitter does actually help. Not always, maybe not even us

This is a good reminder that sometimes complaining about companies on social media like Hackernews and Twitter does actually help. Not always, maybe not even usually. But Slack went from, "no, we have no plans to adjust this", to "yes, we'll include a toggle", and the reason was that a bunch of people publicly complained and wrote a bunch of messages to support. It is a very, very, very small victory, and if I was going to choose a victory, Slack's Markdown editor would not be very high on my list of priorities -- but I'll take it.

Jamwinner 7y ago
Isnt that just a silent admission that modern tech support is woefully broken, more than a twitter is good message?
- ricefield 7y ago
  Broken how? This feels like a good example of a company building and launching something, then watching and responding to how the public/users react to it. Isn't that more or less what you should do as a company? Build things and then adjust your strategy based on how the market likes or dislikes it?
  - inferiorhuman 7y ago
    Broken how? Broken in the sense that Slack kept going forward even after the complaints kept rolling in. How hard would it have been to pull the latest release?
    - cortesoft 7y ago
      Every release will get complaints. They have to wait to see if it is more than normal.
  - umanwizard 7y ago
    The problem isn’t that they launched a feature, it’s that they unilaterally removed a feature people were using. Everyone would have been totally fine with it being behind a toggle, even if on by default.
- danShumway 7y ago
  Modern tech support is woefully broken in many ways, and the speed to which consumers resort to complaining on Twitter is a partial symptom of that broken system -- it's the result of consumers feeling like mass, reactionary public shaming is the only strategy that works anymore. That's not what I'm getting at though; I'm not saying everything is awesome, or that public backlash is even the best way to currently enact change -- I just want to push against the occasional criticism I see that complaining about stuff doesn't help, that consumer backlash is ultimately just virtue signalling, that boycotts don't ever work, and that it's all just a waste of time. To be clear, some types of complaining are harmful, problematic, or worthless: this is complicated, it isn't black-and-white. But it's not universally worthless to publicly push back on company policies. There are a nontrivial number of stories about consumer backlashes actually causing companies to change course. What that suggests is that on more important issues (just for one example, arbitration), we could see real movement if the backlash was large enough and unified enough.
- jerrysievert 7y ago
  i complained via the builtin "/feedback" mechanism, and received an email from support fairly quickly, then followups for two days. i wasn't happy with the script that they were required to use, but at least it was better than any twitter-based support i've received, well, except alaska airlines which has (had?) amazing twitter support.
asmosoinio 7y ago
I think they also got a lot of feedback directly through /feedback in Slack and support emails. So they were not necessarily reacting ONLY on public outcry - they have direct feedback from paying customers as well.
umanwizard 7y ago
I emailed them to tell them I would stop using slack completely and start emailing my coworkers instead if they didn’t revert it. I assume hundreds of others sent similar mails.
jimueller 7y ago
How do you know it was social media? I contacted Slack's customer support and asked for a toggle. It could have been my request. The customer support chat was fast, friendly, and professional. I couldn't ask for more.
- danShumway 7y ago
  The original people who contacted customer support got this message: > "I apologize for the disruption to your existing workflows. Our aim is to build an editor that works for all Slack users to better format their messages and clearly communicate in channels, regardless of their technical expertise. While we are taking all feedback on board, disabling the new formatting tool isn't an option that we will be offering."[0] It is of course possible that your particular request was super persuasive and caused them to change their mind, but the more likely explanation is the scale of the public backlash forced them to reconsider. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21592828 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21592828
  - ralmeida 7y ago
    Of course OP was being rethorical, but I disagree that public outcry was necessarily the most likely cause. It could have had less influence than the massive amount of private paying customers feedback they undoubtedly received.

Jamwinner 7y ago

Isnt that just a silent admission that modern tech support is woefully broken, more than a twitter is good message?

ricefield 7y ago
Broken how? This feels like a good example of a company building and launching something, then watching and responding to how the public/users react to it. Isn't that more or less what you should do as a company? Build things and then adjust your strategy based on how the market likes or dislikes it?
- inferiorhuman 7y ago
  Broken how? Broken in the sense that Slack kept going forward even after the complaints kept rolling in. How hard would it have been to pull the latest release?
  - cortesoft 7y ago
    Every release will get complaints. They have to wait to see if it is more than normal.
- umanwizard 7y ago
  The problem isn’t that they launched a feature, it’s that they unilaterally removed a feature people were using. Everyone would have been totally fine with it being behind a toggle, even if on by default.
danShumway 7y ago
Modern tech support is woefully broken in many ways, and the speed to which consumers resort to complaining on Twitter is a partial symptom of that broken system -- it's the result of consumers feeling like mass, reactionary public shaming is the only strategy that works anymore. That's not what I'm getting at though; I'm not saying everything is awesome, or that public backlash is even the best way to currently enact change -- I just want to push against the occasional criticism I see that complaining about stuff doesn't help, that consumer backlash is ultimately just virtue signalling, that boycotts don't ever work, and that it's all just a waste of time. To be clear, some types of complaining are harmful, problematic, or worthless: this is complicated, it isn't black-and-white. But it's not universally worthless to publicly push back on company policies. There are a nontrivial number of stories about consumer backlashes actually causing companies to change course. What that suggests is that on more important issues (just for one example, arbitration), we could see real movement if the backlash was large enough and unified enough.
jerrysievert 7y ago
i complained via the builtin "/feedback" mechanism, and received an email from support fairly quickly, then followups for two days. i wasn't happy with the script that they were required to use, but at least it was better than any twitter-based support i've received, well, except alaska airlines which has (had?) amazing twitter support.

asmosoinio 7y ago

I think they also got a lot of feedback directly through /feedback in Slack and support emails. So they were not necessarily reacting ONLY on public outcry - they have direct feedback from paying customers as well.

umanwizard 7y ago

I emailed them to tell them I would stop using slack completely and start emailing my coworkers instead if they didn’t revert it. I assume hundreds of others sent similar mails.

jimueller 7y ago

How do you know it was social media? I contacted Slack's customer support and asked for a toggle. It could have been my request. The customer support chat was fast, friendly, and professional. I couldn't ask for more.

danShumway 7y ago
The original people who contacted customer support got this message: > "I apologize for the disruption to your existing workflows. Our aim is to build an editor that works for all Slack users to better format their messages and clearly communicate in channels, regardless of their technical expertise. While we are taking all feedback on board, disabling the new formatting tool isn't an option that we will be offering."[0] It is of course possible that your particular request was super persuasive and caused them to change their mind, but the more likely explanation is the scale of the public backlash forced them to reconsider. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21592828 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21592828
- ralmeida 7y ago
  Of course OP was being rethorical, but I disagree that public outcry was necessarily the most likely cause. It could have had less influence than the massive amount of private paying customers feedback they undoubtedly received.