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Email. With per-topic mailing list server (that is: send a message to whoever you like and cc the list). Self-subscribe (with approval for sensitive topics) for

by ci5er 7y ago

Email. With per-topic mailing list server (that is: send a message to whoever you like and cc the list). Self-subscribe (with approval for sensitive topics) for any email list. Archive to a threaded web-based archiver. Search-index it. Everything you need: High speed communications. Long-form, if you need it. Only getting notified about things you care about. Written discussions about things like how design or business plan decisions were made to be perused at leasure by new hires in the future (Knowlege-base). For a company that got going for being better than email, it's shocking to me how email (done correctly) is still better on almost every dimension (except asking what people want for lunch).

axaxs 7y ago
Completely and utterly disagee. I'm not even a big fan of slack, but email is -terrible-. I can't tell you how many lists I'm on now where someone poses a question and 50 people all reply all with the same thing. And that's not counting the people who probably started a reply then saw the flurry and didn't send, or the people who replied privately. That's one huge benefit to slack in well organized channels. You pose a question to a group, and generally if one person starts typing, you wait to see if your reply is needed.
- ci5er 7y ago
  Well, surely you are allowed! :-) In my case, for one, the engineering orgs were generally not much larger than 200 people. For another, the "To:" person(s) usually responded, but everyone else got cc'd with the list and then the list could follow. And, for me, finally: I find discoverability in a knowledge-base-way to be sub-optimal compared to an indexed (and threaded!) email list. Kind of like how Linux devs organize themselves. And, maybe, finally, I'm old and have been using email since 1983 and it fits my workflow (or rather: my workflow adapted to email?). The get-to-it-or-it-is-gone thing with #slack bothers me, which seems great for asking people what they want me to bring back for lunch, but not for much else besides asking who broke the build. Again - that's my take. I understand that other people don't prefer long-form debates/discussions by email and want an IRC-like answer to their immediate question.

by ci5er 7y ago

axaxs 7y ago

Completely and utterly disagee. I'm not even a big fan of slack, but email is -terrible-. I can't tell you how many lists I'm on now where someone poses a question and 50 people all reply all with the same thing. And that's not counting the people who probably started a reply then saw the flurry and didn't send, or the people who replied privately. That's one huge benefit to slack in well organized channels. You pose a question to a group, and generally if one person starts typing, you wait to see if your reply is needed.

ci5er 7y ago
Well, surely you are allowed! :-) In my case, for one, the engineering orgs were generally not much larger than 200 people. For another, the "To:" person(s) usually responded, but everyone else got cc'd with the list and then the list could follow. And, for me, finally: I find discoverability in a knowledge-base-way to be sub-optimal compared to an indexed (and threaded!) email list. Kind of like how Linux devs organize themselves. And, maybe, finally, I'm old and have been using email since 1983 and it fits my workflow (or rather: my workflow adapted to email?). The get-to-it-or-it-is-gone thing with #slack bothers me, which seems great for asking people what they want me to bring back for lunch, but not for much else besides asking who broke the build. Again - that's my take. I understand that other people don't prefer long-form debates/discussions by email and want an IRC-like answer to their immediate question.